The debate on the regulation of lobbyists, which Congress has ultimately rejected, has had special guests in the gallery. These are members of the Association of Public Relations Professionals (APRI), who have come to the chamber to demand that they be regulated as a sector. Carlos Parry, president of the organization, speaks to ARA in the midst of the discussion inside the hemicycle.

The Spanish legislature is in stoppage time. The general elections will be in 2027 –more and more voices are pointing to the first quarter–, so now conversations are intensifying regarding projects that are in the pipeline and will have only one opportunity in these coming months to move forward. One of them, as indicated by various sources consulted by ARA, is a proposal from the Catalan government to toughen the Penal Code for crimes involving the possession of weapons, which is already on the table at Moncloa. Specifically, it is proposed to double prison sentences in the case of carrying prohibited weapons –currently they are 1 to 3 years of deprivation of liberty– and to create a new crime for the exhibition of weapons in public.

A month and a half after the massive arrival of immigrants in Ceuta, the crisis in the autonomous city continues to shape the agenda and the attacks in Spanish politics. However, as has happened in previous major catastrophes that Pedro Sánchez's executive has had to manage in coordination with PP-led regions, such as the DANA in the Valencian Community or the summer fires in Madrid and Castile and León, the debate is turning into a clash of competencies. A clear example is the situation of the immigrant minors who are still in Ceuta, of whom there are currently 2,084 registered and between 700 and 1,000 wandering the streets. Regarding the delicate situation a month and a half later, Sánchez was blunt: "Ask [Juan Jesús] Vivas about it," he said in statements upon leaving the Congress hemicycle. In other words, the Spanish president is pointing directly at the government of Ceuta.

The Spanish government provided new data this Tuesday regarding the situation in Ceuta, despite the fact that on Monday the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, avoided giving updated figures. It was the Minister of Territorial Policy and leader of the unified command over the autonomous city, Ángel Víctor Torres, who put numbers to the situation: he specified that there are currently 2,048 minors registered in Ceuta, that is, registered with name, surname, and origin by the police, but that only 10 files have been able to be initiated. The problem with this slowness has been, he admitted, that the new European Union Pact on Migration and Asylum requires the presence of a legal guardian to process these files and that until fifteen days ago they had not managed to find a mechanism to provide them. It is a competence of the autonomous city, but Ceuta argued that it did not have the resources to exercise it. For this reason, according to the Spanish government, the State administration has ended up financing it.

If it were up to the Supreme Court, former president Carles Puigdemont would not be granted amnesty. Not even after the ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union in which it dictated that the 1-O (referendum) did not affect the financial interests of the European Union. This was demonstrated once again this Tuesday, when the investigating magistrate of the 'Procés' case, Pablo Llarena, again refused to withdraw the arrest warrant against the former president and apply the amnesty to him. However, the tone of the interlocutory order was already different from previous ones, like someone who already knows they are reaching the end of the road. The high court maintains its doctrine of excluding the crime of embezzlement from the rule because it interprets that Puigdemont and the rest of the exiles had a financial benefit following the October 2017 referendum, but it also admits that this is the case while awaiting the ongoing appeals for constitutional protection (amparo) at the Constitutional Court (TC). Llarena's decision comes weeks before the TC begins to discuss the appeal for constitutional protection of the pro-independence leaders, which should foreseeably dismantle this criterion of the Supreme Court to unblock the application of the amnesty. The forecast, therefore, is that if the Constitutional Court is clear in endorsing the arguments of the former prisoners and exiles, Llarena will indeed modify his doctrine.

The PSOE is losing support, but it is holding firm and would win the elections again, according to the first CIS poll after the crisis in Ceuta. The September barometer, published this Monday, gives the socialists 31% of the votes, two points less than in the July survey, and sees how the PP narrows the gap, which stands at just 5.5 points of difference – in the previous one it was almost eight –. The popular party, however, only rises half a point in vote estimation, from 25% to 25.5%. The far-right Vox party, which is focusing a large part of its discourse on the migration crisis, obtains limited growth of 1.3 points (from 15.3% to 16.6%), while Se Acabó la Fiesta, the party of the ultra Alvise Pérez, falls from 2.6% to 1.8%. "The real poll will take place at the ballot box," said PSOE spokesperson Montse Mínguez on Monday regarding this, even though this survey is much more favorable than the polls published last week. From the newspaper El País to La Razón and Abc, they gave a clear victory to the right-wing vote against the support for the left. For this reason, the PP has described the CIS forecast as a "joke" and a "bad taste prank", reports Andrea Zamorano.

