The National High Court judge José Luis Calama is not the only one investigating José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The Tax Agency also is. A communication sent by the Spanish Treasury to the magistrate reveals that less than a month ago it opened a tax investigation against the former Spanish president and his family. Specifically, the Tax Agency initiated the inspection against Zapatero on June 15 of this year, when he was already implicated in the National High Court for influence peddling, criminal organization, and document forgery and a few days after it opened a separate case for the jewelry found in his office. On the same day, another tax investigation was opened against his wife, Sonsoles Espinosa.

PP and Vox have closed the last of the pending pacts. After reaching an agreement in Extremadura, Aragon, and Castilla y León, Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party and Santiago Abascal's party are closing the circle in Andalusia with the investiture of Juanma Moreno thanks to the votes of the far-right. The popular candidate did not overcome a first vote two days ago, but this Thursday afternoon he has managed to leave the Andalusian Parliament as president after having overcome the last hurdles of the negotiation with Vox 'in extremis'. Once again, the "national priority" and the incorporation of the far-right into the government have been part of the core of the pact and are the two main concessions that the PP has been making to Vox for months to maintain regional power.

First, the president of Extremadura, María Guardiola, had to go through Vox's address book, despite the difficulties; then it was the turn of Jorge Azcón's Aragon and Alfonso Fernández Mañueco's Castilla y León. But the greatest exponent of the PP moderates, the Andalusian president, the "Sorayist Juanma Moreno Bonilla, who will also yield to Vox's demands, as he himself has admitted and as the state leadership wants. The agreement is being finalized, but the only doubt remaining is the timing, that is, whether he will capitulate for this Thursday's investiture session or postpone it further, playing hard to get for public opinion. In any case, according to sources familiar with the negotiations between the PP and Vox consulted by ARA, the dilemma was clear from the start: "Either you accept the conditions or elections," said the Vox negotiating team.

Although José María Aznar proclaimed the famous "whoever can, let them do it" against Pedro Sánchez, the former Spanish president is not pressuring Alberto Núñez Feijóo to register a motion of no confidence, unlike Vox. The former PP leader has warned his party that Junts cannot be counted on to bring down the head of the executive, no matter how much Carles Puigdemont's party gives their occasional supportto parliamentary initiatives, of a symbolic nature, against Sánchez's continuity. "Congress cannot manage a constructive no-confidence motion", lamented Aznar, who attributed it to the fact that the allies of the socialist leader's investiture want "to be able to consummate their plundering of the State". The former Spanish president and leader of the PP criticized that Moncloa has ended up being "a Madrid delegation of secessionism".

It has been more than six weeks since the Andalusian elections that linked the popular Juanma Moreno Bonilla to Vox. The acting president of Andalusia, one of the barons of the PP most reluctant to agree with the far-right, has been forced to negotiate with them because fell two seats short of an absolute majority. However, the talks have not yet reached a satisfactory conclusion. This was confirmed this Tuesday afternoon in the first investiture attempt in the Andalusian Parliament. Santiago Abascal's party voted against making Moreno Bonilla president, arguing that they have not yet closed a programmatic agreement with the PP. The far-right party has blamed the baron popular for having arrived too late –Moreno Bonilla waited more than three weeks after the elections to sit down and talk for the first time–.

The PP's crusade to bring down Pedro Sánchez runs into the fact that it depends on Catalan and Basque parties for it to have real effects. In this context, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has revived one of those proposals that the popular party has in mind to end the dependence on independence movements in the Congress of Deputies and, in turn, also on Vox, to whom they are increasingly tied in more autonomies. The PP leader has proposed an electoral reform that would give the winning list a "plus" of deputies "to facilitate stability." A scenario that could have prevented Pedro Sánchez from governing this legislature in which the sum of PP and Vox fell just four deputies short of an absolute majority. This is what Feijóo defended in an interview this Monday on EsRadio, after being directly asked about ways to prevent "minority groups from being overrepresented" in the lower house.

"Continue to deepen the government's erosion." This is the PP's strategy in this final stretch of the legislature. Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party has deployed it over the past few weeks – marked by the judicial agenda surrounding the PSOE – activating the armed wings at their disposal against Pedro Sánchez while still resisting the step of presenting a motion of no confidence, as Vox demands. The popular party has used other parliamentary tools to expose the "extreme weakness" of the Spanish executive's leader, made use of a sympathetic media apparatus, and once again resorted to the justice system while the street mobilization, on the eve of summer, remains paralyzed.

In a week marked by the ruling against José Luis Ábalos, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's agendas and Pedro Sánchez's appearance in Congress to discuss the judicial cases hounding the PSOE, another prominent name linked to alleged corruption has surfaced. It is that of Yolanda Santos, a socialist councilor in the Soria City Council, arrested this Tuesday by the Civil Guard. According to investigators, the person in charge of the Environment and Tourism areas in the municipality may have committed irregularities in the awarding of contracts to a company to which she had been linked a few years ago.

The Congress has approved this Thursday, with the votes of PP, Vox, and Junts, that the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, resign or submit to a vote of confidence. After the vote, the right-wing bench rightly shouted "resignation" while the socialist deputies responded with applause to Sánchez, who left the hemicycle with an immutable smile. This is a symbolic vote, as Sánchez has no intention of making any move, but politically the alliance of Junts with the right to put pressure on the Spanish government is relevant. The gesture comes after yesterday Miriam Nogueras asked Pedro Sánchez to step aside and make way for another candidate to the presidency of the Spanish government.

