I open Ara.cat and the first thing I see are two headlines that, juxtaposed, are even more eloquent than when read separately. “Peinado sends Begoña Gómez to trial for embezzlement and influence peddling”, says the one in the report signed by Núria Orriols Guiu. “Mazón shrugs off responsibility and refuses to give new explanations in Congress regarding the DANA”, says the one in the news story signed by Andrea Zamorano.Beyond dealing with the bituminous Spanish politics, both share the common element of duty fulfilled. Judge Peinado, having become an icon of justice placed at the service of political interests that would not escape the understanding of even a child, retires on Sunday and did not want to do so without having carried out the objective he had set for himself (and, we can also understand it this way, to which he had committed himself): to bring the wife of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, to trial for a completely invented case that has had one of the most bizarre and ridiculous journeys in Spanish justice in the last ten years (and that is saying a lot). He has done it just as he wanted: with a popular jury, in order to increase the possibility of a guilty verdict. The family in prison: Begoña Gómez, David Sánchez and, if possible, Pedro Sánchez in person. In his case, for being a traitor to Spain. This is the current wet dream of the Spanish right, a maximum revenge against imaginary grievances. It is the same right that from time to time feels the need to save Spain, even if it means destroying the rule of law or, directly, a few hundred thousand citizens as happened during the Civil War and the dictatorship. And it is, also, the scrupulous realization of Aznar's mandate: whoever can do, let them do. Surely, Peinado will not have a reward because henchmen usually do not get one, beyond a few pats on the back. And the satisfaction of duty fulfilled.Mazón also did his duty, enduring the scandal of the disastrous management of the DANA on October 29, 2024, and the 230 deaths caused by his government's negligence, without resigning, without calling elections, and facilitating an easy transition with his second-in-command, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, so that the management of the thirty billion of the Reconstruction Plan would remain in the hands of the PP and his government. In return, he has been left with an ex-president's salary, a seat in the Valencian Courts where he can go to take a nap if he feels like it, and a full exoneration from the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Country that Mazón flaunted this Monday at his appearance in Congress as if it were a license to kill. And which aborted the investigation by the judge of Catarroja, at least until Mazón loses his parliamentary immunity. The inept and lying man has a reward and protection; the woman who, as far as we know, has done nothing punishable but is married to the wrong political leader, runs the risk of being convicted; the judge who pursues her has the applause of the neo-Francoist horde. The juxtaposition explains well, indeed, the moment of degradation of politics and justice in which we find ourselves.

The episode of the supposed Catalan-to-Spanish interpreter who was unable to translate even a couple of simple sentences in the trial against the four police officers who put out the eye of activist Roger Español, causing the Catalan lawyers to have to self-translate or switch directly to Spanish, is by no means anecdotal. In the case of a political trial like this one (a trial is political when a victim of police violence for political reasons still has to go through the ordeal of being revictimized to claim the recognition that is owed to them), a fact like this must be understood as an added, or at the very least, subsequent aggression that should have been avoided by all means. Instead of this, the aggression occurred with all the harshness and all the absurdity that characterize the eternal contempt of the Spanish justice system for linguistic diversity, that is, for any language other than Spanish. Because this is the other circumstance that makes the scene at the trial against the police officers who mutilated Español impossible to consider an isolated or anecdotal event: the list not only of slights, but also of judicial actions in the form of resolutions and sentences, by the Spanish justice system against the Catalan language is already endless, uncountable, and unacceptable. And it reaches exactly to this very day.

As it could not be otherwise, the illiberal wave sweeping the world has set its sights on the right to vote. Voting with freedom of conscience is surely the most relevant civic act, the most transcendent right that a citizen can exercise. Ballot boxes identify democracies, even though authoritarian regimes falsify them to disguise themselves as democracies: Putin's Russia, for example. But the vote, and specifically the manipulation of the vote for one's own electoral benefit, is the dark object of desire for authoritarian politicians and rulers. They usually accuse others of engaging in it, because when they are in power they indulge in it gluttonously.The temptation to tamper with votes is sharpening. In Argentina, Milei has promoted an electoral reform that, if it goes ahead, will completely redesign the rules of the democratic game from top to bottom. Among other things, the chainsaw man proposes that electoral campaigns not be paid for by the state, but rather sponsored by individuals and companies, and he also wants to eliminate presidential debates and even the mandatory primaries within parties.Trump has turned manipulations regarding the vote into a raison d'être for his policies, starting with the fact of having instigated the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as a supposed rebellion against no less supposed fraudulent elections (which he had lost and Biden had won). Trump has likewise fueled the suspicion of fraud regarding the midterm elections in the month of November (and he will intensify it as they approach, because he fears losing them), and a few days ago, at a convention in Dallas, in the middle of an erratic and decadent speech, he wanted to cast a lure: five thousand dollars for every adult American citizen in the event that the Republicans win the elections. A promise like this is indecent, illegal, and obviously unachievable, but the shot has already been fired: it is about putting a price on the vote and treating it as just another commodity.In the Spanish state, the Supreme Court has just provisionally halted the so-called “law of grandchildren” to prevent the voting rights of the descendants of Spanish citizens who had to go into exile during the Franco dictatorship. This is equivalent to taking the right to vote away from more than four hundred thousand Spanish citizens, with the argument –wielded by the high court without any attempt to hide it– that their participation in the elections could “alter the result desired by the Spaniards” in the polls. The “desired result,” in case anyone has lost track, is for the sum of PP and Vox to win the elections. Since we mention it, Santiago Abascal's party has proposed more than once (and broad sectors of the PP view it favorably) to modify the electoral law so that “minorities” cannot run in elections as they have done until now, nor “impose their will” in Congress or the Senate. This, in case anyone has lost track as well, is aimed at the left-wing parties, and also at the Basque and Catalan nationalist parties.

Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena now refuses to amnesty Carles Puigdemont until the Constitutional Court orders him to do so, because he finds that the —devastating— ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union must not have enough consistency for a patriotic judge like him. Clad as Don Tancredo, Llarena digs in his heels and says that the CJEU ruling does not serve as a legal basis to amnesty Puigdemont, given that he considers the Supreme Court's interpretation of embezzlement has not been reviewed. The answer comes by itself: then let them review it. Above all, because the idea of “embezzlement” that was wielded to convict the leaders of the Procés was a new display of judicial inventiveness on a par with the accusation of rebellion, which ended up being dismissed. Embezzlement was not, because they needed charges to add years of prison. But the inconsistency of the accusation was the same.Llarena's reasons for not granting amnesty to Puigdemont also hold no water. Not only that, but they must be very close to prevarication, given his insistence on disobeying not only the amnesty law, but also a ruling from a high European court which, as a judge practicing within an EU member state, he has the obligation to abide by, comply with, and enforce. However, it is understood that Llarena's response is not addressed to legal experts, nor even to citizens with a minimum of critical spirit, but to the media outlets that applaud demonstrations of bullfighting pride. It is as if Llarena were saying that, faced with the hemlock of having to amnesty an enemy of Spain, he will not do so unless at least a Spanish court orders him to (even if it is a court, the Constitutional Court, which the ever-equanimous Esteban González Pons defined two years ago as “the cancer of the rule of law,” despite the use and abuse the Popular Party made of it when it held a majority). Llarena does not care that he has repeatedly made a fool of himself before European justice with his international arrest warrants against Puigdemont. He has seen that it does not work, but his reaction is to maintain the arrest warrant within the territory of the Spanish state: if Puigdemont sets foot there, he will be automatically arrested, a scene that has been the judge's wet dream for nine years. To save Spain, naturally.The fact is serious, but it seems anecdotal because in these years we have seen the Spanish justice system commit so many absurdities, and of such magnitude, that this stubbornness of Llarena seems like little in comparison. It serves as a reminder, in any case, of the fact that the CJEU ruling not only represents an endorsement of the amnesty law (which dismantled the entire rule of law in Spain, according to the right and the extreme right), but also exposed, to the point of scandal, the televised shame that was the Procés trial. And it also reminds us that the judiciary, converted into a political weapon of conservative ultranationalism, remains the most serious problem of the many that Spanish democracy has.

The European Commission has acknowledged that the housing crisis is a European priority and, as a first step to address it, announced last week the proposal for the affordable housing act, the European law on affordable housing, the details of which you can read in the chronicle by Núria Sala Ventura for this newspaper. It is not that there has been a move towards Bolivarianism in Brussels. But they have indeed become aware that the fact that a million Europeans have no home to live in, while 20% of the available housing stock within the European Union is empty, is an urgent situation. The purchase price of a home in community countries has risen, in the last ten years, by more than 60%, and rental prices, by 20%. In addition to being an urgent situation, it is an unsustainable, unjust... and illegal situation: the right to decent housing is a basic social right (in the Spanish state it is a constitutional right) that is often violated, or denied, by market impositions. This European housing law –promoted by former minister Teresa Ribera, now Vice President of the Commission, and by the Commissioner for Housing, Dan Jorgensen– aims precisely at what has been said so many times was not advisable (and according to some, not even possible), and which reality now shows is necessary: to intervene in the market, to set limits and caps to prevent it from falling into speculative inertia.That is why the law proposes measures such as legal limitations on the purchase of second homes or non-habitual residences in those regions classified as stressed areas. Also, imposing penalties on owners who keep apartments or houses empty, to force them onto the market. The new proposed law insists, mind you, on boosting the construction of new housing to ease the market (although it is true that it speaks of promoting operators different from the traditional ones, such as cooperatives or non-profit entities, instead of the usual large construction companies). More interesting in this sense are advances like the ZAN law (zero artificialisation nette), from France, which proposes not to build a single more square meter of rustic land and to work, instead, on the rehabilitation, reuse, and transformation of everything that has already been built.The European proposal aligns well with the ban on tourist apartments by the Barcelona City Council, or with the penalties for having vacant flats in force in Catalonia for four years. In the Balearic Islands, on the other hand, the spokesperson for the PP parliamentary group in the Parliament, Sebastià Sagreras, has declared that “he cannot fathom” that a Majorcan “cannot buy a second residence in another municipality.” Not many things fit inside the spokesperson's head (the PISA report leaves the Balearic Islands at the tail end of the Spanish state, which in turn is at the tail end of Europe in educational matters, and this is also noticeable in the government officials). What won't he say when he finds out that the majority of Majorcans cannot even think about buying a first home in any municipality.

