Although she had been one of its drivers, the Process caught Solidaritat off guard. In 2012, the party that had made a name for itself two years earlier by proclaiming itself heir to the popular consultations, failed to enter Parliament. Alfons López Tena (Sagunt, 1957) was its candidate. This notary, son of a notary, who spent seven years (2001-2008) on the CGPJ at the proposal of CiU, continued to be active in the movement until 2015, waiting to see where Catalan independence was heading. But in 2014, with the 9-N consultation, he became clear. In conversation with ARA, he explains how what happened from then on convinced him that it was all "a farce." In fact, on that very day, together with a group of people, they began to popularize the concept of "processism": that movement that claims to yearn for independence but, in reality, never wants it to arrive. Distant from "processist" parties, he has accumulated criticism, for example, for participating in a Societat Civil Catalana symposium in 2018 ("I went there to defend my thesis on authoritarian populisms that I also detect in the Process") or for saying in 2023 that he would vote for the PSOE to prevent the far-right from coming to power in Spain.

Although the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has validated the amnesty, there are courts that still refuse to apply it. From ERC, the deputy general secretary of organization, finance, and anti-repression, Pau Morales (Vilassar de Dalt, 1994) explains to us what his party's roadmap is to continue pressing.

The first sign that the application of the amnesty will not be easy despite the endorsement of the European justice system has been given by the Court of Auditors, which has refused to apply it from the outset, despite being one of those directly named in last week's ruling. The lawyer for Carles Puigdemont, Gonzalo Boye, has filed a brief with the European Commission denouncing Spain for non-compliance with the amnesty and warning of the Court of Auditors' maneuver. In a brief first reported by Vilaweb and to which ARA has had access, he denounces that the deadline for issuing the amnesty has been suspended de facto and that a procedure for allegations has been opened which he not only considers unnecessary, but also asserts that it contravenes the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Mònica Martínez Bravo is the first minister to jump from Salvador Illa's executive. For some time she was one of those who were on everyone's lips, because for some time the president has been preparing a government reshuffling to face the decisive last phase of the legislature. Many sources pointed to an imminent government crisis, although it is surprising that it is limited only to the Minister of Social Rights.

Rubén Viñuales (Tarragona, 1983) left Ciutadans six years ago for the PSC, with whom he reached the mayoralty of Tarragona in 2023. Since then, he has governed in minority, but has been able to approve, with relative ease, the budgets by closing pacts with different parties. In this interview conducted at the Diari ARA newsroom, he talks about his city, but also about the far-right, judges, and the use of Catalan.

Backed by European justice, the amnesty has begun this week on the final stretch for all independence movement victims to leave judicial proceedings behind. To start, in the coming weeks, the twelve CDR members accused of terrorism and the thirty-five political leaders for whom the Prosecutor's Office is seeking 3 million euros from the Court of Auditors, should be the first to benefit from the rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). But at the pinnacle of the State's legal hierarchy, the Supreme Court is resisting accepting that the leaders of the Procés are exonerated from any responsibility, some without even having appeared before it.

Gonzalo Boye (Viña del Mar, Chile, 1965) is one of the leading lawyers of the "Procés", the main person responsible for the legal strategy of the exile, and one of the architects of the amnesty law that has just been validated by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

The independence movement celebrates the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to endorse the European fit of the amnesty law. News that, in theory, should accelerate its application by all courts that have so far refused to do so. But there is one that, for the moment, does not feel addressed. The Supreme Court will continue to not amnesty Carles Puigdemont, Oriol Junqueras, and the rest of the leaders convicted of embezzlement, according to sources consulted by ARA. What room does it have to do so? For now, whatever it wants, despite the legal services of Junts and ERC denouncing that it has been breaking the law for months.

From prison, Oriol Junqueras was the head of ERC's list in the Catalan elections of 2017, the general elections of 2019, and also the European elections of that same year. From Esquerra, in fact, they decreed that, as long as repression lasted, Junqueras would be their number 1 in all elections. But this has not been possible for six years: although he is pardoned and out of prison, the president of the Republicans is disqualified until 2031, awaiting whether the amnesty will be applied to him. The party's strategy for 2028 depends on this, in fact.

Aliança Catalana is the party that is growing the most in the polls. In the CEO barometer, it is in second position in Parliament and is close to leading the pro-independence bloc. Thousands of potential votes that will have to seek an alternative in the general elections. The party leader, Sílvia Orriols, has committed to incorporating into Aliança Catalana's statutes that they will never run in Spanish elections. Where would these votes go, then?

The PSC would win the parliamentary elections again if they were held today, despite maintaining a downward trend that would take them from the 42 seats obtained in 2024 to a range of between 36 and 38. However, the most relevant image offered by the barometer of the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió (CEO) made public yesterday is the consolidation of Aliança Catalana on the right of the parliamentary spectrum. Sílvia Orriols' party climbs to 23-25 deputies (it currently has 2) and clearly surpasses Junts per Catalunya, its main rival, which would lose half of its support to a range of between 16 and 18 deputies. ERC is the other party that is rising, consolidating the second position already predicted by other polls, up to 24-26 deputies.

