The Unitat de Delinqüència Econòmica i Fiscal (UDEF) [Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit] of the National Police concludes – at the end of one of the two leaked reports from the investigation into the public bailout of Plus Ultra and the alleged collection of commissions by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for having interceded – that there are "sufficient indications" against the former Spanish prime minister. It is 185 pages in which the UDEF analyzes the communications intercepted on computer terminals of businessmen linked to both the airline and the former socialist leader, as well as the movements of Zapatero's bank accounts — whom they consider the leader of the organized network— and his circle. But what exactly does the UDEF have against the former Spanish prime minister to make this statement, which has led to his indictment in the National High Court case?

José Luis Ábalos, in preventive detention for the mask case, raises his voice after the imputation of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. In an interview with TVE from Soto del Real prison, the former Minister of Transport has distanced himself from the Plus Ultra bailout and stated that it was the former Spanish president who, as the National High Court points out, allegedly pressured for the airline to receive the 53 million euros from the Spanish government in 2021, during the covid-19 pandemic. The former PSOE organization secretary, in fact, assures that he learned of the bailout when he arrived at the council of ministers. "Zapatero bypassed me and spoke directly with Pedro Saura [Secretary of State for Transport]," he states.

After the indictment on Tuesday of former Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, a new move from the National Court. Judge José Luis Calama has ordered to block 490,780 euros from the accounts of the former socialist leader, the amount he received from the company at the epicenter of the investigation, Análisis Relevante, owned by his friend Julio Martínez Martínez. The magistrate, according to tribunal sources, has also ordered the blocking of all accounts of the other companies investigated in the case.

After four years frozen, the Catalan PP will have its congress. Finally, the state leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced this Monday in a closed-door intervention that the party will hold its regional congress on June 27. The forecast is to ratify the leadership of Alejandro Fernández, who, after strong tug-of-war with the Galician leader, has established a peaceful relationship with the state leadership, especially thanks to the role of the general secretary, Miguel Tellado.

It is not easy to find a photo of him, nor on Google, but his discretion contrasts with the magnitude of the major cases he usually handles. José Luis Calama Teixeira, the judge who has indicted former president Zapatero for the Plus Ultra case, has been part of the Spanish judicial career for three decades and since 2018 has served as a magistrate of the National High Court, where he has stood out for the investigation of espionage against various members of the Spanish government with Pegasus.

After four years on hold, the Catalan PP will hold its congress. Finally, the national leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced this Monday in a closed-door intervention that the party will hold its regional congress on June 27. The forecast is to ratify the leadership of Alejandro Fernández, who, after strong disagreements with the Galician leader, has achieved a peaceful relationship with the national leadership, especially thanks to the role of the Secretary General, Miguel Tellado.

Juanma Moreno Bonilla entered to applause at the PP's state headquarters the day after the Andalusian elections. Despite the bittersweet taste of his victory, this Monday among the popular ranks the "spectacular" result obtained by the popular candidate is claimed. In statements to the media at the entrance of the party's state board of directors, Moreno Bonilla has argued that, no matter how much he has fallen two deputies short of an absolute majority, the 53 seats are a "sufficiently forceful" result to leave Vox out of his future regional executive. "It is a very good result that gives us room to maneuver to govern alone," he stated. For now, Vox has not set this price, as it did in Extremadura and Aragon, awaiting the start of negotiations. Moreno explained that he has not yet had contact with Santiago Abascal's party.

Juanma Moreno recalls having been "obsessed" with being president of Andalusia since October 22, 1995. That day, at 25 years old, he was elected president of Noves Generacions del PP of Andalusia. What at that time seemed the impossible dream of a young promise of the right became a reality on January 18, 2019, when he took office and became the first head of the Andalusian executive not to be a socialist in history. He did so despite having obtained the worst results for the PP in decades —he was the second force with 26 deputies and 20.75% of the votes— thanks to a pact with Cs and Vox. Almost seven and a half years later, Moreno has managed to turn this fluke with which he ousted the PSOE into hegemonic leadership. As he himself explains in his book Manual de convivencia (Espasa, 2025), "perseverance" is one of the qualities that represent him.