The idea that humans might develop technology capable of destroying us –one by one or en masse, or even as a species– goes back a long way. Already in Antiquity, they imagined artifacts, often sent or forged by the gods, that were capable of doing the job: in the Argonautica, for example, appears Talos, a giant made of bronze who, from the coasts of Crete, threw rocks at invading ships to sink them. Prometheus, for his part, steals fire from Olympus with the intention of supplanting the gods and their ability to create life, an idea that we find recovered in myths such as that of the Golem or Frankenstein.The fear that machines might eventually develop some form of consciousness that leads them to rebel against humans runs through the entire history of literature, but it is evidently from the Industrial Revolution onwards that it gains the most strength. The 19th-century tales of automatons or the aforementioned Frankenstein by Mary Shelley anticipate the great explosion of the science fiction and dystopian genre during the 20th century. The emergence of cinema as an artistic and entertainment form also has a decisive importance in the success of stories about artificial life forms that become a threat to human life. From 2001 to Blade runner or Gattaca, from Metropolis to Terminator or the fusions of human flesh, prosthetics, and genetic manipulations in the cinema of David Cronenberg, the repertoire is endless.A characteristic of human intelligence is that, at the end of the day, the distance between imagination and reality is very short. Sometimes, zero. “If it can be imagined, it can be done” is a motivational, aspirational phrase, but it can also turn around and become a threat. These days, statements from engineers and other people related to large artificial intelligence companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI warning that language models could become self-aware and plan – and execute – a mass extermination of humanity have placed us not before a fantasy, but before a possibility that some of these engineers quantify at over ten percent.Until recently, we were convinced that humans were the only self-aware species inhabiting the planet. Later we learned that some animal species also possess self-awareness, and now we are facing the self-awareness of machines. Three years ago, the exhibition AI: artificial intelligence, at the CCCB, showed the history of large language models and brought their pros and cons up for debate. The darkest predictions, as was already the case with the giant Talos, come with military uses. The exhibition spoke, even then (three years in the AI world is a long time), about lethal autonomous weapons, capable of searching for targets on their own and also making decisions autonomously in order to eliminate those targets. Killer robots, to put it simply. The human species does have a unique ability when it comes to building contraptions to massacre itself. In that, indeed, no one equals us.

That a judge would admit as a popular prosecutor in a judicial process an association supposedly formed by animals seems like a bad joke and an exhibition of arrogance. This is the case of the National Court magistrate María Tardón, who has decided to investigate the massive entry of immigrants into Ceuta on July 30th and 31st, because she thinks those events may constitute an attack against the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of the Spanish state. Against the unity of Spain, that is. We already know what this is about because it has also been verbalized by patriotic luminaries like Abascal and Ayuso, and even the always helpless Feijóo: it is about prosecuting Pedro Sánchez for high treason. And to achieve this, any support is good, even that of an association called Zeolandia, with a board of directors supposedly formed by four dogs and a cat. On its very website, it appears that the entity behind it is the Liberum association, formed by jurists close —oh surprise— to the Spanish nationalist far-right who have already appeared as a popular prosecutor in other proceedings against the PSOE and/or the government of Spain. The animal joke has the touch of the foolish humor of the stale right. But the objective is no joke: the Spanish right has long been longing to do with Sánchez as Bolsonaro and company did with Lula in Brazil. That is to say, to take a president to prison, dragged by an avalanche of accusations in which lies, half-truths, proven facts, and the pressure capacity of a power environment that treats the state as its own property are mixed. In her writing, Magistrate Tardón speaks of “criminal conduct that has not only had as a direct and immediate victim the city of Ceuta and its inhabitants, but the Kingdom of Spain itself, since it could constitute an attack against national sovereignty, the independence and stability of the State, its territorial integrity, national defense, foreign security, and the stability of our rule of law”. These are very strong words. The supposed entity of cats and dogs has filed a contentious-administrative appeal against the government of Spain for “deliberate omission of preventive security measures in Ceuta” and “concealment of information”.

On the National Day, and in view of the number of volunteers there are to carry out the arduous task of thinking about the country, let my humble recommendation from here be to look at the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands. “We must get closer to Valencia,” said Josep Pla: there, on Saturday, there is a great demonstration in defense of public school in Catalan and against the pretension of subjecting it to ideological and linguistic control. It is a crucial fight for everyone. In the Balearic Islands, and in particular in Mallorca and Ibiza, the consequences of touristification are posed with harshness: massification, speculation, overexploitation of natural resources, tension and social inequalities, expulsion of the citizenry due to the impossibility of accessing housing, PISA results at the very tail end of everything. The recommendation is to look at them, the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands, not to confirm prejudices or archetypes, nor to exercise arrogance or paternalism, because the problems that arise there are, to a large extent, the same ones that Catalonia has. Aena milks us with identical voracity; the Civil Guard, the National Police and the Mossos hit us with the same dedication at demonstrations; the concern for the future (what future and in what conditions) is, more or less, the same throughout the Catalan Countries (and I am already aware that I have not mentioned Northern Catalonia, the Franja, or Alghero; I do so now).Another recommendation if one wants to think about the country is to look at the world. It is not the same as it was nine years ago, when on a day like today it had been a little over three weeks since the 17-A and a little less than three weeks remained until the 1-O. Discussing Catalonia regardless of the climate emergency is to expose oneself to manufacturing obsolete diagnoses and prescriptions from the start. Pretending to discuss immigration while simultaneously minimizing the influence of the far-right—ignoring or leaving out of the discussion the democratic involution and institutional corrosion that the far-right produces throughout the West—is completely missing the mark. It is even more misguided if one loses sight of the fact that Catalonia—and the Valencian Country, and the Balearic Islands—as a small, rich country of the south, and also its language and culture, are true delicacies for the gurus of the global anti-European far-right, potential Ceutas or Greenlands.We wanted a republic to have our own voice in these debates and for it to be a progressive, bold (I will spare the overused adjective revolutionary), open, profoundly and radically democratic voice, with an identity built on the Catalan language and culture that would be capable of welcoming the languages and cultures of the people who come to live here and benefiting from them. That instead of this, public debate has succumbed to the provocations of a few self-proclaimed saviors, to the masturbatory rhetoric of warmongering speeches, or to the rehash of age-old squabbles (where everyone's grandparents were from, for example), is disappointing. Despite this, despite the stifling atmosphere and the feeling of the end of days, the future remains ahead. Long live a free Catalonia and a happy National Day to everyone, except the fascists.

