Juan Jesús Vivas (Ceuta, 1953) has become a daily media presence since July 30. The massive influx of immigrants into Ceuta, the territory he presides over, is the cause. Vivas has been a tireless spokesperson for the unease this has generated among the population of the autonomous city and has put a face to the PP's political offensive against the management of Pedro Sánchez's executive. The appearances of this popular baron, one of the most veteran in the State, have increased in intensity as normality has not been restored with the passing of the days. Although within the PP Vivas is one of the so-called moderates, on this occasion he has become a battering ram against the Spanish government for its management of the migration crisis.

That Vox returns to govern in four autonomous communities, in coalition with the PP, is one of the novelties of this political year. After the elections in Extremadura, Aragon, Castilla y León, and Andalusia, the balance for the far-right is that it has obtained four vice-presidencies of autonomous executives, to which five more ministries must be added. This has meant a new strategic turn for Santiago Abascal's party after the decision to abandon governmental responsibilities two years ago. The opposition stage to the Popular Party, which has seen Vox's electoral growth, has given way to a new phase in which the party is committed to governing. The possibility now opens up for them to apply their policies in the areas they have secured from negotiations with the PP, such as agriculture, livestock, forest management, social services, family, tourism, culture, and, newly created applying their own framework, deregulation.

The exchange of recriminations is not an anomaly in Spanish politics. And Ceuta, which has been experiencing a humanitarian emergency for weeks, is no exception. Pedro Sánchez's government now accuses the PP of going to Ceuta to "further strain" the situation, while the Popular Party raises its tone against the central executive and its crisis management. This is being done by the PP leadership, with Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the helm, but also by the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas (PP), who, a day after meeting with government spokesperson Elma Saiz, stated that they feel "abandoned" by the central executive, in statements to the media on Tuesday afternoon. Hours earlier, Feijóo also criticized that Pedro Sánchez's executive is "absent" and "indifferent" to the situation in Ceuta.

It has been twenty days since the scandal of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's luxury penthouse came to light, and the controversy continues to haunt the Madrid president. The political and media brawl is intrinsic to the way the leader of the PP of Madrid operates, but the type of operation and the communication management carried out by the Community of Madrid in recent weeks has turned this episode into the one that could most harm the popular leader, just ten months before the regional elections.

The political clash over the situation in Ceuta escalates as the humanitarian crisis remains evident in the city. The tension between the government of Ceuta and Pedro Sánchez's executive has increased in volume after the president of the autonomous city, Juan Jesús Vivas (PP), threatened to go to court if Moncloa does not "solve" the crisis within 30 days. A path, currently unspecified, which has the support of Gènova, that has found in the migratory crisis a new vein to wear down Pedro Sánchez. Meanwhile, the Spanish government avoids a head-on confrontation, defending its actions and the "collaboration" between institutions, in the words of the government spokesperson and Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, who this Monday traveled to Ceuta for the first time since the entry of thousands of people on July 30, even though her responsibilities include ensuring a reception network for asylum seekers.

The resumption of parliamentary activity in Congress, in September, will have as one of its pending tasks to unblock the approval of the conclusions on the attacks of August 17 in Barcelona and Cambrils. Two and a half years after the investigation commission on 17-A was established, the parliamentary groups have already drafted their final proposals, but have not yet submitted them for a vote. The differences between the parties of the plurinational majority, which have been noted in the registered documents and during the sessions, have led them to negotiate in an attempt to approve a consensual text. For now, according to various parliamentary sources consulted by ARA, there is no definitive agreement, although the parties have agreed to try again after the holidays. The main obstacle is for PSOE and Junts to agree, as they are the ones with the most opposed positions.

Almaraz nuclear power plant gains time. The Spanish government authorized this Friday the extension of the lifespan of its two reactors after the favorable report of the Nuclear Safety Council a month ago. Thus, as published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has renewed the operating authorization for units I and II of the plant until June 8, 2030. It should be remembered that, until now, the Extremaduran nuclear power plant had permission to operate one reactor until 2027 and another until 2028, and was the first in the State to be shut down.

The criticisms of the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, towards King Felipe VI for having taken a photograph with the far-right agitator Javier Negre are unusual because the PSOE's usual stance is not to question the monarchy. Pedro Sánchez's government has never wanted to open the Pandora's box of the monarchy or republic debate, and it has been more than ten years since the Sociological Research Center (CIS) – chaired for eight years by the socialist José Félix Tezanos – has asked about the institution.