The day after they came to light the private conversations and diaries of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Judge José Luis Calama, the investigating judge of the Plus Ultra case at the National Court, has requested that the leaks be investigated. Calama has sent the request to the courts of Madrid, urging them to identify those responsible for the leaks, which he considers potentially criminal. The magistrate emphasizes that the facts have "gravity" and could fit into criminal offenses of revealing reserved proceedings. In parallel, the former Spanish president has requested Calama to nullify all actions in the case due to the violation of four fundamental rights. According to the document, to which ARA has had access, Zapatero claims that an "illicitly analyzed piece of evidence" has been incorporated into the proceedings.

José Luis Ábalos does not resign in the face of the 24-year prison sentence for corruption and has denounced, from Soto del Real, that the Supreme Court's ruling was "predetermined". In an audio recording accessed by Cadena SER, the former Minister of Transport explains a version of events opposed to the one Pedro Sánchez presented this Wednesday in his appearance in Congress. Unlike the Spanish president, who described the one that was his right-hand man as a "flagrant and very serious case of corruption," Ábalos maintains that it is a "political" cause.

The remaining time of the current legislature in the State is one of the great unknowns in Spanish politics at the moment. While Pedro Sánchez proclaims his will to resist as long as possible and the PP relies on the wear and tear that the Spanish president may suffer from the succession of scandals, from Vox the strategy is to proclaim the "danger" that the coming months could pose if the socialist leader remains in power. The reaction of Santiago Abascal's party to the Supreme Court ruling against José Luis Ábalos has been to warn that what they call the socialist "criminal mafia" is willing to do "anything" to stay in Moncloa until 2027. And even beyond that electoral date. "The worst is yet to come," they predict. The almost apocalyptic scenario presented by the far-right includes the hypothesis that Sánchez could "steal" the next Spanish elections.

It has been almost a year since Pedro Sánchez was forced to appear before Congress to explain the judicial investigations that tarnish the PSOE. This Wednesday he has done so again in the face of the unstoppable trickle of cases that expand the list of suspects linked to the Spanish president and with a firm sentence for corruption against the former Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos. Unlike the appearance on July 9 last year, in which the head of the executive presented a battery of anti-corruption measures to deal with these cases, on this occasion Sánchez has gone on the offensive against the leader of the opposition and president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and challenging partners like Junts to present a motion of no confidence. In an initial half-hour speech, the socialist leader distanced himself from both Ábalos and Santos Cerdán, his two former organization secretaries, defended José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and denounced "persecution" against his family.

"What else needs to happen for Pedro Sánchez to resign immediately?". That is what Alberto Núñez Feijóo asked in a press conference convened to assess what he has called the "serious" sentence of the Supreme Court against José Luis Ábalos. The leader of the PP has argued that the only way out is for the Spanish president to call elections "immediately" in view of what the Popular Party considers "a condemnation of Sánchez's government" because the former Minister of Transport played a predominant role both in the first governments of the socialist leader and in the PSOE as organization secretary and in Sánchez's rise.

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."

While the judicial investigation against José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero progresses, with the indictment of his daughters and his secretary, the PSOE has received a symbolic setback in Congress due to Junts' pincer movement with the PP and Vox to approve a motion from Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party that states the "extreme weakness" of the Spanish government. After the progressive board of the lower house vetoed an amendment by Junts two days ago to this text, which added the demand for an early election, Carles Puigdemont's party has aligned itself with the Spanish right and far-right against Pedro Sánchez, even though the motion did not ultimately include any contribution from them. In parallel, despite losing this vote – which has no practical effect – Thursday's plenary session in the lower house ended with applause from the socialist benches because other matters were saved and this "annus horribilis week, marked by the judicial agenda, was survived.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's expected declaration as a defendant before the National Court has not moved the PSOE's position one millimeter. The former Spanish Prime Minister has emerged while retaining freedom of movement

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.

In less than a month, the session period in the Congress of Deputies ends. The last week of ordinary activity in the lower house will be that of June 24, when Pedro Sánchez's appearance is scheduled due to the latest judicial scandals in his circle. The Spanish Prime Minister will have to give explanations regarding the indictment of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the revelations from the investigation into the Leire Díez case. This judicial minefield of the PSOE has relegated legislative matters to the background. With a weaker parliamentary majority than ever, Sánchez faces the final stretch of the legislature with serious doubts about whether he will manage to approve the laws that are pending in Congress, as well as the outstanding agreements with his investiture allies.

The first barometer of the Sociological Research Centre (CIS) conducted after the indictment of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the outbreak of the Leire Díez case —of alleged PSOE sewers— worsens Pedro Sánchez's electoral prospects for the upcoming Spanish elections. According to the survey published this Thursday, the socialists fall 4.9 points, to 31.3% of estimated votes. On the other hand, the PP improves it with an increase of 2.2 points, to 27.1%. In this way, Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party cuts the distance separating them from the PSOE by 7.1 points. If in the previous barometer it was 11.3 points, in the current one they are only 4.2 points apart. In fact, the popular party is the one that best capitalizes on the PSOE's decline, as Vox, on the contrary, falls four tenths —from 16.2 to 15.8%— and S'ha Acabat la Festa (SALF) of MEP Alvise Pérez, which is the sixth force, falls half a point, to 1.9%.