Talking Europe catches up with Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, as Madrid prepares to take over the rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1, 2023. We discuss the poor showing by the ruling Socialist party in May’s regional and municipal elections, in which both the right and the far right made gains. And we get into Spain’s priorities for its EU presidency, including making the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact more flexible, reforming the EU’s electricity market and sending a strong political signal to Latin American countries. On the question of Gibraltar – a British overseas territory that sits on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula –Albares says that Spain is ready for a post-Brexit deal with the UK.