It is the icing on the cake that Pedro Sánchez was left with after this week's debate in Congress on corruption: testing his strength within the PSOE. The party has met in a federal committee to set the course for next year's municipal and regional elections, and Sánchez's speech has already been in election mode. “The PP and Vox will never be the end of corruption, but rather the return of systemic corruption,” he assured, and said that the only thing that can prevent them from coming to power and repealing public services is the PSOE. In addition, he threw a jab at them for allying with Junts in Congress to demand his resignation this week and he did so with a gesture of complicity towards the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, who was sitting in one of the front rows of the federal committee: “Salva, dear president, the turns that life takes. Because to see the PP and Vox voting with Carles Puigdemont's party, trying to oust us from government with what they mounted with the amnesty [...] and now it turns out they agree.”

Junts' proposal that Pedro Sánchez resign and explore an alternative to the presidency of the Spanish government, preferably from an independent candidate, has been the focus of part of the debate in Madrid this week. The initiative has an eminently "strategic" reading, according to Junts sources, although the rest of the actors do not see it as viable and some dismiss it as a "stunt". The party calls it the "Starmer way", alluding to the resignation this week of the British Prime Minister. But what does Junts actually seek with this proposal, considering that the PSOE completely dismisses it?

Public debate in Spain is immersed in extreme polarization between the right-wing and left-wing blocs, and in a daily battle of 'And you more for cases of corruption affecting the PSOE but also the PP. In this scenario, there are those who think that there is room for another party in the State with the banner of regeneration: its promoter is Míriam González. As she had already pointed out - "There is an enormous space for a new political party in Spain", she said in a recent interview with ARA—, this lawyer plans to move into politics after the summer if there are no last-minute changes, once she has already made the necessary registration with the Ministry of the Interior of a new political organization. It will be called Democracia21, as has been advanced by Eldiario.es and has confirmed this newspaper.

Carlos Parry is president of the Professional Association of Institutional Relations (APRI) and does not hide his displeasure. He talks to ARA in a cafe near the Congress of Deputies, for which this professional sector has been waiting "fifteen years" – he says – for regulation on the activity of lobbyists in Spain. In his opinion, clear rules of the game would be positive for both sides: for lobbyists, who would know their scope of action, and for active politicians, as it would give them legal security when deciding whether or not to receive any company that wants its interests to be taken into account when legislating. This newspaper's interview with Parry has been arranged following the Zapatero case, but the conversation goes further and addresses a general reflection on the sector.

The book could not be more opportune: journalist and deputy director of Vozpópuli, Isaac Blasco, has just published the book Zapatero, in Trump's crosshairs (2026, Última Línea). It is the first about the already controversial figure of the former Spanish president following the investigation opened against him by the National Court and deals precisely with the role Zapatero adopts after being president and sporadically serving on the Council of State. Blasco presented it this Thursday in Madrid, at the El Halcón Maltés bookstore, which was quickly too small for the crowd.

The investigation by the Audiencia Nacional into José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is revealing the movements of the former Spanish president in recent years. L'ARA has gained access to his 2024 and 2025 diaries and to the WhatsApp conversations he had with his secretary, Gertrudis Alcázar, between April 2025 and the day of his indictment. "Cancel my run?", she asked him that morning. "Yes, of course", he answered her immediately afterwards. There are messages in which both speak directly about Junts. "I can't do English, mess with Junts", Zapatero told him on July 21, 2025. The next day there was the last plenary session of Congress of the political year and Junts voted against the anti-shutdown decree, which also derailed with the rejection of Podem, and against the advance payments, which Moncloa saved thanks to the approval of the PP.

Pedro Sánchez has made a different intervention. There has been no announcement, he has defended his government's work and put on his lab coat to analyze the different judicial cases affecting Moncloa itself. The start of the intervention was already a statement of intent: "Let's examine the anatomy of the phenomenon," he said in relation to the judicial and political whirlwind happening in Madrid. And he continued: "Behind the accumulation of headlines, leaks, and speculations there are three different issues that certain political and media actors are trying to mix and equate to confuse people and create a sense of generalized corruption that does not exist." Moncloa sources conclude: "We have to start differentiating," they say, as the PP and Vox are taking advantage of this to magnify and present the government as an authentic "mafia," in the words of the right. "They mix everything in the same pot as if it were very serious," the same sources conclude.

