Laura Díez (Barcelona, 1969) is a professor of constitutional law at the University of Barcelona and a member of the Constitutional Court since 2023. She speaks to ARA following a key decision on the amparo appeal by former minister Dolors Bassa, which is expected to trigger the full application of the amnesty by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has suspended the electoral rights of people naturalized under the clean law, a decision that the Spanish government has labeled as "extraordinary gravity" and which has generated a new political battle between the right and the left. While for the PP and Vox it is a way to guarantee the "cleanliness" of the November 29th elections, for progressives it is an unacceptable violation of fundamental rights. However, beyond the noise, what does the decision taken by the Supreme Court on Monday imply in practice? What must the Spanish government do to comply with the precautionary measures and exclude from the census the 163,020 people who have been naturalized through the so-called clean law? The greatest responsibility falls on the State's foreign service and the Electoral Census Office, which is the entity that must in practice suspend the vote of those affected.

Final point. The Court of Auditors has finally applied the amnesty to all the leaders of the 'Procés', including former president Carles Puigdemont, former vice-president Oriol Junqueras and former president Artur Mas. This was ruled by the court this Wednesday in a sentence, to which ARA has had access, and in which it absolves of accounting responsibilities all the former ministers and members of the under-government of the Generalitat between 2011 and 2017 who participated in expenses related to the October 1st referendum and the external action of the Government. It does so after the resolution of the Court of Justice of the European Union –which considered that there was no impact on the financial interests of the community club in the 2017 vote– and in application of article 1.1 of the amnesty law, which rendered without effect the criminal, administrative and accounting responsibility of all acts related to 9-N and 1-O from November 2011 to November 2023.

The Supreme Court's decision to deny the vote to some 163,000 people who obtained nationality through the grandchildren's law has been interpreted as a declaration of war by the Spanish government. "It is of extraordinary gravity," exploded the Spanish government spokesperson, Elma Saiz, in the press conference following the council of ministers. "These are people who fled a country due to a dictatorship –she remarked–. In a democracy, the right to vote is guaranteed and not restricted".

The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, explained this Tuesday that the Spanish government has registered 3,019 unaccompanied minors in Ceuta since the mass entry on July 30 and 31. After the Council of Ministers, the spokesperson for Pedro Sánchez's executive also specified that these 3,000 children are "registered and cared for," meaning they are in spaces enabled for minors and, therefore, separated from adults. Of these, 89 have been relocated to the Peninsula in application of the right to family reunification – with direct relatives or extended family –, and 173 more have been relocated to different autonomous communities in accordance with Article 35 of the Immigration Law.

There were a few weeks, during the height of the Ceuta crisis, when the main question was: why aren't the monarchs visiting the autonomous city after the massive influx of immigrants on July 30th? The day finally arrived this Tuesday, just the day after Hispanic Day, when Felipe VI and Letizia stepped into the autonomous city for the first time and claimed its Spanish identity. "Ceuta is Spain and Europe," the monarch defended in a speech delivered at the end of a day in which he had a crowd bath. It is a delicate trip regarding the diplomatic balances of the Spanish state with Morocco, but the king was clear in his rejection of this summer's "violation of the border." "The sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country are not negotiable: they are indisputable," he remarked.

A setback from the Supreme Court, once again, for the Spanish government. And, this time, on the eve of the November 29th elections and with a matter as delicate as the electoral roll. The high court decided this Monday to reject the appeal by the State Attorney's Office against the suspension of the right to vote for those naturalized through the so-called grandchildren law. An additional provision of the 2022 Democratic Memory Law that allows descendants of Spanish exiles to access nationality. In this way, it maintains the precautionary measures, requested by Iustitia Europa, which were issued on September 10th and which prevent these new citizens from voting if they do not individually prove that their predecessors actually left Spain for political reasons. In practice, ahead of the November 29th elections, this will affect 163,020 people who registered in the Electoral Roll of Absent Residents (CERA) until August 1st of this year, according to the electoral administration, and who had been granted nationality through this route – the date on which the census closes for the next general elections.

