And Sánchez said: "You, 'El País'?"

Polarization has its advantages. We're so used to seeing newspapers from both sides of the aisle either maximize or minimize an issue depending on which side they support, that on the rare occasions they agree on an issue, the reader can know for sure that it must be the final straw. This Thursday, Madrid's front pages featured the PSOE's number three, Santos Cerdán. The recordings in which he appears talking with Ábalos and Koldo about how several public works contractors owe them money leave him in a critical situation. Given that the cavern went into incendiary mode the day Sánchez opened the doors of the Moncloa Palace, the numbing effect makes it seem like just another common topic. But that The Country The fact that it's covered without sugarcoating means that this is a real story and is important. Is this just the normal journalistic way of reporting news, or are we witnessing a change in editorial approach at Prisa? The fact that the editorial team called on Tuesday for the attorney general's resignation in the event of prosecution suggests the latter.

Paraphrasing Ángel Acebes, there are two lines of investigation. The first is that the scent of this plot is so pervasive that the newspaper no longer wants to tangle its fingers with contact. The second is that we are witnessing a very conscious shift as a result of the organizational changes imposed by Prisa's president, Joseph Oughourlian. The Sánchez government maneuvered to try to form an alternative shareholder majority capable of ousting him from the captain's cabin. They were unsuccessful, and now it's time to accept that the man who governs the media empire that has accompanied the PSOE since Felipe González's administration has a steady desire to remain an ally. Which, incidentally, leaves the Spanish media landscape even more unbalanced than it was just a week before.