When Josep Maria Espinàs arrived in a town of the kind he portrayed in his walking tours, he would go straight to the square where people were sitting on a bench. He too would sit there without saying anything, looking in the same direction as them, and after a while he would make a simple observation, such as: “It looks like it might rain.” Then the bench companions, eager to train the stranger, would give him all sorts of explanations about the direction of the wind, the movement of the clouds, and the amount of rain in the area. And so began a conversation that would naturally delve into the most intimate corners of the local identity he had come to discover.

Images from this morning, when the Government met in extraordinary executive council to approve the budgetsMeanwhile, the teachers' strike continues, as we explain. The teachers' unions are not letting up. The negotiation between the Government and the union representatives will continue today: they remain stuck on improving salaries and, despite the wear and tear that maintaining the stoppages means, the unions are determined to continue them.

Fighting the material poverty of so many people is a moral imperative of human solidarity. Even, for the sad argument of selfishness, we will reach the conclusion that it is much better for everyone to live in a cohesive society than in one divided between a few rich people and a lot of poor people.

Today we will start with good news: congratulations to actress Aina Clotet, who has been awarded the Revelation Prize of the Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival. I find the will and capacity of this 44-year-old artist to be constantly working remarkable, now as the director of Viva, the story of a woman who throws herself into living intensely after overcoming cancer. Congratulations to Clotet.

The United States has “permanently banned” the fiscal inspection of past tax returns of President Trump, his family, his companies, and his associates. Trump filed a lawsuit against the American treasury because he considered himself persecuted, and now he has withdrawn the complaint in exchange for this fiscal immunity and a multi-million dollar compensation fund that could also benefit attackers of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

This afternoon, the Government and education unions are meeting, to see if they can reach an agreement to call off the mobilizations that continue to be scheduled for the coming weeks and until the end of the school year. The Government has proposed advancing by one year the salary increase agreed with UGT and CCOO, more money for tutoring allowances, and a reinforcement of staff for inclusive schools. Positions are far apart. The conflict seems far from being resolved. However, the Government breathes more calmly after securing the 'yes' from Esquerra to the budgets.But the political news continues to be strongly conditioned by Zapatero's indictment, which has fallen like a bomb on Sánchez's government. Because Zapatero was, as Feijóo told Sánchez this morning, "his moral compass." In the control session of the Spanish government in the Congress of Deputies, a defensive Sánchez was seen. Listening to him, whether he was answering Feijóo or Rufián, it seems clear that Zapatero's indictment is already hitting the government's core, that there are not many more arguments left in Moncloa to defend themselves, and that it is now all about repeating that the elections will be next year and will not be brought forward.Where does this impression come from? Well, from the fact that instead of convincingly denying any possibility of corruption, Sánchez recalled Zapatero's merits: that he ended ETA, that he took Spain out of the Iraq war, that he got same-sex marriage approved… Even, Sánchez has brought out the worn-out card of Feijóo's photos on a narco's boat, in Galicia, years ago. And Feijóo has felt brave enough to twist Aznar's call to action (“he who can, let him do it”) and has transformed it into “he who can, let him steal”.Then it was Rufián's turn to ask, who with a desolate tone, as if someone in his family had died, almost implored Sánchez to give “some answer”. To Zapatero, the man who defeated the PP against all odds that very tough weekend in March 2004, the populars really want him. But today, in Congress, the feeling has been that the imputation of justice has decimated the reserves of conviction, which were already meager, that remained in the Spanish left.Good morning.

The theory has a name and everyone knows it: equality before the law. And that includes former Spanish government presidents, of course. When justice indicts someone who has been at the very top of one of the three branches of the State, it means the system doesn't flinch and it works. And to indict a former president, the evidence should be solid.

