The Government continues to claim the "honesty" and "honorability" of Eduard Rivas, the man who until now was Salvador Illa's right-hand man. The Government spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque, explained that the President of the Generalitat described the former chief of staff to the President of the Generalitat in this way during this Tuesday's executive council meeting, after he submitted his resignation ten months after it came to light that he was being judicially investigated for alleged corruption during his time as mayor of Esparreguera. Thus, the Minister of Territory has assured that Rivas has not left the Catalan executive due to a "lack of confidence" from the PSC leader, but that it is a "personal decision".

When Junts signed its accession to the liberal centrists of the European Democratic Party (EDP) the natural move was its integration into the Renew liberal group of the European Parliament. Within Junts, multiple voices were clear about this path, which reinforces the commitment to centrism, the same as the PNV and what Convergència had followed. However, all of this clashes with the will of the Junts MEP. As he expressed publicly this Monday, Toni Comín has reservations about joining this parliamentary group once his rights as an MEP have been recognized, following his return from exile. Junts prefers not to make any public comment on the matter despite the questions from this newspaper.

Important movement in the sub-government of the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, in the middle of the pre-campaign for the Spanish elections. His chief of staff, Eduard Rivas, has resigned a few days after the summary secrecy was lifted in the case in which he is under investigation and which is probing into public contracts of the Esparreguera city council, where he was mayor between 2015 and 2024. In his place, the leader of the PSC has appointed the current secretary of Local Governments and Relations with Aran, Xavier Amor, according to a statement issued by the Government this Monday night. The change will take effect this Tuesday.

Salvador Illa and Pedro Sánchez come to the defense of high-speed rail. The President of the Generalitat has declared himself "in favor" of keeping the high-speed line between Barcelona and Madrid in operation, which he described as "safe". These words reject, de facto, what the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, said last week after the Toledo train accident, when he proposed closing this line while maintenance work was being carried out. In parallel, the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, has added that his government has set as a priority that citizens "recover the broken trust in high-speed rail as soon as possible, whatever it takes". In this regard, he has announced urgent aid for the victims of the Urda accident.

There is no infallible manual for fighting the far right and, despite the different recipes applied, it continues to grow almost everywhere. As in medicine, and just as the package inserts themselves warn, each case is different and the remedies have a point of unpredictability depending on the context. However, the political scientists consulted by ARA agree that the strategy of Pedro Sánchez and Salvador Illa of constantly confronting the far right and self-appointing themselves as the only alternative to Vox and Aliança Catalana can have serious side effects, both for their own political health and for democracy in general.

The doctor in contemporary history from the UAB Eloi Gummà (Barcelona, 1995) narrates in the book From anti-Francoism to Pujolism. The struggle for hegemony (Akal) the factors that caused the left, despite leading the opposition to the dictatorship, to end up losing to Convergència, which governed Catalonia for more than two consecutive decades.

To save the budget, the PSC agreed to legally prohibit the speculative purchase of housing that the Comuns were advocating for. Four months have passed and the project remains stalled, with an unfavorable report from the Council of Statutory Guarantees and without the two partners managing to agree on a common solution to overcome the obstacles. What separates them?

The case of alleged harassment by Toni Comín has reached the offices of the Liberal group in the European Parliament. European parliamentary sources explain to ARA that the leadership of Renew is studying and gathering information on how it may evolve the complaint against the former minister for harassment psychological, physical and sexual in light of the possibility that Junts may formally request to join this group in the coming weeks. The main concern for the leaders of the liberal family is that the internal investigation in the European Parliament might be reopened or a new one initiated that could damage the image of the liberal family.

Agreement between the PSC and Comuns for the Senate candidacies. Both parties have reached a pact to present a united front in the upcoming elections to the Spanish upper house, and Ada Colau's party has committed to withdrawing its candidacies in Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona to concentrate the vote on the PSC. In return, the Catalan socialists will appoint a regional senator at the suggestion of the Comuns. The PSC spokesperson, Lluïsa Moret, who announced the understanding, justified it in a press conference as the "democratic responsibility of the progressive and Catalanist forces" to join forces and "block the path for the right and the far-right" in the Senate. In this sense, they state that they want to prevent the Spanish upper house from continuing to "block the initiatives" of the Spanish government and becoming an "instrument of democratic regression and control of State institutions."

No event without a headline. Gabriel Rufián criticized the Broad Front and Junts at his book presentation, and has once again advocated for the unity of the forces to the left of the PSOE. He also reclaimed his origins —"I come from the shit", he insisted— and remarked on the need to take measures to put an end to the housing crisis. All of this was to be expected and, in fact, he already pointed it out at this Saturday's launch of the joint candidacy of ERC and Podemos for November 29th. At the last moment, however, journalist Àngels Barceló asked him what professional "ambition" he has, and Rufián, after months of showing himself willing to lead the leftists in the State, answered with a plot twist. "I would like to be president of the Generalitat after Junqueras", replied Rufián in the middle of the pre-campaign for the Spanish elections.