The school year has begun in the Valencian Country with a novelty that should put us all on alert. The PP and Vox government of the Valencian Generalitat has approved the reform of the law they call "of fiscal, administrative and financial management, and organization measures," a dull statement behind which lies the anti-democratic measure of implementing a system of surveillance and ideological control—including denunciations—in the public schools and educational centers of the Valencian Country.The Consell presided over by Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca (Mazón's substitute, who nowadays lives splendidly occupying a deputy's seat, enriched by a salary as president of a parliamentary commission that never meets) has legally entrusted the Educational Inspection with a singular task: to "ensure ideological neutrality" within classrooms. That is to say: a strict supervision of teaching activities, curricular materials, and events held in schools, to avoid any form of "indoctrination." The reform also includes the creation of channels or anonymous reporting mailboxes. Just as you read it: parents who consider it appropriate will be able to report directly, and without giving a name or face, those teachers and professors who, according to them, have infringed upon "ideological neutrality," committed "indoctrination," or broken something else that the PP and Vox consider fundamental: "linguistic freedom." That is to say, those who have the pretension of teaching classes, or conducting activities or academic tests, in Catalan. Or in Valencian, as you wish. Let us remember that we are talking about the same government officials who have also produced regulations to exclude Catalan and Balearic writers from language and literature subjects, with the argument—not at all indoctrinating and ideologically neutral—that "they are not Valencian" and that "they do not write in Valencian." It is the mixture of authoritarianism and hatred for culture and public schools that have always constituted the hallmarks of the extreme right. Now, however, turned into law, it aims to turn the public school into a scene of conflicts and fears that give a new dimension to the sad expression “culture war,” in which academic freedom, and with it constitutional freedoms, are revoked. It is a particularly brazen exhibition of the neo-Francoism of the Spanish right (PP and Vox, let us repeat it) and of the democratic involution it represents.Unions and teaching entities in the Valencian Country have already denounced the desire of Pérez Llorca and his Council to intimidate teachers and to impose a covert parental pin or an ideological police force within public classrooms. This Saturday the 12th, a large demonstration is called in Valencia that will kick off a school year expected to be full of mobilizations. But I return to the beginning: this is not a problem "of the Valencians", but rather it affects us all directly. If this is the sample, it is easy to foresee the direction that the educational policy of a Spanish government controlled by Vox and the PP will take.

Even though it is also starting to have –needless to say– its deniers, the PISA report continues to be a reliable and reference instrument in the educational field. The dismal results obtained by the Spanish state in the latest edition, clearly below the European average in reading and mathematics, confirm all fears. The unrest of teachers is expressed through strikes and protests on the first day of class: criticizing and devaluing these protests is a temptation that some politicians and commentators fall into, but that is falling into the classic error of killing the messenger. With their mobilizations, teachers and professors come to give the same bad news as the PISA report: the situation of public education is not sustainable and it is necessary to work on it in an extremely urgent and serious way. It is necessary to work on reality and not on words, speeches, or slogans. There is an inversely proportional relationship between the highly delicate nature of the educational system and the flood of voices that feel emboldened to have their say with pretensions of pontificating. Those who best know the classrooms are those who work there day by day, and it is them who must be listened to and followed.The chaos is widespread throughout the Spanish state, and Catalonia is no exception: not even with the deviation caused by a biased sample that has invalidated the tests (something much worse than a simple error, in a Government that has made an alleged good management of public services its banner), the results obtained by Catalonia are not significantly better than in Spain. Catalonia, which has always stood out for being an advanced country in terms of educational quality in relation to its environment, does have reasons to speak, in this case, of decline, of free fall, or of any metaphor for defeat. The Basque Country is not spared either, which was the other nation on the Peninsula that had traditionally stood out in educational matters.The right to education must be respected, says President Salvador Illa. Indeed, only this right has some surnames that cannot be left unsaid: the right to public and quality education must be respected. And in Catalan. The autonomous communities have transferred educational competence, and in many – governed by the PP or by the PP with Vox – a frontal offensive against public education is observed at all levels, from primary school to university. In the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, and also in Aragon, the offensive is also against the Catalan language. The aim is to turn public school into a space of conflict, to scare families and redirect them to charter and private schools. In Catalonia, the political and judicial offensive against those who hate the Catalan school comes from way back, and all kinds of discourses and theories are added that intend to use teachers and students as guinea pigs for all kinds of false debates. Let the teachers teach, let the students learn, and respect the right to strike and the right to public, quality education in Catalan.

