Spain's economy - is Santander as safe as it's always portrayed?

[said]

Don't want to be alarmist buy I am curious. How does Santander continue to offer pretty good interest rates etc whilst the Spanish economy and banks seem to be under so much scrutiny?

Santander isn't the Spanish economy, it's a private commercial enterprise. From what I understand, Santander has a business model which was not as highly geared, not as dependent on credit, as other banks that nearly went under in 2008/9. That's why it survived & thrived. Northern Rock went bust even though the British economy was in pretty good shape at the time because it was too highly geared and was writing cheques it couldn't cash...

I should add... 'safe' is a subjective judgement. There has been an exercise to 'stress test' European banks. Several Spanish banks have not passed the test but Santander appears to still be in good health.