Antoni Bassas' analysis: 'Compelling reasons to kill the dragon'

"In Spain, the lack of competition has already had visible consequences: poorly remunerated deposits and more expensive credit for families and businesses."

05/06/2025
2 min

It's been a matter of days: from unknown to front page. She began to tentatively emerge in this analysis last week, until this morning she landed on our front page and on the front page of every newspaper.

Leire Díez was a member of the PSOE until the day before yesterday, when she resigned, but the The PSOE says it will bring this woman's documentation to the Prosecutor's Office. about whether the state's sewers have worked against Pedro Sánchez as president of the Spanish government, just as they worked against Catalan politicians not long ago. Yesterday, moreover, A commission agent, Victor de Aldama, appeared, to threaten her, Sánchez, and the PSOE's number three, Santos Cerdán, claiming that everything Leire Díez said was a lie. Look, she doesn't even believe that this woman was writing a book. Remember, she was recorded promising favors from Pedro Sánchez's government to a businessman in exchange for information against the UCO, the Civil Guard's investigative unit. That's why they made her fold as a PSOE member. If the PSOE wanted to confront the dirty war with Ms. Díez's investigations, it's a done deal. The PP is rubbing its hands together because the Socialist president of Castilla-La Mancha, García-Page, has also come out asking Sánchez to call early elections so they don't harm the 2027 municipal and regional elections. Adding fuel to the fire for the PP's demonstration on Sunday under the slogan "Mafia or democracy." The PP is attempting a sort of definitive pull to topple Sánchez, because Feijóo's efforts are dragging their feet and aren't generating any enthusiasm.

Before Sunday, King Felipe, Sánchez, and all the regional presidents will be in Barcelona tomorrow for the Conference of Presidents, in what will be another photo album of "normalization." There is some good news: Sánchez will offer money to communities to invest in housing.. Because the economy can't be doing well and people are having so much trouble affording rent, let alone buying something. In fact, as you can see at the bottom of the page, The EU has told Spain to boost housing supply, because on average in Spain, people must spend 40% of their salary on housing. In Europe, it's 27%. This is in the public interest.

And I end with this page from ARA that has its effect: former Economy ministers of the Generalitat have signed an article that says that BBVA's takeover bid for Sabadell is contrary to the general interest. It is signed by Pere Aragonès, Artur Mas, Antoni Castells, Oriol Junqueras, Andreu Mas-Colell and Natàlia Guix, in addition to the former Valencian councilor Vicent Soler and the former Valencian president Ximo Puig.

How do they justify it? Well, by saying the following: "Europe needs a strong banking union, but what we need to promote are cross-border mergers that give rise to entities with a truly European dimension, not increasing concentration within the borders of a single country. In Spain, the lack of competition has already had visible consequences: poorly remunerated deposits and more expensive credit for everything. The move against Banco Sabadell is contrary to the general interest. There are real risks to employment, territorial cohesion, and access to financing for SMEs, especially in the Mediterranean regions.

These are compelling reasons to kill the dragon.

Good morning.

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