All polls point to a PP victory in the upcoming elections –except for the CIS one–, but Pedro Sánchez does not consider it lost and will fight the battle for the left on a national scale and also on a global level. In Moncloa, they are convinced that the re-edition of the progressive coalition goes beyond Spain and stands in contrast to the far-right wave that is gaining ground all over Europe. That is why he is doing two things: on one hand, intensifying Pedro Sánchez's media presence; and on the other, recovering the international agenda, taking advantage of his visit next week to the United Nations General Assembly to hold a joint event with the Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani. A staging of the progressive alliance against Donald Trump.

Sonia Moreno is a journalist, former correspondent in Rabat for various media outlets such as Cadena SER and El Español, and author of the book Marruecos, el vecino incómodo (La Esfera de los Libros, 2025). It is now more relevant than ever with the Ceuta crisis, as Moreno points out the keys to understanding what is happening.

Pedro Sánchez had a roadmap before the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta: to confront everything that has to do with the international far-right, to present the most social budgets in the history of Spain, and to establish himself as the last bastion of European and global progressivism. The massive entry of migrants on July 30th has stranded him in an unprecedented crisis that threatens to be the final blow for 'Sanchismo', but, even so, and having reached this point, those at the Moncloa believe that only one path exists: to hold on and try to recover. That is why those around him maintain that he wants to exhaust the legislature until 2027. With the doubt of whether he will call for elections before or after the municipal and regional ones.

Among the 40 documents that the Moncloa declassified on Tuesday is a CNI report on irregular immigration to Spain from July 27 that was shared both with the Spanish government delegation in Ceuta and with all competent ministries, which warns of two issues: it states, on the one hand, that the Supreme Court ruling rejecting hot returns by sea could have a "very significant" impact on irregular entries into Ceuta, although—mind you—it says it trusts that Morocco would contain the migratory pressure, and, on the other hand, that the extraordinary regularization of migrants could be a "risk" for Spain because it "will increase migratory pressure directly and indirectly".

Now it's for real: countdown for the amnesty for the leaders of the 'Procés'. Or that is what was felt this Thursday in the corridors of the opening of the judicial year at the Supreme Court. According to sources familiar with the high court who spoke to ARA, the application of the law to the 1-O Government, including former president Carles Puigdemont, could be triggered after the resolution of the first amparo appeal by the Constitutional Court, without needing to wait for them to be resolved individually one by one. The same voices argue that the first pronouncement “would generate a doctrine” that could extend to the rest of the cases. It is, precisely, the same thing that the president of the TC defended, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, a few days ago in an interview. That is to say, although Carles Puigdemont's case will not be the first one the TC addresses, the arrest warrant against him could be lifted when the Constitutional Court rules on the appeal of former minister Jordi Turull, which is the lead case and, in principle, will be the first to have a ruling, which all sources assume will be favorable. It would arrive in the month of October and would drag the rest along.

On the morning of July 30, the Spanish army was already speaking of a "migratory chaos" at the border between Morocco and Ceuta, with the State's security forces and bodies "saturated" in the face of the arrival of thousands of people. But the trickle of migrant arrivals in Ceuta from the Alawite country, mostly swimming, had been a constant throughout the month of July, far exceeding the figures from the previous year.

A few hours before the Spanish government declassifies the reports on Ceuta, Pedro Sánchez defended himself against the attacks from the PP and Vox in Congress regarding the management of the migration crisis. "We have nothing to hide," the Spanish Prime Minister defended during the first control session after the summer break. Sánchez assured that his executive "does not accept blackmail from any party, any country, or any power." "I may be a dog, but I have no master," retorted the socialist leader, referring to the nickname Perro Sanxe, with which they tried to discredit him in the past, even though he has managed to end up making it a badge of honor.Conversely, he accused the PP and Vox of wearing a "leash" from Israel and the United States.

There were indeed warnings: at the very least, the CNI alerted both Morocco and the Spanish government about mass calls on social media to enter Ceuta. It did so with an informative note to the Moroccan intelligence services the day before the crisis and also via WhatsApp to the executive's delegation in Ceuta and to commanders of the Civil Guard. Reports from security forces prior to the crisis also warned of a possible increase in irregular entries following the Supreme Court ruling of July 8th, which rejected hot returns by sea hot returns by sea. This is what can be gathered from the reports and communications that the Council of Ministers agreed to declassify this Tuesday and which it has published through the Moncloa website. Warnings that, according to the Spanish government, were not sufficient to anticipate the mass entry of migrants.