So here we are, discussing whether the AfD (Alternative for Germany, the party that won, by a wide margin, the elections in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt) is Nazi, neo-Nazi, far-right, extreme right, extremist... Let's call it what we want: eighty-one years after their defeat, Adolf Hitler's supporters have once again won an election in Germany. Now it is all exclamations, but in reality, we are facing the umpteenth confirmation of the process of the return of fascism to Europe. Regarding this process, in fact, there is no need to speculate further, because it is already a fact. Now we must ask ourselves if it has the potential to become hegemonic again, in Germany and in the rest of Europe. The answer is yes. Someone will object that the words fascism and fascists have been abused to the point of emptying them of meaning: it is quite true and, if anything, one can add that the problem is that not only have these two words been trivialized, but also many others in common use in public debate, some as central as democracy, freedom or citizenship. But no matter how much political language has been worn down, blurred, and trivialized, that does not take away from the fact that fascism exists and is once again very strong. It has various causes for which it claims to take a stand, but the main one is undoubtedly the migratory movements and demographic changes occurring throughout the West. Faced with this complex reality, fascism and the far-right have a simple recipe: distrust in institutions (even though they run in elections to govern them), discrediting of the “political class” (even though they themselves are, also, “political class”), identity retreat, nostalgia for an imaginary past era in which everything was better, scientific denialism, and enormous doses of fear and hatred towards the different and, above all, towards the poor.It has become a commonplace to point to social democracy and, in particular, the “left” as the culprits for the rise of the far right and fascism, as they have not known how to provide an answer to the issues that concern the citizenry (from the outset, any pointing of the finger at a culprit is, in itself, a victory for fascism and the far right, because finger-pointing and blaming are forms of fear and hatred). It is possible, but the traditional liberal rights do not provide an answer either, as they try not to yield space to the far rights by assuming their discourse: Merz's CDU has ended up yielding, with its anti-immigration discourse, the majority of its electorate in Saxony-Anhalt to the far right.The results of Saxony-Anhalt are a mirror, and in Spain, where there is speculation about a new judicial coup d'état to imprison the head of government and where the right-wing party and the fascist one openly add up their results in the polls, the mirror reflects an especially worrying image. Germany, Year Zero is the title of a film by Roberto Rossellini about the material, but above all moral, devastation that fascism and war bring. It is highly recommended to watch it.

At this point, the only interest of the political figure of the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is to personify the idea of banal power: raw power that has no other objective or purpose than to keep power itself running –and to benefit from it, of course, herself and a circle formed by accomplices and usurers (to whom favors must be returned with interest)–. Her ideological positions are inconsistent, vague; even her anti-Catalanism is routine, a chapter from the same instruction manual that also includes Madrid nationalism, the exaltation of the “Christian roots” of Spanish culture (whatever it is that these people understand by Spanish culture), the vindication of Spanish colonialism in America, anti-feminism, or the denial of climate change and the pandemic.The Community of Madrid –an administrative and political artifact that should be discussed in depth, starting with its very reason for existing– has long since become an optimal gear of this way of understanding power, in which politics, finance, justice, and the media configure, in effect, a state within a state, with its own laws written nowhere but known to everyone. An oligarchy, if you want to call it that. The most forceful staging of the effectiveness and refinement achieved by this gear is the confrontation between the Community of Madrid and the government of Spain presided over by Sánchez and with the Generalitat presided over by Illa, as powers aligned within the socialist sphere. The most raw and spectacular episode –so far– of this confrontation has been starred in by Ayuso and her advisor Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, a character who completely contradicts the profile of spin doctors as brains hidden in the shadows or behind the scenery of power. Rodríguez, who is a loudmouth, is enthusiastic about cameras, microphones, and social media, and he allowed himself the luxury of announcing step by step the fall of an entire Attorney General of the State without the judiciary, which had to carry out the script that Rodríguez was anticipating –the Supreme Court–, having any hesitation at all when it came to carrying out such a clumsy and brazen move. On the contrary, there was clear self-satisfaction in it all.One of the most recognizable ingredients in this recipe for understanding power is impunity, which has intoxicating, stupefying, and aphrodisiac effects. Just as it acts as a state within a state, the power of the Community of Madrid also likes to act as a party within the party, and Ayuso and her circle have created the myth of having toppled a secretary general and presidential candidate (Casado), and of having the next one (Feijóo) in their hands. But lately, Feijóo has allowed himself to leave Ayuso alone in the penthouse scandal and at Friday's meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, which was attended by all the barons of the Popular Party, in contrast to Ayuso's snub. Impunity is a substance that has powerful highs, but also sudden crashes.

Aznar's visit to Ceuta kicked off the "serious" offensive of the Spanish right. We have seen everything from the armada captained by Marcos de Quinto —manual in hand—, to the demonstrations on Wednesday throughout Spain —with people shouting racist proclamations and slogans against a president whom they call a son of a bitch—, passing through the burning of an immigrant camp and the lightning appearance of a police report —via a leak to El Español, from the Villarejo of journalism, Pedro J. Ramírez— that leaves Marlaska and Sánchez at the mercy of the wolves. And we shall continue. Power always has an aesthetic and a moral environment, and in these last days of August and early September we have had a very enlightening preview of what the aesthetic and moral environment of the right called to govern Spain soon are, if it is not prevented —it is the only possibility that remains— by Feijóo's ineptitude. They are based on the usurpation of the fundamental mechanisms of democracy —such as the right to demonstrate— to unload an avalanche of irrational slogans, unbridled hatreds, misinformation, and intoxications that occupy the entire space of public debate.In the case of Ceuta, all of this is naturally fueled by the incomprehensible exculpatory treatment that the government of Spain gives to that of Morocco. Since it is incomprehensible—or one needs great acuity, let us say it again, to understand that the entry of more than seventy thousand people in two days through a border crossing is not possible without a certain police negligence on the part of Morocco—, this desperate will to exculpate Morocco from the situation fuels all kinds of conjectures: the latest—from outlets of diverse ideological signs, such as Público and El Confidencial—suggest that there could be blackmail by the authoritarian Alaouite monarchy against Pedro Sánchez, which might have some type of relationship with the Pegasus espionage. Maybe yes or maybe no. But there is one thing that is certain, and that is that the right-wing international exists. It is not some paranoia of a psychotic president, as is said and repeated about Pedro Sánchez from the circles of the PP and Vox—or, directly, from these same parties.The right-wing international exists and knows that bringing down the government of Spain means shaking Europe. Slavoj Žižek has lately preferred Instagram to philosophy, but, even so, he has summarized it well: the world, now, is divided between American barbarism (including Israeli barbarism), Russian barbarism, and a kind of soft fascism that maintains civil liberties in appearance, but which brings to power strong nationalism or ultranationalism, which means corruption and democratic regression. In the midst of all this, Europe —the European Union— remains the last bastion of liberal democracy. The goal of them all, indeed, is to bring it down. And, often, this right-wing international counts on the help of a certain Eurosceptic or anti-European left that ends up playing the role —see the article by Ignasi Aragay about the magnificent book by Johann Chapoutot The Irresponsibles (Angle Editorial, in translation by Andreu Gomila)— of the useful idiots of the right.