Before talking about the signing of the budget agreement between Illa and Junqueras, this morning we had two bombshell news. The Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested Jonathan Andic, the son of Mango founder Isak Andic, for the death of his father, who died at 71 while hiking in the Salnitre caves. Although initially treated as an accident, a few months ago the Mossos began investigating Andic's son for homicide, who was the only person with whom the businessman was that day. And while we were still processing the news, the political bombshell arrived: Zapatero has been charged with influence peddling, criminal organization, and document forgery in the case of the Plus Ultra airline bailout. The company was bailed out by Sánchez's government during the pandemic with a loan of 53 million euros. Now the National Court is charging Zapatero for having influenced (having received a commission of 10 million, deposited in an account in Panama) this bailout. He has always denied it, and Sánchez has always said the bailout was done correctly. The group that reported Zapatero was the far-right group Manos Limpias. Today, his office was searched, and he will have to appear to testify in 15 days. The first pieces of evidence, which became known this morning when the secrecy of the investigation was lifted, do not seem very solid. He is the first former Spanish president to be charged in Spain (Rajoy has been charged in Andorra). The impact for Sánchez is huge: they are friends, Zapatero supports him - unlike Felipe González -, and if we add to this the result in Andalusia, the funeral in Moncloa continues today. And I would bet anything that within 24 hours someone will remember that Zapatero was negotiating with Puigdemont (like Santos Cerdán). Meanwhile, this morning, at 8 o'clock, President Salvador Illa and Oriol Junqueras were at the Palau de la Generalitat and shook hands again, as a prelude to the photo of the day, that of the signing of the agreement between the Government and Esquerra Republicana by which Junqueras' party will approve the 2026 budgets of Illa's government. These are days of handshakes. Yesterday they already had the first one in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia at the presentation of the orbital train.As always, when a party gives a vote as important as the budget vote to a government, the debate is whether it has settled for little or a lot. Especially since Esquerra is an independentist party and the PSC is not, and it enthusiastically supported 155. Firstly, I think no one should be surprised that Esquerra or Comuns approve accounts for the PSC, because the most important agreement was already made, which is the investiture. If there was any incoherence in ERC's support for the PSC, it was then, not now. I believe that if you vote for someone's investiture, you have an obligation to cooperate with them during the legislature that other parties do not have. Whoever invests is saying they see potential. The fact is that for some time now, we have naturally accepted that, for example, next year there will be no budgets because there are municipal and Spanish elections and, of course, parties cannot support each other. Perhaps this is what is done nowadays, but I find it very selfish on the part of the parties. From this point of view, it is normal for Esquerra to give its vote to the Government. 

Accustomed to associating the adjective orbital with astronautics, the fact that from now on a train line will carry it makes it a bit pretentious and full of fanfare, as if the signatories of the agreement needed to make us notice that it is a premium line and not a miserable one, like the others.

Today it is Barcelona's turn in the teachers' protests and the strikers have gathered in one of the most visible places in the city, the Sagrada Família. These strikes that teachers are carrying out by regions are multiplying the effect of the sector in struggle and are making the crisis long for the Government.Meanwhile, the Government is preparing for this week, which will be the staging of the budget agreement between the Government, Esquerra and Comuns.While Esquerra is convening the national council today to give the green light to the budgets, President Salvador Illa is going to Sant Sadurní d’Anoia today to present the initiative for the orbital railway line, the result of the agreement between the Government and Esquerra.

The elections in Andalusia have been held and finally in Catalonia we now have permission to approve the budgets of the Generalitat without bothering the PSOE and its candidate, María Jesús Montero. This waiting period has not prevented, of course, the PP candidate for the Andalusian presidency from attacking the socialist candidate over the new regional financing system, with phrases such as: "[This agreement will cause] the interests of Andalusians to be trampled on again, equality between Spaniards to be broken and, in short, one of the most beautiful coexistence projects, which is Spain, to be cracked".

He who takes a flag takes a burden. Of all symbols, the colored cloths representing countries are the most epic. And although he is only 18 years old, we will agree that Lamine Yamal is fully aware of this.

The writer Llucia Ramis says she is “acollonada” because despite having been able to afford a mortgage for an apartment, after years of going from one rental to another, who knows if one day she won't be able to pay the installment. We thank the writer and the interviewer, Laura Serra, for having contributed to popularizing this Mallorcan way of being “acollonida” in Catalonia and, at the same time, we regret that this opportunity to enrich vocabulary arises from the harsh reality of real estate. Because if anyone wants to read a very well-explained summary of the great contemporary unease that affording a place to live has become, they should read the interview.

