Valencia arrests 5, doubles police for Saturday's Blocus call

Today's essentials (3 key points)

• High-speed trains between Valencia and Madrid suffered delays of more than four hours after a Ouigo train caught its overhead power cable inside a tunnel near Aranjuez, according to Valencia Secreta.
• Olive oil prices change from today, Saturday 31 October, at Valencia supermarkets including Mercadona, Carrefour, Consum, Alcampo, Dia, Eroski and Lupa, according to Las Provincias.
• Valencian band La Fúmiga will play two farewell concerts at the Roig Arena this weekend in front of 36,000 people, thirteen years after forming as a village brass band, according to Valencia Secreta.

Today's essentials

Valencia arrests 5, doubles police for Saturday's Blocus call. Valencia's mayor has ordered a doubled police presence across the city overnight on Saturday 31 October, after five people were arrested over the past two days on suspicion of inciting unrest tied to online 'Blocus' gathering calls, according to eldiario.es.

The arrests, reported by eldiario.es, include the alleged founder of the Blocus movement in Spain, detained by the Guardia Civil in Picanya, a town in the province of Valencia. In total, five people have been arrested on suspicion of incitement to disorder, with accusations that also cover making and throwing Molotov cocktails; three of the five arrests took place in Valencia province. A 17-year-old was separately arrested on Wednesday 28 October, suspected of creating and running two messaging channels named 'Blocus Vlc' that opened earlier that same week, according to COPE.

Mayor María José Catalá chaired an extraordinary Junta Local de Seguridad on Friday 30 October with the central government's delegate and the Policía Nacional, Policía Local and Guardia Civil to plan Saturday's response, moncloa.com reports. Out of that meeting came a set of concrete measures: Local Police numbers will be doubled for the night of 31 October, shops in the city centre will close early, at 4pm on Saturday, and glass recycling containers and outdoor terrace furniture will be removed from the streets as a precaution against them being used in disturbances.

National Police and Guardia Civil reinforcements will back up Local Police for the evening, alongside firefighters and private security staff inside businesses, according to eldiario.es. Catalá has asked residents to avoid the city centre in the late afternoon and evening of Saturday 31 October as a precaution. Online Blocus calls circulating on social media have pointed to a gathering point on Calle Xàtiva, in central Valencia, between 5.30pm and 6pm, COPE reports, though that detail has not been confirmed by other outlets.

The timing adds another layer to the day: Saturday 31 October also marks the second anniversary of the 2024 DANA floods, and a separate march organised by flood victims demanding the Consell's resignation is planned for the same evening, at different points in the city, moncloa.com notes. COPE has flagged that the overlap between the two gatherings, at the same time but different locations, raises the risk of large crowd movements across the centre.

What this means for you: if you live in or near central Valencia, plan your Saturday evening around a heavier-than-usual police presence, shops shutting at 4pm, and advice to steer clear of the centre after nightfall. If you need groceries or supplies, get them done earlier in the day. The outcome of the dispositif and the DANA anniversary march will become clearer once both have taken place on Saturday night, with further coverage expected from eldiario.es and moncloa.com in the days after.

Weather today

Showers in the city, fog inland: Saturday's weather for Valencia. Valencia city will see a top temperature of 19 degrees on Saturday, with scattered showers and a 68% chance of rain, according to Open-Meteo.

In the city, temperatures will range between 16 and 19 degrees, under scattered showers and wind gusts of up to 11 km/h, Open-Meteo reports. Further inland, around Requena, it will be cooler overnight at 11 degrees, rising to 19 degrees, with fog rather than rain expected and wind up to 18 km/h.

On the southern coast, around Cullera, temperatures will also sit between 16 and 19 degrees, but with a 100% chance of rain from scattered showers, against a lighter wind of up to 7 km/h. Keep a rain jacket handy if you're heading south along the coast, and watch for reduced visibility if you're driving inland towards Requena.

Transport & traffic

• Feijóo pitches airport and rail overhaul for the region. Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has promised to expand the region's airports, build a cross-city rail tunnel and upgrade Cercanías commuter trains in the Comunitat Valenciana if his party forms a government, Valencia Plaza reports. For regular commuters and anyone flying in and out of Valencia, the pledge signals which infrastructure gaps politicians consider the priority: airport capacity, a through tunnel to speed up cross-city rail journeys, and better Cercanías services for daily commuters between Valencia and surrounding towns. It remains a campaign promise rather than a funded project, so nothing changes for passengers in the short term.
• Ouigo cable snag delays Valencia-Madrid trains over 4 hours. A Ouigo high-speed train became tangled with the overhead power cable inside a tunnel near Aranjuez, blocking the line and causing delays of more than four hours on the Valencia-Madrid route, Valencia Secreta reports. If you're travelling between Valencia and Madrid this weekend, build in extra time and check your train's status before heading to the station, since a single incident on this shared line can back up services for hours in both directions.

What's changing for you

• Residents report repeated power micro-cuts in Tres Forques. Residents of the Tres Forques neighbourhood say they have had short power cuts, lasting about a second and recurring roughly three times, mostly in the early hours, for about a month, according to posts on Reddit's r/valencia. If this is happening where you live, it's worth logging the date and time of each cut and reporting it to your electricity distributor, since a documented pattern makes it easier to get the fault investigated or to claim compensation for repeated supply problems.
• Olive oil prices change today across Valencia supermarkets. Extra virgin olive oil prices change from today, Saturday 31 October, at supermarket chains across Valencia including Mercadona, Carrefour, Consum, Alcampo, Dia, Eroski and Lupa, according to Las Provincias. If olive oil is a regular part of your shopping list, it's worth comparing prices across a couple of these chains before you stock up this weekend, since the cost can shift from one supermarket to another even on the same day.

Local news to know

• From La Nave to Pluto: Valencia's unplanned-encounter spots. Valencia Plaza has rounded up a set of cultural spaces across the city, from La Nave to Pluto, built around the idea of stumbling onto something unexpected.
• Valencia's November agenda: fairs, festivals and more. Valencia Bonita has published its pick of November 2026 events in the city, with fairs, food, culture and traditions filling the month's calendar, according to the outlet.
• Police arrest five, double presence ahead of Saturday's Blocus call. The Policía Nacional has arrested a total of five people, including an 18-year-old held in Alfafar for allegedly running two channels used to spread Blocus calls, as police double their presence in Valencia for Saturday's gathering, per eldiario.es and moncloa.com. City centre shops will close early at 4pm as a precaution, and moncloa.com advises avoiding central Valencia on Saturday evening.
• La Fúmiga's farewell draws 36,000 to the Roig Arena. Valencian band La Fúmiga is playing two farewell concerts at Valencia's Roig Arena this weekend in front of 36,000 people, thirteen years after starting out as a village brass band, according to Valencia Secreta.

The Valencia curiosity

• The valencian knight said to be haunted by a ghost. A 15th-century Valencian knight named Gaspar Marrades reportedly saw apparitions of a dead rival, a story told in Rafael Solaz's book La Valencia del más allá, Valencia Bonita reports.