As promised last week by the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, the council of ministers has declassified this Tuesday the reports related to the Ceuta crisis. That is to say, all the documents that were prepared before July 30th regarding the situation in the autonomous city to verify whether or not the crisis situation could have been anticipated by the Spanish executive. "We are fulfilling our commitment to transparency," said the executive spokesperson, Elma Saiz, although it is expected that it will not be until tomorrow, Wednesday, that the media and the public will be able to access the papers. It is also unclear what the scope of the publication will be, although sources from the Moncloa assure that it will include all reports and communications between ministries that took place from July 1st to August 1st. In any case, the Defense department had raised objections regarding the possible impact on other intelligence services. In fact, this Monday, in the midst of the Ceuta crisis, King Felipe VI met with Minister Margarita Robles and the top brass of the Defense department – the Chief of the Defense Staff, the General Commander of Ceuta, and the operational commanders – with the aim of "examining the situation from the point of view of defense".

This Monday, a good number of Madrid newspapers are publishing a poll. The results are not exactly the same, but the trend is clear: the PP and Vox are surpassing the left-wing bloc by a wide margin, and the PSOE is bogged down by the Ceuta crisis and is heading for a fall. El País points out that for the first time the right and the far-right are exceeding 50% in voting intention; while in Abc and in La Razón the PP and Vox are exceeding 200 deputies, already far from the absolute majority they need to govern. In this context, and just the day after the triumph of the German far-right in a state, the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, has tried to boost morale among the socialist ranks. In an inter-parliamentary meeting at Congress this Monday, with the presence of deputies and senators, he reaffirmed that this term is four years long and that the project he leads as president looks towards 2030. That is to say, not only has he ratified that the elections will be next year, but he still has hope of being able to add up again to govern for four more years, despite the polls. "We have been at it for eight years, and next year, four more years," he proclaimed amidst applause from the PSOE representatives. What's more: he has proclaimed himself the "spearhead" against the rise of the far-right in Europe: "We are more necessary than ever".

Pedro Sánchez stood alone this week in Congress defending Morocco, although for the first time he introduced nuances into his speech. Previously, the Moncloa's position was argumentatively unsustainable, since if Morocco is characterized by anything, it is by having its territory under control (can one really argue that they did not notice that thousands of people were heading to the border?). Furthermore, it is not the first time that Morocco has used migrants to challenge Spain (let us remember, recently, Ceuta in 2021).

No script changes. The financing system was endorsed this Friday at the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF), which must now be approved by the Council of Ministers and begin its journey in the Congress of Deputies, where support is not guaranteed. It passed with the expected votes: support from the State, Catalonia, and also the Canary Islands, which reached an agreement in extremis with the Treasury in the month of July for an additional 1.337 billion. The PP and PSOE communities, on the other hand, voted against it. "It had been 17 years since a financing model was debated in a Fiscal and Financial Policy Council," began the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, in a press conference after the meeting, showing himself satisfied with an agreement he defined as "historic" and "relevant." "This model is better than the current one, more solidary, and provides more resources to our country's welfare state," he concluded.

The Community of Madrid called for a "boycott" of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council to prevent the financing model from being approved this Friday, which will now begin its journey in the Council of Ministers and the Congress of Deputies. If the PP communities followed suit and stood up the meeting, the meeting could not be held due to a lack of quorum, vetoing the approval of the system. However, that was not the case: the popular barons did not follow Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Madrid was left alone in absenting itself from the meeting, since the rest of the regional Finance ministers, despite having voted no to the financing system, were indeed at the meeting. That is to say, there was only one empty chair at the table presided over by the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, with all the representatives of the autonomous communities, including Catalonia, this Friday in Madrid. Only the Madrid Finance head, Rocío Albert López-Ibor, was missing.

Pedro Sánchez faced one of the most difficult appearances of his presidency. He had to account for the management in Ceuta, immersed in a humanitarian and social crisis due to the massive entry of migrants on July 30 and 31. But not only that: it was a complicated day because just this Wednesday a police report emerged that pointed to Morocco and put the president's narrative against the ropes. Sánchez has nuanced his speech by slightly hardening his tone towards the Alawite regime. He has maintained that there is "no solid evidence" to suggest that Morocco "planned and executed" the massive entry of migrants, but he has admitted that the Moroccan gendarmerie was passive at the border.