On bus 14 in Madrid, which was traveling along the Paseo del Prado and the Recoletos neighborhood this Sunday evening, a boy was insistently asking his mother if they could get up early today to go see the military parade. He asked her after seeing that all the chairs, barriers, and platforms were already in place. "We are not going, I don't like military parades," the mother said, and the boy tactically turned to his father to see if he could reverse the decision. It is not known if he succeeded, but this Monday, October 12th, Hispanic Day, there were indeed many families in the center of Madrid as spectators of the Spanish national holiday, presided over by the monarchs. The ritual was as follows, the same as every year: arrival of the members of the monarchy, military honors, and a performance by the Air Force. Then, the turn of the Army, with the legion's goat. In total, about 4,400 members of the armed forces, security forces, and other civil institutions participated.

After a week of negotiations, ERC has confirmed that Gabriel Rufián will be the party's candidate in the upcoming general elections. It did so in a statement in which it announced that he will be the number one on the republicans' list for Barcelona. According to Rufián's circle, he has reached an understanding with Podem so that the purple party "does not run in Catalonia" and asks for the vote for ERC, something that sources from Oriol Junqueras' party leadership confirm.

Pedro Sánchez Castejón (Madrid, 1972) is, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, "an enigma, wrapped in a mystery inside a hieroglyph". Is he the cynical, cold and unscrupulous monster that the right paints? Or is he the empathetic and compassionate leader for the people who are struggling most that the left defends? Is he an aspiring dictator or, on the contrary, the last wall standing against the global far-right? The only certainty is that between the current Pedro Sánchez and the one who burst onto the political scene in 2014 there is an abyss. And it is this evolution, riddled with dramatic twists, changes of opinion and an undeniable capacity to overcome adversity and adapt reality to his needs, that has led to what we know today as Sanchismo. This is the story of the great prestidigitator of recent Spanish political history.

"We will not vote for Pedro Sánchez because we have been burned". That is how the secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, responded this week to journalist Ariadna Oltra on Els matins when she asked him what his party would do if they were decisive again in the Congress of Deputies. What has happened in these three years for Junts' conclusion to be this? What has broken and, above all when, if in the end it seems that the amnesty will be able to be applied to former president Carles Puigdemont? L'ARA has reconstructed the key moments of this tortuous relationship that began in the summer of 2023 after years of little contact following the Process.

Housing has become the major topic of public debate over the last two weeks. While Ceuta and the migration crisis marked the three summer months, the situation in the autonomous city has now taken a back seat to talk about the housing emergency. An issue that has even led the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, to call for elections to demand more support for the progressive majority. In this context, the Center for Sociological Studies, the government body led by José Félix Tezanos, has published a monothematic survey on housing conducted in June, which reinforces the Spanish government's position on this matter.

Not even the best screenwriter could have foreseen it better. Three years after the amnesty gave Pedro Sánchez another term, the amnesty has also put an end to it. The acceleration of events following the eviction case of Maricarmen Abascal has meant that the dissolution of the Courts has practically coincided with the Constitutional Court's order to the Supreme Court to immediately apply the amnesty to the leaders of the 'Procés' and with the withdrawal of the arrest warrants for former president Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín, and Lluís Puig. A sword of Damocles that they had been carrying for nine years. However, after almost a decade, the most difficult part remains for Carles Puigdemont: the true return.

The Moncloa wants housing and "people's problems" to be the framework for the November 29th electoral campaign and will do everything in its power to ensure this is the case. These are issues that compete directly with those brought to the table by the right: from the migration crisis in Ceuta – Alberto Núñez Feijóo is already returning there this week – to the judicial cases surrounding the Spanish government – this Tuesday the PP requested the indictment of the PSOE for illicit financing at the National Court–. In this context, the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, appeared personally at the Moncloa this Tuesday, after the council of ministers meeting, and put a total of 21 housing measures on the table.

