Philip of Bourbon, "Go for it!"

The dish of the day is Spain, finalists of the World Cup, but, before that we cannot lose sight of the fact that Pedro Sánchez's brother has been sentenced to 9 years of disqualification for malfeasance, for having created and awarded him a job at the Badajoz Provincial Council out of hand, which, according to the ruling, was neither urgent nor necessary. But the ruling itself dismisses that there had been influence peddling, that is to say, that no one called to pressure for this job to be created. In other words, it is proven that David Sánchez was nepotized. It is ugly in all cases, but more so in the case of a brother of the president of the government. Another thing is that such a nepotism would reach the courts if we were not talking about the brother of the president of the government and, much less, that the sentence would be 9 years of disqualification. And for this reason, the socialist government, as Minister Puente says, considers that the purpose of the sentence is to overthrow the Spanish government “given the inability to do so at the ballot box”, an assessment with which we can agree, but which means that the executive power considers that the judicial power is malfeasance for political reasons. La Moncloa did not speak of lawfare, but it did speak of a “political cause,” from which, therefore, a political conviction would follow. Sounds like a trial, doesn't it, PSOE? The PSOE continues to live the nightmare of feeling excluded by the system as a state party. At the same time, the system is teaching the PSOE the right way: if you don't make deals with Catalan and Basque independentists, your problems will end. But, as we were saying, the news of the day is that Spain is already in the World Cup final.In all fairness, the championship Spain has played has not been spectacular, but it has been very solid. Consider that they reach the final having conceded one goal in the entire tournament. And yesterday it eliminated the powerful and feared France with solid football, always well positioned on the field, reducing players like Mbappé or Dembélé to impotence. As Martí Molina titles it, yesterday's match was a football lesson from an incredible generation, with special mention to three Catalans: Cubarsí, Olmo, and Lamine Yamal. Tonight, at 9, the other semifinal will be played, England-Argentina (since the Falklands War and Maradona's goals in '86, it's more than just a match), but the strength Spain is showing makes it the favorite, in my opinion, whether the English or Messi's team advance.The World Cup has a major political derivative, because it has become the great machine for feeding identities. At a time when states have shrunk in the face of the disruptive power of billionaire technology companies and can barely ensure the social contract, the World Cup ensures the emotional contract. And the states play it to the fullest. Look at this video, and tell me if you have ever seen the always grumpy Felipe de Borbón so exultant: he and his family, with the shirt with their names printed on it, celebrating yesterday night's 2-0, in a double exercise of showing what behavior is expected of a Spaniard on occasions like this and that his harmony with the joy of his subjects is total. And on Sunday, to the box with Donald Trump.In short, a selection is a flag and a name, a cry. That is why Spain prohibits by law the participation of selections like the Catalan one in international competitions (even though the Catalan Football Federation is older than the Spanish one (1900 the Catalan, 1913 the Spanish) and punishes athletes who refuse to go. By the way, the tweet from the Royal House encourages the selection to win the final with a phrase that will sound familiar to them: "!A por ello!". They don't get out of there.Good morning.