Yesterday we told you in this space that “it would be good for the Minister of the Interior to limit herself to apologizing and saying that it will not happen again”. And in the afternoon, in Parliament, Núria Parlon said: "I do want to apologize, and apologize to the educational union, in this case the CGT, for this feeling of distrust and insecurity that this has generated in relation to your assembly work and in relation to your organization and protest rights".Apologizing is an effective move because it lowers the tone of public controversy and reduces the discomfort of the offended party who is asking for explanations. An apology from a politician always makes for a bigger headline. And everyone understands that those responsible admit a mistake and, furthermore, everyone can imagine that something like this will not happen again. And the truth is that the way political communication is done nowadays, it is quite infrequent: have you ever heard Trump or Ayuso apologize?Therefore, the councilor's apology is correct, but in politics everything has a meaning. Firstly, the Government is in full negotiation with the teachers' unions (today specifically, they are sitting at the negotiation table), and these days, the Government is closing the budget agreement with Esquerra. Parlon had very powerful incentives to lower her head and tone.And now let's get to the facts: some Mossos agents infiltrated in a teachers' assembly and were discovered. The Director General of the Mossos, Josep Lluís Trapero, also acknowledges the mistake and even speaks of naivety.Josep Lluís Trapero: "But in the same way that I acknowledge the error or lack of opportunity, I do not acknowledge bad faith or an antidemocratic attitude in that operation. I emphasize again: I acknowledge the error in the lack of opportunity. And, if you wish, even the naivety of the decision".The minister and director spoke of a “poorly planned operational maneuver”. In other words, there was no political order, but rather a usual modus operandi (the minister spoke of “inertias”) that was poorly resolved. And this morning, on TV3, she said that the police had the right to use an “undercover agent”, a figure recognized by law, that the method used the other day is not the appropriate one, that there are “more appropriate police legal figures when you have a risk”.Therefore, what the political leadership of the Mossos says is that the infiltration was a mistake by the uniformed officers (not the politicians), who acted routinely, without anyone with sufficient rank assessing whether or not it was necessary to spy on an assembly from which a mobilization would emerge that is often announced in the media. It must be said: whether it is a mistake by the police officers who execute or by the politicians who rule, the ultimate responsible for anything the police do are the politicians. And, obviously, the Mossos will continue to infiltrate, as all police forces in the world do. Meanwhile, today it's the teachers' strike in Girona and Central Catalonia. And the minister is meeting with teacher unions today. May it go well, because this will be good for everyone.Good morning.

Since the ultrarich have personally declared war on the rest of humanity, they have reinforced a communicative pattern of arrogance, which, without going any further, is shared by the president of the United States and the president of Real Madrid.

The teachers' protests continue, who this morning have again blocked roads and access to Barcelona. Tomorrow, finally, they will meet with the Government. The Department of Education says there is no room to improve salaries beyond 200 euros per month, but everything seems to indicate that the Government will indeed put more money on the table to improve the inclusive school service, the model that aims to guarantee education for all students regardless of their personal abilities, family origins, or social and economic conditions. Let's hope they succeed (it seems impossible for the conflict to be resolved in the first meeting) but Salvador Illa's Government would do well to show that it understands that it cannot pretend everything will be fine thanks to the magic of a government that doesn't want noise.

In an article titled “Close this building, President”, published on Monday in El País, Professor Rafael Argullol asked Pedro Sánchez to close the building of the Superior Headquarters of the National Police, on Via Laietana in Barcelona. Argullol, who was detained and interrogated there, recalls that it was a place of torture during the Franco dictatorship and suggests that it should end up being a library or a memorial.

