The Spanish government, already with the election campaign underway, has held an extraordinary council of ministers to take a “first step” to revalue pensions starting in 2027, although the inflation figures for the month of November are not yet available. This means that it is not yet possible to know exactly how much they will rise on average, since the calculation is made with the confirmed inflationary data, which will be known on December 15th. The spokesperson for the state executive herself, Elma Saiz, has admitted that the effective measure will be taken later because a rule with the rank of law is needed for its approval, but when questioned by journalists she clarified that the increase will be between 3% and 4% according to her estimates. What has the government done, then, today? It has reached an agreement to urgently process the new decree-law to make this pension increase possible and in this way it has been able to make an early first announcement of its intentions on the first day of the election campaign. It is Pedro Sánchez’s simulation: the PSOE’s strategy to visualize its priorities if it returns to govern and to deploy its electoral program in the middle of the campaign while it still has the Moncloa.

Unlike interviews with traditional media, where party campaign teams usually ask journalists for speed and the time they dedicate does not reach an hour, the main candidates for the presidency of Spain –Pedro Sánchez, Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Ada Colau– have given a long interview to the YouTuber from Manresa, Jordi Wild. The only one who did not do so was Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox, who backed out hours before recording the interview alleging discrepancies with the management of his image rights. What headlines have the conversations that did take place left, in any case? In a more relaxed format, Feijóo talked about not knowing English, Pedro Sánchez about his relationship with the 'Procés' and Ada Colau reflected on the reasons that have led her now to take the step into Spanish politics. Although they were not recorded this Friday, the three interviews were published one after another this morning.

In an electoral campaign, the most important thing is the narrative. What is talked about and what is not, what is placed at the center of public debate and what is pushed aside. When the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, decided to call early elections on October 5, he had the perfect narrative. The eviction of Maricarmen Abascal was the spark for the social explosion over the right to housing, and he decided to reactivate legislative measures that he had kept in a drawer for a long time to try to respond to it. It was a win-win: if Congress endorsed his project, it would give breathing room to the legislature and rebuild the plurinational majority; and, if not, he had the perfect excuse to call for elections and call for social mobilization. It is what he did: bring forward the elections to ask for a broad left-wing majority and respond to the housing problem after eight years of government. The PSOE is betting everything on this promise to make a comeback this November 29th, in an electoral match that may be the last of Sanchismo depending on the result.

The latest CIS poll before the electoral campaign begins on November 29th, and, as is customary, it differs from the rest of the published surveys. According to the public body led by José Félix Tezanos, today the PSOE would win the elections and could return to power by joining forces with the left, while the PP and Vox would not reach an absolute majority. In the best-case scenario, in fact, the right and the far-right would remain at 171 seats, five short of the count needed to govern. The PP would obtain, according to this survey, between 98 and 106 seats (it currently has 137), while Vox would achieve an increase of between 57 and 65 deputies (it currently has 33). That is to say, according to this poll, Alberto Núñez Feijóo would suffer a very significant electoral defeat and, conversely, Santiago Abascal would see himself greatly strengthened.

Starting this Tuesday evening, an unprecedented situation will be experienced in the State: a general strike will begin, called by the Tenants' Union and also by the majority unions UGT and Comisiones Obreras against the rising cost of living and, above all, the price of housing. The event, however, is not free of controversy, as it comes after eight years of Pedro Sánchez's government and on the eve of elections that could shift majorities in the State in favor of the PP and Vox. Is the strike against the Spanish government? Or, on the contrary, is it the mobilization lever that the executive is seeking to mobilize the left ahead of the polls?

Long before it emerged that James Talarico would be the winner in Texas, the Republican engine room already knew they had lost. Ken Paxton, their candidate for the United States Senate, was not gathering enough support in traditionally Republican districts. For this reason, the watch party they had organized in Dallas to follow election night, with popcorn and all kinds of drinks with ice cubes –everything in the United States has ice cubes, even wine–, was anything but a party. Not only did Talarico beat Paxton, but Texans looked to the left in the vast majority of votes that were at stake. This, despite the investment of more than 200 million dollars from the tycoon Elon Musk in the Texas campaign. In fact, the Senate race between Talarico and Paxton has broken the record for spending in a non-federal election.

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.