The leader of Podem, Irene Montero, and the Republican Gabriel Rufián have kicked off the November 29th pre-campaign by lashing out at the rest of the left at a state level, and have set themselves up as the only possible alternative to the Spanish right and far-right. Making an implicit reference to the progressive coalition led by Ada Colau, Front Ampli, the former Minister of Equality reproached them, saying they “look a lot like the PSOE” and suggested that “they should run in the elections on the same ballots,” even though they only run together in some Senate constituencies. “These left-wing parties will not solve our problems,” said Montero. “Whatever you call yourself, we are the front,” added Rufián.

The Spanish elections are approaching and most polls predict a majority for the right and the far-right in Congress. Faced with these prospects, and to activate the Catalanist and progressive electorate, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has intensified the warnings about the consequences that the arrival of a Spanish government formed by the PP and Vox could bring –especially for Catalonia–. The latest thing the PSC leader has said is that it would put Catalan autonomy at "real risk".

Comfortable and cheerful. Joking around during much of the interview on the RTVE program La Revuelta, Pedro Sánchez took advantage of every opening to lash out at the right and the far-right and boast about his government's work. The socialist candidate joked about the fact that the right constantly refers to him as "Perro Sanxe". Far from being offended, the Spanish president gifted David Broncano a toy dog with a red cape and, afterwards, put on a badge with the words "Perro Sanxe" and a red heart. Furthermore, during part of the program, he was stroking a stuffed dog. “For some things, they insult me, that’s fine by me,” he said.

The Minister of Culture during the 1-O government, Lluís Puig, returned this Wednesday to Catalonia after seven years of exile. His return had transpired in the last few hours and the Junts deputy crossed the border this morning. “The time has come,” wrote Puig on X shortly after 7:15 a.m., a message with which he confirmed that he will celebrate his return this same Wednesday at an event in Terrassa, his city, and that he plans to attend the Parliament plenary session in person on Thursday.

Ada Colau returns to X. After five years of having left it, the presidential candidate of the left-wing coalition Front Ampli does not want to waste any platform and has resumed her activity on this social network to publicly accept the interview offered to her by YouTuber Jordi Wild. Sources from the Comuns explain that the former mayor chooses to return to these channels because she does not want to leave the "field open" to the right, even though she is aware that the algorithm is "biased" and "favors the noise and lies" of conservative and far-right parties.

Montse Mínguez resigns after the scandal that has been generated in recent days by her partner's real estate businesses. The PSOE spokesperson announced this Friday that she is "taking a step back" with a "clear conscience" in a statement published on social media. "I have made the decision convinced that it is the best for the collective project to which I have dedicated my best energies," she asserts. In this way, Mínguez will not repeat as the head of the PSC list for Lleida in the next Spanish elections, as was planned, and the number 1 for the socialists in the Lleida constituency will be the Paeria councilor Cristina Morón, as approved in the party's national council this Friday.

With time already exhausted, the divorce of the state left-wing parties has been consummated. The negotiations between Broad Front and Podemos to run together in the November 29th elections have failed—there will only be unitary lists in the Canary Islands and the Valencian Community. "The Broad Front has done everything possible to build the broadest and most diverse political alliance possible," they noted past midnight from the party that, among others, is led by Ada Colau. Midnight was the deadline to register coalitions for the state elections on November 29th. Now, it will still be necessary to define the lists of candidates that must be presented before October 26th.

This Friday night marks the end of the legal deadline to register coalitions, and the left-wing parties at the state level still have not reached an agreement to run together in the upcoming Spanish elections. A critical situation that various Comuns sources believe Gabriel Rufián has brought about by reaching a pact only with Podemos, giving it more bargaining power against the parties of the Broad Front.

Polls are stubborn. Both the CEO and the CIS point out that the left of the PSOE would lose support in the upcoming elections compared to 2023 and, therefore, representation in Congress, especially if they run separately. In this context, Ada Colau is not giving up and insists on calling for unity. The former mayor of Barcelona has even offered to step down as the Broad Front candidate and, if necessary, to change the name of the candidacy to reach an agreement with Podemos, although this very Wednesday the coalition officially presented its new electoral brand.

Broad majority for the approval of a new democratic memory law in Catalonia. The PSC, Junts, Esquerra, Comuns and the CUP have agreed on a legal text that includes the removal of the Francoist monument in Tortosa within a period of one year and of all those in Catalonia within a maximum of two; it demands that the Spanish government convert the Via Laietana police station in Barcelona into an interpretation center for torture and repression, and establishes a sanctioning regime that provides for fines between 200 and 250,000 euros for damages to key spaces for historical memory –such as mass graves–, the display of symbology or the glorification of Francoism, Nazism or fascism.