Barcelona's libraries have been on an indefinite strike since May 26, although their demands had already begun earlier. This Tuesday, September 1, 33 out of the city's 41 libraries were closed in the morning as a show of strength by the collective, which demands —insists— that Barcelona City Council and the Library Consortium open negotiations. The City Council and the Consortium assure that negotiations are open and issued a statement explaining that a series of things have been offered to the library staff, but one of two things: either it's not quite like that or what is offered does not satisfy the demands of the striking workers (the vast majority of library staff, and of the book sector, are women). What are these demands? Improvement of schedules, salary improvement, and professional recognition. They are sensible claims: many librarians work double shifts of eleven or more hours a day which make family reconciliation impossible and, of course, their remuneration is far below the importance of their task. Hence the need for professional recognition, which naturally must be reflected in the salary they receive.But broad social recognition of their work is also necessary. It is necessary to extend among the citizenry, much more consistently than now, that libraries provide an essential public service for a democratic society that wishes to facilitate access to reading for all citizens —especially children and young people, but for everyone— regardless of their origin, social class, or purchasing power. This must be emphasized. Facilitating citizens' access to reading: this is the task of libraries, and it is not an easy job. They train and update themselves in a highly demanding way to be able to do it. And we must insist on this, because the work of librarians is not that of social assistants, nor of facilitators, nor of technicians in family care. All these jobs are also necessary, but they are not the jobs that a library technician should do. A public library should also not be a climate shelter, nor many other things.A library promotes reading among citizens. This is of enormous importance. To give examples, the work of a librarian is infinitely more important than that of all the First Division footballers, or that of all the "politicians" who do nothing more than repeat what their party orders them to do. Access to reading is a public service as important as that provided by teachers and healthcare professionals, who, incidentally, it is no coincidence that they are also fighting for the dignity of their profession, in both cases. We live in days when the dignity, importance, and viability of public services are sought to be denied: for this very reason, they must be defended more than ever. To go against essential public services —the library is one— is to go against ourselves as citizens.

Celestí Alomar has died at the age of 76, leaving a great void, like an era. He did and was many more things, but he will be remembered as the counselor who implemented the ecotax in the Balearic Islands. He did this during his time as Minister of Tourism of the first government of the Pacte de Progrés, a government that had to endure the fiercest criticism during its existence—from adversaries, but also from those closest to him—and which now, twenty-five years later, many value and miss, and rightly so. The first Pacte de Progrés of the Balearic Islands governed from 1999 to 2003. In a short time, the deaths of President Francesc Antich and Vice-President Pere Sampol, and now Counselor Celestí Alomar, represent the premature disappearance of three key people in the recent political history of the country. I write "premature" because, although all three were around or over seventy years old, the death of those who truly work for the common good is always premature.The Pacte de Progrés was the first progressive government that the Balearic Islands had and it was a pioneer in many things, both there and in the Spanish state. The ecotax that Celestí Alomar promoted was ahead of its time in uniting tourism policies with serious environmental policies. Alomar understood this tax as a tool for self-government and social cohesion. It earned him a fatwa, a war with hoteliers, an economic sector with pretensions more of a caste than a lobby. In recent years I have had the pleasure of conversing a few times with Celestí Alomar and hearing him explain how one of those hoteliers chased him up the steps of the Consolat de Mar shouting at him: “Don't think you'll work in the Balearics again! Forget about it!” He told it laughing, because Celestí Alomar was a master of irony and good humor. A geographer by training, he had professionalized in tourism and did not renounce it, but he argued, in words and in writing, that tourism needs limits to prevent touristification, that is, massification and speculation. He pointed out that excessive dependence on an industry like tourism leads to an economic model crisis, which is where the Balearics and a large part of the Mediterranean are currently.A historic socialist, he was one of the founders of the PSI (later PSM, currently within the Més coalition) and then went on to join the PSIB-PSOE, from which he resigned in response to the approval of Article 155. He always thought and spoke freely, and at the same time remained loyal to a progressive mindset based on two inalienable ideas: common good and social justice. He did not want the creation of wealth to stop, what he wanted was for it to be distributed in favor of the community, of society. Good public services for citizens: this was his idea of country, of homeland. His legacy is that of reason over force, and that of strength (of will, of thought) in the service of reason. As the director of Ara Balears , Jaume Perelló, told me, it may sound like a cliché but there are no longer people like that in politics.