On the night of July 23, 2023, the PP was 1,749 votes short of its sixteenth deputy in Madrid. A week later, it obtained it thanks to the vote of Madrid residents abroad (the PP surpassed the PSOE by 8,600 votes in this count). It was the only incident of the so-called CERA vote (electoral census of absent residents), which the PP and Vox are now criminalizing with an eye on the supposed "rigging" that Pedro Sánchez is preparing for next year.

On June 12, 2023, the PSOE began to leave behind the feeling of defeat. That day, an uninhibited José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero went on Cope to defend Pedro Sánchez's "spectacular" government, laughed at the PP's insinuations of fraud, and stated that he expected nothing more than the re-establishment of a PSOE-led government. Carlos Herrera told him that neither the results of the municipal and regional elections nor the polls predicted it to be a plausible scenario. Zapatero began the comeback.

Mariano Rajoy knows what is expected of him and does not hesitate to give it to his followers. "In football, what really matters is scoring more goals than the opponent. If you don't, you lose. Or, at best, you draw." Yes, the former Spanish president returns to sports commentary for the World Cup and, again, in the digital media El Debate, which four years ago — also for the World Cup and, later, for the European Championship — already opened its doors for him to publish his analyses of the Spanish national team's matches. Rajoy does so without pay and, in fact, without writing: he sends audio notes when the matches end so that the media's editors can transcribe them. He did so this Monday after the draw of La Roja against Cape Verde.

A first wave in March or April; a second in July and a third around November. It has been a long time since the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió (CEO) established this periodicity for publishing its barometers, the institute's most robust surveys since it started in 2005 (the first was commissioned by Idescat in 2004). But as of June 15, none have been published this year. What has happened at the CEO? As often happens when things don't go as expected, rumors have begun to do their thing, especially on social media. The fact is that the slowness in renewing the framework agreement to approve the companies that collect data has delayed the survey awarding process by four months. A wait that will soon end, because, as ARA has learned, the fieldwork for the first barometer of 2026 is already underway and the CEO intends to make the survey public during the first half of July.

The Zapatero family's jewelry is today the main focus of tension in Spanish politics. The former president of the government has just been charged in a separate piece of the one that Judge of the National Court José Luis Calama was already investigating. The immediate consequence, beyond being summoned to testify again, is that as soon as legal action has been initiated regarding his jewelry, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero can no longer regularize them. Article 305.4 of the Penal Code establishes that he could have done so before the investigating judge formally communicated the opening of proceedings.

In a month's time, Salvador Illa's government will have approved the first budgets of the legislature. An agreement with Comuns and ERC that gives the executive breathing room and certifies that this is currently the only viable majority in Catalonia. Republicans and Comuns already invested Illa and, despite the tug-of-war of the last two years, they continue to be the partners that give him stability. Even to avoid inconvenient appearances by the president in Parliament. This Tuesday, for the second consecutive week, ERC, Comuns, and the PSC prevented the chamber from summoning Illa. Junts wanted him to appear to explain the role of the Generalitat in the crisis opened with public school teachers. Seven days ago, the Junts, with the support of PP and Vox, demanded that the president respond for the cases of alleged corruption that splash the PSOE (and that the judge does not rule out entirely that they have a derivative in the PSC).

The Tax Agency already has on the table a series of requests from the National Court to review the PSOE's accounts, but, on the other hand, it will not have to do so with those of the PSC. Judge Santiago Pedraz has finally excluded the Catalan socialists from the tax requirements, even though the Civil Guard insisted on including the PSC in the investigation. From the PSOE, and from the people implicated in the Leire case, the magistrate is looking for bank accounts, deposits, withdrawals or cash payments and invoices.

"A sum of individual behaviors by fake people, opportunists, and resentful individuals who have used the name of the PSOE in vain and falsely, much to the PSOE's regret." The phrase, written on X by the socialists' organization secretary, Rebeca Torró, summarizes the defense strategy the party has activated to distance itself from the plot that was operating from its headquarters on Ferraz street. The PSOE no longer denies that an organized group might have existed that was dedicated to trying to obtain information from investigations, police, judges, and prosecutors to pressure them. "The summary known today reveals a sum of intolerable behaviors by people who falsely and vainly used the name of the PSOE to benefit themselves or defend dark interests," published, also this Wednesday, the party's official account. What the socialist leadership fully rejects is that they were behind it, as, on the other hand, the investigating judge of the National Court, Santiago Pedraz, does suspect. In fact, the intention of the group allegedly led by Santos Cerdán and Leire Díez was precisely to deactivate the judicial proceedings against the PSOE.

The same day that the judge authorized the Civil Guard to appear at the PSOE headquarters in Madrid, from Carrer Pallars in Barcelona, the PSC sent all the documentation related to its 2024 electoral campaign. Although the request was addressed to the PSOE, the Catalan socialists wanted to get ahead by emphasizing that everything was transparent and audited by the Court of Accounts. With this information, the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the armed institute is not satisfied and has filed a claim for additional information with the National Court, which Judge Santiago Pedraz has accepted.