Andalusia is the last stop before the municipal elections and the general elections scheduled for 2027. The most populated region of the State ends the regional electoral cycle that began on December 21 in Extremadura and that, five months later, culminates in a key event to measure the forces of the PP, the PSOE, Vox and the alternative left. After the elections in Aragon on February 8 and in Castile and Leon on March 15 drew a panorama practically identical to Extremadura, with PP victories insufficient to govern alone, these elections could mean a change of script for the popular party, under the leadership of the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno.

The relationship between the Spanish Church and the far-right is not going through a good moment, despite sharing ultraconservative values on issues such as abortion or the concept of family. It has recently been evidenced by the clash of León XIV with Donald Trump over the war in Iran or by the discrepancy between Santiago Abascal's party and the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) on immigration. While Vox rejects the regularization promoted by the Spanish government and advocates for "national priority," the Spanish bishops defend it, and in fact, the Pope will focus part of his visit to the State on highlighting the reception of immigrants with a stop in the Canary Islands. However, at an informative breakfast this Tuesday, featuring the president of the CEE, Luis Argüello, a thawing of relations with Vox has been glimpsed. With leaders Ignacio Garriga and Pepa Millán seated at the main table, Argüello has shown a predisposition from the podium to meet with Abascal.

The Community of Madrid "is doing very well" and claims to be "the economic engine of Spain". However, according to Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government, this positive scenario occurs "despite" Pedro Sánchez's executive. Sources from the Madrid Ministry of Economy and Finance denounce "the asphyxiation" to which, in their opinion, the State has subjected them. Since 2019, when Ayuso took the reins of the regional government, the "consolidated debt" of the Spanish government with Madrid already amounts to 12,367 million euros, according to the calculation of Ayuso's team. "Mr. Sánchez's government is holding hostage the money of the people of Madrid that goes to issues as important as healthcare, dependency, or education," says the counselor Rocío Albert, in charge of Madrid's economic affairs, in statements to the press.

The day after the Andalusian elections on May 17, the "process of fiscal cession and privileges to Catalan separatism will be restarted". This is the thesis of Juanma Moreno, the PP candidate, presented during the first week of the electoral campaign in Andalusia. And this, as this newspaper published less than a month ago, the new Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, has even closed the door to the total collection of personal income tax. Nevertheless, this argument serves Moreno to argue that a "strong" and "stable" government is needed to "confront this injustice". Vox also resorts to Catalonia, using the old argument of comparative grievance between Catalans and Andalusians against the PSOE candidate, María Jesús Montero, España's predecessor at the head of the Spanish Treasury. In fact, the hypothesis that the right-wing parties fuel is that the PSOE is temporarily deceiving Andalusians so as not to harm Montero in the electoral race. They also reproach him for the new regional financing model agreed with ERC, which they claim harms Andalusia, even though it would add almost 5,000 million euros annually, when Moreno was asking for 4,000, at least until the end of last year.

Ten months ago, Borja Sémper announced that he had just been diagnosed with cancer. During this time, the illness has kept him away from political activity. This Tuesday, the popular spokesperson has officially returned. Sémper starred in a packed press breakfast in Madrid, where, amidst expressions of affection, he wanted to "bid farewell to this difficult stage" during which his "vital compass coordinates" have changed. The PP leader had already reappeared in some media outlets and this Monday rejoined the party's steering committee. Next week, he will be the one to appear at the weekly press conference in Génova. However, Sémper wanted to hold this event with the specific objective of speaking openly about his pancreatic cancer in order to stop talking about it.

Of the 179 municipalities in the Community of Madrid, 114, almost 64% of the total, are governed by the PP. The percentage increases if we focus on the 37 with the largest populations. 70% of the municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants are tinged blue. The Isabel Díaz Ayuso effect caused the left to even lose some of its strongholds in southern Madrid, traditionally called the red belt, in the last local elections of 2023, as is the case with Móstoles and Leganés –second and fourth most populated cities–. The popular party also snatched Alcalá de Henares and Alcobendas from the PSOE –third and tenth, located to the east and north, respectively.

