Antoni Bassas' analysis: "Renfe contradicts its own data."

Today, as we march past Easter Monday, we focus our analysis on a couple of ideas, one global and one local.

We have been using the expression "trade war" for days now. define Trump's tariff increase. It's not the only war; there's another one, which is the cultural war. We recommend this pair of pages we published today about the Trump's pressure on Harvard University and other American universities. We have a report from our Washington correspondent, Antònia Crespí, and this page from the New York Times, where we explain how Trump wants to control higher education and withdraws public funds from those who don't obey. Obey is the word: parish priests banning protest demonstrations against the Israeli government, for example. Of course, it starts with banning freedom of expression on campus and ends with banning academic freedom in the classroom. And, in this sense, I especially recommend this article today by philosopher Ferran Sáez Mateu, where he looks at the future of three future scenarios that seem possible to youThe first is that the tariffs will eventually be brought under control by the weight of reality: American companies angry with their president, pensioners, farmers, and consumers enraged by the harm the measure causes them. The second would be that this trade and cultural war would lead to a new normal in which political language and what is acceptable would have changed. In fact, and we say this, Trump has already succeeded somewhat in this field; he has succeeded in normalizing a way of perceiving himself that is not normal. And the third would be the most dangerous: that Trump were to win a new term, that he were to remain president for another four years. If such an ancient democracy were to cause the decline of term limits, it would plunge us all into a new world of authoritarianism.

And a local reflection, regarding commuter trains: you'll recall that Minister Paneque said in Parliament that a quarter of commuter trains are broken, or "not operational." The president of Renfe, Álvaro Fernández, denied this. It's incredible. The Minister said this because Renfe itself provided her with the data. Today, 'El País' reports that 14 trains have reached half a century of service, and that most are more than thirty years old. If the same data is denied, any confidence that the service provider takes the poor service it provides seriously is shattered. If they add that there are no maintenance workshops, how do they expect the service to function properly?

The good news is that this will begin to change starting in January of next year, when the 110 new trains that have been purchased and are currently being manufactured will begin entering service and will be added to the service by 2030.

Good morning and Happy Easter.