Normally, the Senate is a secondary chamber in the day-to-day politics in Madrid. Although this term the PP, which has an absolute majority there, has turned it into the scourge of the socialist government – the toughest control sessions for ministers were in the upper house – and the cradle of all the investigative commissions that affected the PSOE. However, in the next Senate elections, also scheduled for November 29, not only are the majorities in the upper house at stake, but there is also, indirectly, a change of majorities in the Constitutional Court on the table.

"In this legislature, we have had to work with a Congress with a lot of fighting. Where reaching agreements has been confused with betrayal, and blocking with convincing." This is how the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has defined his experience in Parliament, as a display of how he has suffered to approve legislative proposals, since mainly Junts and, to a lesser extent, Podemos have been a thorn in his side. The housing decree laws are the latest example. However, the calling of elections and the dissolution of the Courts grant Pedro Sánchez a second opportunity to approve issues that until now have been impossible for him. He will be able to do so via decree laws (which cannot regulate, for example, fundamental rights and must only be done for urgent matters). For what reason? Because the permanent deputation comes into operation. It is a parliamentary body, a kind of mini-Parliament, that operates when elections are called or during vacation periods. It is currently made up of 69 deputies in a proportional representation of the groups in the chamber. However, unlike the plenary session, in this body, the progressive majority does not depend on Junts to push measures forward: Junts (1), the PP (27), and Vox (6) add up to 34 votes and remain one short of the majority.

Alea iacta est. The Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, has decided to call early elections for November 29th after the votes of Junts, the PP, and Vox in Congress struck down the housing decree-laws approved by the Council of Ministers. He announced this on Monday in a solemn appearance at La Moncloa after a weekend in which he opened a round of contacts with his inner circle, analyzed data, and took the pulse of the street, where, especially in Madrid, there was a massive mobilization in favor of the right to housing. "We need more support for the progressive majority to bend the elites," he said, and urged citizens to choose between joining the far-right wave sweeping the world or being "on the right side of history" and renewing their trust in the PSOE.

Pedro Sánchez has had to make many complicated decisions this term, but this is the definitive one. It could be a final masterstroke or a definitive mistake. The Spanish president has on the table an immediate snap election following the defeat in the Congress of Deputies on Friday regarding housing regulations. Although for the first time in many months Junts had sat down to negotiate with the Spanish government, in the end, Miriam Nogueras' group struck down both decrees together with the PP and Vox and forced Sánchez into a period of reflection this weekend to decide whether to call early elections. They could be held immediately, on November 29, with the right to housing as the central theme, in an attempt to mobilize the left in the face of unfavorable polls. Although PSOE leaders are already leaning towards the early election, the final decision rests with Pedro Sánchez and it is not yet known whether he has made a final determination.

Junts has once again asked the Spanish government this Friday to withdraw the housing decree laws and sit down to negotiate with them "behind closed doors." For this reason, it has put on the table a final proposal to initiate talks, which the Spanish government has rejected. The result, the vote against and, therefore, the failure of the government's decrees. What does it consist of and what are the points of friction between the proposal of the Junts members and those of Pedro Sánchez's executive?

The Spanish government and Junts starred yesterday in an unprecedented standoff in Congress. After days of in extremis negotiation over the housing decree, the Junts members decided to overturn, with the votes of the PP and Vox, the regulation that suspended evictions and also indefinite rental contracts, and the PNV and Canary Coalition also opposed it. To give significance to the moment, even the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, wanted to take the floor at the end of the plenary session to ask them to reconsider. "History will judge you with more force than you imagine," he sentenced. Now Sánchez has opened a reflection this weekend – he will open a round of contacts with his circle – to decide whether to call elections. The Spanish president must evaluate the pulse on the street, with the various mobilizations in the State, and also data on the effects of the failed vote in Congress.