The possibility of former president Carles Puigdemont returning to Catalonia in the summer is fading. The reason is that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has not yet communicated the date on which it will rule on the amnesty. The usual practice of this body is to give a month's notice, so that the Constitutional Court (TC) no longer expects a resolution on the preliminary questions regarding embezzlement before June. This European justice calendar complicates the prospects of the TC being able to resolve the Junts leader's appeal before the August holidays, as confirmed to ARA by various sources from the Constitutional Court.

Not even a week after the PP and Vox reached an agreement in Extremadura, the two formations are following the same path in Aragon and have also reached a pact to invest the popular Jorge Azcón. The popular party and the far-right party announced the understanding this afternoon in a joint appearance by Azcón and the Vox spokesperson in the Aragonese Cortes, Alejandro Nolasco. The staging is a carbon copy of what they followed in Extremadura to present a policy in line with the Extremaduran one, in which national priority in public policies has been the keystone. But in this case, the furious anti-Catalanism that has characterized the right in the region has reappeared, and this makes it understandable that there is an essential point that includes the defense of "freedom against indoctrination" with two star measures: "freeing Aragon from the imposition of Catalan" and initiating the "abolition of the Aragonese Institute of Catalan". That is, the PP and Vox have agreed to eliminate Catalan in Aragon.

The discursive cession to Vox in Extremadura, with the acceptance of the "principle of national priority", has borne the expected fruit for the PP. After a first attempt frustrated a month and a half ago, the popular candidate, María Guardiola, has been invested as president this Wednesday with the votes of the popular party and the far-right, which doubled its results in the regional elections of December 21. "As what the polls say does matter to me, I know that this project is only possible with Vox [...] That is why I will not apologize for governing with those who represent an important part of Extremadura," the president of Extremadura emphasized, who revalidates the position she has held since 2023. However, at the same time, in Congress, the popular party has rejected a motion from Vox defending the principle of "national priority" for access to public policies, understood as the differentiation between national and non-national when receiving aid, an interpretation that the PP rejects.

Why can a man freely decide when to destroy frozen sperm and a woman cannot do so with her eggs? This anomaly, established in current law, was debated this Tuesday afternoon in Congress, which will take a first step to eliminate this "discrimination". An initiative by the PSOE that the plenary will take into consideration and which proposes to equate the regulation on the cryopreservation of oocytes to that of semen in such a way that women are not forced to preserve them throughout their fertile lives. Today, the only way to destroy them is by obtaining the opinion of two experts stating that the woman can no longer become pregnant. On the other hand, a man can decide at any time and without any oversight if he wants to dispose of his semen deposited in biobanks. Vox is the only party that has positioned itself against the proposal.

In an era when international politics is at the forefront, Spanish leaders seek godfathers abroad to strengthen themselves internally and try to win the electoral game. The Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, is the one who has the most blatant strategy in this regard, by establishing himself as one of the leaders of the world left this weekend in Barcelona, but also the rest of the political spaces go beyond borders to seek references. These days, the PP and Vox have made a demonstration with the reception of María Corina Machado – whom they use to attack the Spanish government – and a few days ago it was Viktor Orbán's defeat in Hungary that marked Spanish politics.

A "burst of color" on fourteen meters of canvas welcomes the major exhibition dedicated to the painting of Teresa Vall Palou (Lleida, 1951). More than sixty works by the Lleida artist, practically all of them large format, have been since the end of February – and will continue to be until the beginning of May – the main attraction of the program at the Tomás y Valiente Art Center (CEART) in Fuenlabrada. Located about 20 kilometers from the main museums in the heart of Madrid, the CEART is "a reference center for the south of the Community", with a relevant trajectory in the field of museography focused on contemporary art. "Very many Catalan artists have had their first major exhibition here instead of in Madrid," explains to ARA the art director of CEART, Juan Carlos Moya, surrounded by the main compositions of the last ten years of Vall Palou's artistic production, grouped under the title Chromatic Atmospheres.