The sentence of 24 years in prison for José Luis Ábalos, the harshest sentence for a former minister, has not changed Moncloa's script by even a millimeter. Although it is the first to affect Pedro Sánchez's government, from the executive they consider that the case was already discounted and that they distanced themselves at the opportune moment from the former head of Transport and a totem of the PSOE. "Before he was formally indicted, we asked him for his deputy's seat, and he ended up in the mixed group," they state from the Spanish government. Specifically, it was the federal executive committee of the PSOE on February 26, 2024: they gave him 24 hours to do so and assume political responsibility for the Koldo case, even though at that time there was no formal indictment of the former minister yet. Now, this in vigilando responsibility does not apply in Sánchez's case, for having trusted him, and Moncloa considers that he has already paid the political price for this case: by distancing himself and undertaking anti-corruption plans still in the process of implementation, also as a result of Santos Cerdán's case.

One of the issues that went to the Council of Ministers this Tuesday was a change in the traffic regulations to protect the most vulnerable. This was announced by the spokesperson, Elma Saiz, who was in charge of detailing the modification of the rule. These are the most relevant changes:

2.218 million extra euros is the amount that the Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday to strengthen the dependency system, one of the pillars of the welfare state, but highly criticized for the slowness and scarcity of resources 20 years after the approval of the law that was already born underfunded. "Today is a historic day," proclaimed the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, who was in charge of presenting the economic "effort" of the Spanish government to improve the fourth pillar of the welfare state. "We must transform our care system," he said, "we want to move towards guaranteeing a public service that responds to the needs of citizens, both from the perspective of those who receive it and those who provide it".

The sentence of José Luis Ábalos is an exemplary conviction. Not only for the penalty of up to 24 years in prison imposed on the former minister and former right-hand man of Pedro Sánchez, but also for the prize that Víctor Aldama takes. The corrupt businessman in the case will not go to prison. The Supreme Court imposes a four-year deprivation of liberty that he can avoid thanks, among other things, to community work. It should be remembered that this is already the second benefit that Aldama obtains for allegedly collaborating with justice and talking about PSOE cases: he already left preventive detention to help in another case (that of hydrocarbons) and to provide information that could help with the ongoing investigations around the Koldo case.

The General Council of the Judiciary has decided to open proceedings to open an investigation into judge Juan Carlos Peinado, who is investigating the Begoña Gómez case, for arguing that the bodyguards of the wife of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, could help her flee. This justification, for which the magistrate decided to withdraw her passport as a precautionary measure, is the reason why the judicial body has decided to open an investigation. According to the CGPJ, the judge's words may constitute a "serious lack of consideration", provided for in article 418.5 of the organic law of the judiciary. Now there will be a promoter of the investigation who, after various informational proceedings, will decide whether to definitively open the investigation or issue a resolution to close the case. Sources consulted at the CGPJ assure that there are other pending complaints against Peinado that could also be analyzed this same week.

An interesting and sometimes risky exercise is to talk about politics with Madrid's taxi drivers. You cannot extrapolate from it or reach conclusions, but it does allow you to gauge opinions outside the information frenzy that forms among journalists and politicians in Congress. This week, a driver – who, unlike other times, had no animosity towards Pedro Sánchez – exemplified the weariness generated by Madrid's polarized and extreme political debate, with the eruption of multiple corruption cases, and confessed that he would not vote. He is angry with the right – among other things, Isabel Díaz Ayuso has given the green light to VTCs in the Community – and disillusioned with the left, admitting that he still doesn't know what to think about José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero: "They all end up disappointing me," also citing Pablo Iglesias.

This was one of the worst weeks for Pedro Sánchez in the legislature: there was the statement of his wife, Begoña Gómez, before Judge Peinado, and also the statement as a defendant of former president José Luis Rodríguez, the intellectual architect of the plurinational majority. However, after all, at Moncloa they consider that they have survived and are vowing to hold on until 2027. Now, from next year onwards, different scenarios open up for calling elections, and he himself admitted it this Friday at the press conference after the European Council. "We will present budgets during 2026 and there will be elections in 2027. There will be no elections jointly with municipal and regional elections. And I can't say more," he said, in response to journalists' questions. "Reality is very changeable," he admitted, implying that he could call early elections, since until now he had assured that he would serve out the legislature. This Friday he limited himself to saying the following: "My ambition is that legislatures, when the right is not in power, also last four years." This translates into three different scenarios:

The day after José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero spent three hours testifying as an investigated person at the National Court, audios have been leaked in which the former president of the Spanish government can be heard defending himself against accusations of having allegedly committed a crime of influence peddling to obtain the public bailout of Plus Ultra, an airline linked to Venezuelan capital. It had already emerged that the former socialist leader had denied it. And, in the recordings to which ARA has had access, he can be heard saying: "I did not speak with any political authority, with any official, with any public employee about the Plus Ultra bailout." Throughout the interrogation by Judge José Luis Calama, the former Spanish president insists. "I had no involvement, I did not speak with anyone [...] and this is an unquestionable truth. There will be no one who can say otherwise. Therefore, I did not exercise the slightest influence nor did anyone ask me to."

In the midst of a conflict with Gabriel Rufián, Oriol Junqueras met with the parliamentary group in Madrid this Wednesday. The meeting lasted about two hours and, according to consulted sources, the open battle within the parliamentary group in Madrid due to the lack of harmony between the Republican spokesperson and the majority of his party colleagues was not brought up. The leadership shared the party's strategy for the end of the Spanish legislature with the parliamentary group. However, as the party explained in a statement, Junqueras also asked the deputies for "coordination" to face "the challenges" of this legislature. Thus, he conveyed to them the "need to face this stage with the utmost demand, determination, and coordination". "The decisions that will have to be made in the coming months will be decisive in guaranteeing more resources, more decision-making power, and more well-being for the country as a whole," adds the party. Until now, the leadership had prescribed patience to the parliamentary group in Madrid.

Light blue shirt, open blazer and no tie. Pedro Sánchez entered the hemicycle of the Congress of Deputies with this casual look on a day of high political and judicial tension in Madrid: at the same time José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was arriving at the National Court to testify as an accused for influence peddling, money laundering, tax offense, and smuggling. The pressure was already enough today to have to put on a tie. His top lieutenants have joined him: Carlos Cuerpo, who had arrived with a blue one, and Félix Bolaños, who was wearing a red one.

Pedro Sánchez's partners are increasingly uncomfortable with the alleged corruption cases affecting the Spanish government, and this Tuesday Junts made a move: although they have been demanding the call for elections for weeks, they have registered an amendment to a PP motion for the Congress of Deputies to pronounce on the matter. However, the chamber's board, with the votes of the PSOE and Sumar, has vetoed the vote and it will not take place: the argument is that calling elections is an "exclusive" competence of the Spanish president and that, therefore, the Junts initiative "invades constitutionally reserved competences" for the head of the executive. The amendment was going to go ahead and would have been a hard blow for Sánchez in a week horribilis for the judicial agenda surrounding the PSOE: despite not being legally binding, it would have been politically evident that he does not have the confidence of Congress and that a majority is demanding new elections.

A bus from Hazte Oír passes in front of the instruction courts of Plaza Castilla in Madrid announcing the good news: Begoña Gómez, wife of Pedro Sánchez, indicted for four crimes. A dozen people with Spanish flags and banners of "Corrupt Sánchez" shout and applaud as it passes, while about twenty journalists keep watch at the doors of the building with a large police presence. This Monday was a key day for the judicial case affecting the wife of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez: Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has summoned Begoña Gómez for a hearing prior to a possible jury trial and, furthermore, has asked the parties if they wanted to take precautionary measures. Hazte Oír, which groups the popular accusations, has requested the withdrawal of the president's wife's passport and that she be prevented from leaving the country because they believe there is a risk of flight, in addition to the obligation to report to the court every fifteen days and financial measures to prevent her from using the companies under suspicion. However, it has not requested preventive detention.

"Do you intend to answer any questions?". This is the question that the PP spokesperson, Ester Muñoz, registered this week in the control session of Congress to address the Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo. A question, without explicit content, which highlights the desperation in the popular ranks with the style of Pedro Sánchez's number two. Unlike the now former vice-president María Jesús Montero, now in Andalusia, who was much more visceral and confronted Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party face-to-face, the new Spanish vice-president employs a strategy of moderation and pause that disconcerts her counterpart in the PP. If Ester Muñoz talks to him about corruption cases, Carlos Cuerpo responds with positive macroeconomic data. If Muñoz reproaches him for PSOE leaders attributing corruption investigations to a political operation, Carlos Cuerpo simply says he respects justice.