Pedro Sánchez has also returned to work, and the mainstream right-wing media headlines are charging him the bill for his holidays in the form of apocalyptic polls (for the PSOE), in which the socialists are losing everything and the sum of PP and Vox —their own propagandists already consider the sum a done deal, which until recently the PP was still trying to hide— exceeds 200 deputies in Congress. Well. Perhaps so. We have already seen these same polls, in one medium or another, or in several (but always the same ones) at other times. In the general elections of 2023, in which Sánchez ended up renewing his position as president of a coalition government. Or in the Catalan elections of 2017, when they put a photo of Inés Arrimadas with headlines that said "Presidenta".Well, we'll see. The Spanish right knows a lot about making a fuss and stirring up trouble, as has been seen throughout this August due to the migratory/humanitarian/political crisis in Ceuta. The Spanish government has made it easy for them, with a slow and cumbersome management of the situation, and even offering the spectacle of ministers disagreeing in public, as has happened with Robles and Marlaska. The government's tactic seems to have been to maintain a tone of calm and normality so as not to echo catastrophic voices, and incidentally protect Sánchez from burning himself out with the crisis by putting ministers in the firing line, but it hasn't gone well. However, surely the worst for Sánchez and his government is that they feel their hands are tied by the Moroccan government and are forced to emphasize the idea —which any observer with the naked eye realizes is false— that the Alawite regime has nothing to do with the mess. Quite the contrary, it is obvious that it is the direct cause, although it then makes gestures to make it seem like it is also part of the solution. But the call for massive entry was organized by someone, and someone also gave orders for there to be hardly any surveillance by the Moroccan police on the day of said massive entry. Not to mention the evidence that a move like this aligns perfectly with the anti-Europeanism of Trumpism and Israel, and also with that of Russia. What Mohamed VI (personally) gets out of it we don't know, but it is not out of place to suspect that he gets something out of it. And the same goes for his heir, Mulai Hassan.In his interview this Monday on SER, Sánchez underlined the “civic behaviour” and the “social and coexistence commitment” of the citizens of Ceuta. He is right here, because the majority is indeed like that. Those who go to burn immigrant camps and take to the streets or infest the networks with messages of hate are the minority, no matter how much they inflate polls. They are a minority and they are losers, including those who join in from Catalonia, and from the Balearic Islands. When we talk about welcoming, they come out with a question: “How many immigrants do you have at home?” It is a phrase as obtuse as “What does your ID card say?” or “Boys have penises and girls have vulvas.” This is their level and we must not allow them to drag us down to it.

“Operation Economic Outcast” is the catchy title that Trump and his administration have chosen to call their plan of economic strangulation against Iran, which was announced last week and which the world has received with a global raising of eyebrows. Many call it “Operation Economic Fury,” in ironic allusion to the pompous “Operation Epic Fury” that according to Trump was supposed to bring hell down upon the ayatollahs' regime. It is true that in the first offensive, the US and Israel managed to assassinate the supreme leader Ali Khamenei in a bombing. But then the regime managed to withstand the blow and Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the deceased, has turned out to be a supreme leader with a fanatical determination as tough as his father's (we recently read in the New Yorker that his government hires foreign assassins to liquidate critics of the regime scattered around the world). It has been fifteen days this Monday since the sixty days that the US and Iran had given themselves in June to “end the war” ended, according to a so-called memorandum of understanding of fourteen points, of which not a single one has been fulfilled. Trump's Gulf War has been a failure, and the attempt to tighten the noose on Iran through economic blockade sounds like a tantrum and a gesture of desperation. More so, when the so-called "Economic Pariah Operation" —which includes a block of sanctions against countries that have commercial relations with Iran— depends almost entirely on China's stance, a buyer of 90% of Iranian oil, and Beijing has already made it clear that its response could be harsh if the US "representatively extends" its threats against Chinese companies trading with Iran. Awaiting a new meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping, the possibility that the American president's intemperance will open a new confrontation with the other great world economy is viewed negatively by everyone. Also by the American electorate, tired of having fuel and the cost of living through the roof as a direct consequence of Trump's foreign policy, as belligerent and expansive as it is erratic and, ultimately, counterproductive.A year ago Trump boasted about having ended seven or eight wars (depending on the day) and went on an endless rant asking to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He didn't get it, but he did manage to have his mistress in Venezuela, María Corina Machado, bring it to him as a gift. As of today, the orange pachyderm's arrogance has subsided a bit, and he faces — now, in November — midterm elections that could cost him control of Congress. Such a blow could have interesting repercussions for Trumpists worldwide: including the Spanish enthusiasts of Trump, PP, and Vox, who face the last year of their term as a kind of springboard to propel them to an electoral victory that, in their opinion, was snatched from them in 2023. But an electoral setback for Trump could also have a revulsive effect in Europe and Latin America.

The “he who can do, let him do” well understood begins with oneself, and according to this evidence, former Spanish President José María Aznar has materialized in Ceuta, where he had not returned since 2004, with the sole purpose of intensifying the tension and further weakening Pedro Sánchez and his government: indeed, Aznar himself has repeatedly pointed to the current Spanish government as the cause of an unprecedented institutional crisis, in the face of which all means are legitimate. It is curious, on the other hand, that he too has ended up doing like other leaders of the Spanish extreme right and far-right (it's not a play on words, or not only): imitating their own agitators. Thus, Aznar goes to Ceuta to put on a show, like a Vito Quiles or an Alvise Pérez. This tactic of appearing in sensitive places to carry out clumsy provocations became a common political tool of Albert Rivera and Inés Arrimadas's Ciutadans, and is part of the toxic legacy that that far-right formation (it was nothing else) left within Catalan and Spanish politics.Speaking of legacies, it somehow makes sense for Aznar to go to Ceuta, if only to close a circle he opened there twenty-four years ago with the campaign for the sovereignty of the Perejil Island. That episode was labeled grotesque at the time by many voices, because it undoubtedly was. But it was the same kind of grotesque that we now consume by the spoonful: that of Spanish-style constitutional patriotism, an elegant way of calling lifelong ultranationalism, today turned into a political space shared/contested by PP and Vox, as well as a vast collection of civil entities that raise the flag (constitutional or not) and also their arms and faces to the sun with renewed energy. The pioneer of this return of the most rancid Spanish right was Aznar, first from the government and then from FAES, an artifact halfway between a lobby and a think tank that has been building the discourse and doctrine of the hardest Spanish nationalism over the last quarter of a century. A part of the PSOE also gravitates towards it (starting with another former president, Felipe González; it is curious that investigations into the activities and assets of former Spanish presidents have started with Zapatero and not with Aznar or González, nor Rajoy), and the main message is clear: when it comes to Spain (which for all these people means a system of personal enrichment), there are no jokes. When Aznar began to claim unabashedly Spanishness, to put flags everywhere and to go to joke wars like the one over Perejil or real ones like the one in Iraq, he could not imagine that a wave of the far-right would come across the West that would give a thousand horsepower to his ideas. But the wave has come, and he and his circle have enthusiastically ridden it. Aznar goes to Ceuta to proclaim the pride of the heirs of those who won the Civil War, and to make it clear that they are willing to win it again (and blame the defeated for it).