Today is the first of the 17 days of strikes that teachers have called. Their stoppage not only impacts students and families who are left without classes: at a quarter past seven in the morning, the striking teachers have cut off traffic in places like Mataró, Manresa, Vic, and especially, at the entrances to Barcelona, very particularly on the Ronda de Dalt, and then in the city center. Among teachers there is the conviction that it is now or never, that they have been holding up the educational system for a long time, that they do not have reinforcements in classrooms, that they are increasingly complex, and that salaries are low considering the responsibility they have, and that while the salaries of the Mossos have been reviewed, those of teachers have not.Regarding this, today we publish this interview with the spokesperson for USTEC, Iolanda Segura, with a very clear headline: “With 400 euros per month we could talk about raising the protest”. Pay attention, however, to a couple of details. First, the nuance. The spokesperson says: “If it is scheduled that 200 euros are already this first year and then the rest in two or three more years, we could finish negotiating and see what the collective tells us. But what is non-negotiable is 200 euros in four years, which everyone knows perfectly well that it neither places us at the forefront of salaries in the rest of the communities nor reverses the salary loss”. And the other detail is that it's not all about salaries. What else could provoke the protest? The union leader says: “Regarding staff numbers, the agreement includes a series of measures that we negotiated ourselves, such as reducing ratios and providing resources for educational centers and for inclusive education. We are talking about figures that are both labor and teaching, special education educators, integration specialists, TEEI (specialist technician in early childhood education) and psychopedagogues”. It is important to note, therefore, that teachers are demanding improvements that go beyond economic ones. I say this because the polarization, for and against teachers, without nuances, which mixes things like having two months of vacation, has reached the dozens of comments the news has received.I believe it is fundamental that we look further, and of course, do so without starting from likes or dislikes. It may be annoying that they block traffic or demand more money, but teachers are focusing on a core problem, that of education. A problem means what is taught, how it is taught, and what educational and future job value for students the content taught in Catalan schools has. If we talk about education, for a long time now no one here is happy: the Government wants to reverse the results of the PISA report, we have concluded that the teaching career is neither sufficiently demanding nor sufficiently recognized, the postal district weighs heavily on the students' school reality, the job market cannot find well-prepared people... And it's not new, it's been a long time that with all kinds of governments, teaching has been fertile ground for the dissatisfaction of its protagonists. And thus, as a society, we cannot continue. And the Government, even less so. What a mistake it was to bring the spotlights and cameras to the signing of an agreement with unions that were not the majority ones, as if to say that everything is fine, madam baroness. Well, no, it is not, and we will hear about it during 17 days of strike, three of which are general education strikes, between now and the end of the school year.Good morning.

The Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, has said that they will assess the appropriateness and proportionality of having infiltrated Mossos agents into a teachers' assembly. That the action was not opportune, because they were in full negotiation with the unions, has already been assessed. And that it may be proportionate is frightening: if the police infiltrate a meeting of teachers (peaceful people, even if they are raising a labor dispute), how many other meetings of struggling groups are they not infiltrating?

This morning, sports, Barça, gave us a reason to create a cheerful cover, that of theThe result has been another night of celebration for a fanbase that, unlike what happens in so many other aspects of the country, has high self-esteem. We hope that the adherence to Catalan identity that Barça has provided in a society of immigration continues to function thanks to these successes and the identification with this very young and very normal team. Another good piece of news: the PCR test on the Catalan woman who has been in isolation at the Hospital Clínic since Saturday has come back negative for hantavirus. The woman was admitted for quarantine because she had been in the same plane for a few minutes with the Dutch woman who contracted it on board the cruise ship and who ended up dying.The woman continues to show no symptoms and, in accordance with epidemiological surveillance protocols, will remain confined and under observation at the Clínic for prevention. In seven days, another PCR will be performed to confirm the negative result.And here we return to the harsh reality: from today onwards, the Rodalies service is once again subject to a charge. (It has always been subject to a charge, of course, we all pay for it: we are referring to the user's direct payment). Payment in exchange for what? The trains run when they want, the timetables are an intention, but of course, in many journeys, the train is a bus. The improvement of the service is being slow. It is clear that due to the harsh reality of education. A week of strikes in schools and institutes begins. Relations between the department and the unions are very tense. The only thing missing was for the unions to find out from the radio that the counselor wanted to see them on Thursday. They will meet on Thursday and, on top of that, we have the scandal of the infiltration of two Mossos agents into a teachers' assembly that we already talked about last Friday. Now that more details are known, apart from what it has of authoritarian regime espionage, it is even more humiliating that the police were discovered on such a simple mission.Let's see if it solves things a bit that we have budgets for this 2026. Late, but we will have budgets. So once the Andalusian elections have passed on Sunday, PSC and Esquerra will be able to present their agreement. It is scandalous, but Catalanophobia sets the pace of Spanish politics. Moreno Bonilla is campaigning to preside over Andalusia by constantly talking about Catalonia. After the breakdown weeks ago due to the new financing system for Catalonia, Esquerra set out to find a striking agreement. There is talk of a transfer of powers from the State, but in the meantime, Junqueras has explained that the agreement will include a train, curiously. This: An orbital axis that connects Maresme with Garraf, passing through the two Vallesos, Baix Llobregat and Penedès. In black the sections that exist and in yellow those that should be built. We are talking about up to 5,000 million euros of investment, which the State should largely provide. The project is old, but now they have taken it out of the drawer where it was sleeping.Good morning.