The European Commission has a new diagnosis on taxation that points to the highest incomes and large fortunes. According to a study published by the Community executive, over the last thirty years there has been a concentration of wealth in the most affluent segments of the population in the European Union, making it necessary to rethink the taxes levied on wealth, inheritance, and capital income in the EU to reverse this trend.

If the predictions had been correct, since 2022 there would not be a single millionaire left in Norway. In 2021, the Labour Party (centre-left) of the current prime minister, Jonas Gahr Store, won the parliamentary elections and entered into a coalition government with the Centre Party. The new executive approved a reform of the formuesskatt, the wealth tax, which increased what the country's richest taxpayers pay.

Spain has gained eight new billionaires in the last year, bringing the total number of people with this level of wealth in the country to 32. Those who have joined this exclusive club, along with a fashion entrepreneur—specifically Amancio Ortega, the main shareholder of Inditex—driven the increase in billionaire wealth in Spain to $213.1 billion (€182.5 billion at the current exchange rate), representing 5% of the 2025 billionaire ambitions of the Swiss bank UBS. In Catalonia, the wealthiest individual is Sol Daurella, from the family that controls Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), who succeeded Mango founder Isak Andic, who died tragically.

Among the 20 richest people in Catalonia on the list from Forbes magazine There are only six women, but Sol Daurella Comadrán, president of the giant Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), who succeeded Isak Andic (Mango) – who died at the end of last year – is the first. The podium is completed by Manuel Puig Rocha (Puig Brands) and Manuel Lao (Nortia Capital).

Sol Daurella tops the Forbes 2025 list of Catalonia's richest people, with an estimated fortune of €2.9 billion. Nationally, the businesswoman ranks 12th. She belongs to the founding family of Cobega, a Coca-Cola bottler, which currently controls the multinational Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEPP), where she serves as president. Daurella has risen to the top of a list of Catalan residents that last year was headed by Isak Andic, who died in December after falling from a cliff in the Montserrat area, with a net worth exceeding €4 billion. The inheritance has been divided equally among the three children: Jonathan, Judith, and Sarah.

A couple of weeks ago Marlene Engelhorn started making the headlines. Most of them were from Spanish and Italian media, so she had to resort to Google Translate to find out why her name was suddenly getting so much attention in southern Europe. "29-year-old rejects €4bn inheritance: why?", "The heiress who rejected €4bn: 'I don't want to be so rich'", "The young woman who renounces to an inheritance of over €4bn because she doesn't want to be so rich". None of these three statements, however, is true.

There have been changes in the ranking of the wealthiest Catalans. According to Forbes magazine, which published the list with the 100 richest Spaniards, the president of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Sol Daurella, is placed as the Catalan with the biggest fortune and 11th in the Spanish list, which once again is headed by Galician businessman Amancio Ortega (the founder of Inditex, which Zara is part of, is worth €67bn) and his daughter Sandra. Daurella replaces Manuel Lao, ex-owner of gambling company Cirsa, who is now the third richest Catalan. Also noteworthy is the emergence of the first entrepreneurs and the president of Audax Renovables, Jose Elias, who helped Joan Laporta to get the endorsements he needed to occupy the presidency of Barça at the very last minute.

Spanish businessman Amancio Ortega has slipped from sixth to eleventh place in the list of the world's richest people in the world, which is compiled annually by magazine Forbes, despite the fact that his wealth has increased from $55.1 billion to $77 billion in the last year. The founder of fashion group Inditex came to be the fourth richest person on the planet in 2017, with $71.3 billion, but fell back to sixth position a year later, where he had remained until now.