The intolerable episode of police brutality that occurred in Elche, when some police officers beat up a Barça supporter who was carrying an Estelada, has made it possible to confirm – without surprise, it must be said – that some fellow citizens get indignant with more or less intensity depending on the autonomous community from which the victim of police violence comes. Or depending on the flag they raise.It was just a month ago that more than twenty people were injured as a result of police brutality – entirely unjustified and disproportionate – against the massive demonstration in Palma protesting against tourism, speculation and overcrowding. And a few months ago, during the also massive, and admirable, mobilizations of Valencian teachers in defense of public schools and education in Valencian, a teacher was brutally assaulted by a police officer who made her fall face down on the ground with a push from behind. Some of those who are now exclaiming and indignant – with every right, moreover – about the police assault on a young Barça fan who was carrying an estelada did not find any reason to say anything about the cases of police brutality in Mallorca or the Valencian Country. On the contrary, some consider that we Mallorcans and Valencians deserve it, with the astounding argument that the PP (or the PP plus Vox) win the elections in these communities. As if to say: For them, among the victims of police violence there are classes. A Valencian teacher (retired, moreover) who defended public school and in Catalan: bah. Mallorcan demonstrators, activists and journalists protesting against housing speculation, environmental destruction and overpopulation: pse. Young Barça fan with an Estelada: attack against freedoms, historical grievance and national hero. Some of those who make these distinctions then usually also make great patriotic proclamations and give lessons –never asked for– about the country.The police officers who beat people are not that picky, and they themselves are clear about whom they beat and why. In all cases, police forces – and, around them, political and media powers (and judicial ones, when convenient) – hide behind a fierce corporate defense of violent police officers. They also resort to the tactic of perverting roles and presenting the victim as the aggressor and the aggressor police officer as the victim. There is no shortage of police unions, which stoke tension in accordance with a very specific and recognizable political ideology, that of the Spanish nationalist far-right. Faced with all this, however, some find that full consideration as victims should be reserved for some and not granted to others. It is strange behavior, which occurs in the distance between being a victim and exercising victimhood.

We must not lose sight of the unfortunate project to convert Ausiàs March's family crypt into a jacuzzi, which we already discussed here. The remains of the poet's family rest in the monastery of Sant Jeroni de Cotalba, in the Valencian region of Safor, and the complex is an architectural jewel of exceptional heritage, historical, and cultural value. However, the Alfauir City Council wants to move forward with its Special Plan for the Protection of the Northern Sector of the town, which is more of a plan for touristification and exploitation than protection, and which foresees, among other things, housing a hotel establishment with a spa within the monastery of Sant Jeroni de Cotalba. Doing so would not only be a desecration of the legacy of one of the most important European poets of the 15th century (a Valencian from Gandia who wrote his work in Catalan), but also a serious attack on the landscape and culture of a particularly sensitive area of the Valencian Country.There is one thing that can be done to stop it: submit allegations against the project. Everyone can do it, including you who are reading this article. The most effective way is through the website of the literary society Saforíssims (Saforissims.org), which provides instructions for submitting allegations. It takes less than ten minutes, the deadline is August 31st, and it is an excellent way to go further in civic activism than just complaining on social media. By the way, if you don't know them, you will have the opportunity to get in touch with Saforíssims, one of the most restless and interesting literary groups in the Catalan Countries.Social pressure (in the street, but also through administrative and, if necessary, judicial channels) is effective, even if some deny it. The feeling of impunity, of not receiving a response or resistance, is what often encourages bad rulers to commit aggressions against culture and the environment in favor of not at all hidden interests: behind the upheaval that the Alfauir City Council proposes to carry out, there is a hospitality company specialized in the gentrification of emblematic places, and therefore, there is also a dollar to be made. We live in times when saviors of the homeland dedicate themselves to trying to scare people by denouncing great dangers to the country, to see if they can thus scrape up a few votes through the easy path of blaming immigrants (the poor, the black; we will insist on this quite a bit). However, great destruction often comes from nearby, from within: from rulers who do not work to care for and protect but to damage and speculate; who do not seek the prosperity of society, but easy money for a few; who try to justify their abuses and outrages with excuses and lies; rulers like those in Alfauir (who, incidentally, are from Compromís) are the ones who most often do harm and do not repair it. But we citizens also have the right and the ability – the power, if you will – to do something about it. Let's submit allegations (it's a moment!) and defend Sant Jeroni de Cotalba.