The crisis in Ceuta is reopening the Pandora's box: the diplomatic relationship between Rabat and Madrid, always sensitive, could become strained and threaten to trigger a clash between the two countries, which joins the list of ups and downs that have marked the relationship bilateral. The cautious tone of the Spanish government with Morocco is beginning to differ from that used by the Alawite country, which in recent days has accused Spain of "hindering" the return of migrants, but has also questioned the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla. Although it is not the first time it has done so, in this context it generates more alarm. Rabat is now pressing with the extradition agreement it has with Spain and is opening the door to "suspend it". At the same time, however, it says it is willing to "develop a plan" with Spain, a "friendly" country, to "definitively resolve the migratory problem", according to the Moroccan Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, in an interview with Efe this Wednesday afternoon.

The defense strategy of businessman Julio Martínez Martínez has become a new headache for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The friend and alleged frontman of the former Spanish government president has put it into practice this week, advised by lawyer María Dolores Márquez de Prado. It is with whom he was accompanied this Tuesday when he appeared as an investigated party at the National Court, a scenario that Márquez de Prado knows very well. This renowned criminal lawyer worked as a prosecutor there for seventeen years. A period in which she earned the nickname "indomitable." Precisely for being a headache for another former socialist leader, former Spanish president Felipe González during his time in Moncloa.

On the third anniversary of the 23-J elections and on the eve of the summer break, Pedro Sánchez has received a new warning that his goal of approving the first general state budgets of the legislature is almost a pipe dream. Congress has thrown out the Spanish government's second and final attempt to approve the stability path (the deficit and debt targets), which is the first mandatory step to bring the 2027 accounts to the lower house this autumn. As happened last weekthe votes against from PP, Vox, and Junts have caused it to fail. In an interview with TVE prior to the debate, the Junts spokesperson in the lower house, Miriam Nogueras, had already indicated that Carles Puigdemont's party had no intention of changing its position, although the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, expressed himself "hopeful" upon entering the hemicycle, appealing to "rationality," given that what was being voted on today was to give more fiscal room to the autonomous communities.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo considers the legislature in Spain over, although he also assumes it will last a few more months during which he expects the PSOE's situation to worsen due to ongoing judicial investigations and its parliamentary weakness. "Pedro Sánchez faces his last Christmas at Moncloa. He deserves nothing less than the greatest possible electoral punishment because he has been a disgrace to this country," he stated this Wednesday in a press conference reviewing the political year. Between now and the next Spanish elections, the PP leader has hoped to team up more often with Junts and Vox in Congress to further undermine the Spanish Prime Minister. "We have voted the same way on 170 occasions," he stressed. In this regard, the PP leader argued that "it has been a month since [Sánchez] ignored that he has been politically dismissed," referring to the initiative approved in the lower house, with the votes of PP, Junts, and Vox, which called for the socialist leader's resignation. "He has gone from governing in a minority to governing against the majority, he has nothing left to give," he sentenced.

Despite Julio Martínez's change in strategy, which implicates former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in the Plus Ultra rescue, Moncloa sticks to its script. In the press conference following yesterday's council of ministers, spokesperson Elma Saiz defended the credit granted to the airline during the pandemic and, furthermore, assured that the Spanish executive "continues to maintain the presumption of innocence" of Zapatero. Saiz did not want to deviate from this: she refused to comment on the statements of Julio Martínez Martínez (alias "Julito") and also of the president of Plus Ultra, Julio Martínez Sola, who point to the former president as a key figure in the rescue, as the National Police does through UDEF, and limited herself to saying that the judicial investigation is in an early stage.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero denied a month ago, before the National High Court judge José Luis Calama, having exercised "the slightest influence" in the public rescue of Plus Ultra. The version he has presented, less than a day before testifying before the same magistrate as an investigated party, the businessman Julio Martínez Martínez, considered by investigators to be the "lieutenant" of the former Spanish president in the scheme, calls into question the former socialist leader. In a document sent to the National High Court, Martínez Martínez states that Plus Ultra paid 1% of the rescue amount, which amounted to 53 million euros, as "fees" for Zapatero "acting as an intermediary in obtaining public aid". This money was channeled through a business network in Martínez's name. "In his role as a consultant, Mr. Rodríguez Zapatero was the one who set the steps to follow," he assures regarding the former socialist leader's role in the rescue.

The PP's response to the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) endorsement of the application of amnesty to Carles Puigdemont is another demonstration of the strategy that Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party wants to apply in Catalonia. From Génova they argued that the focus on the "Procés" must be left behind to "open a new era that allows us to talk only about what Catalans need". "More housing, more doctors, lower taxes, and more security". This is the recipe that the PP leader already presented during the Catalan Popular Party congress three weeks ago. His aspiration is to ensure that the social and economic axis prevails over the national one and that his project is attractive, mainly with economic proposals, to voters from Junts, PSC, and Vox.

The violence of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank gives no respite to Basel Adra (At-Tuwani, 1996), not even during a brief stay in Madrid. On the same day he is participating in the inauguration of an international summit on the cultural reconstruction of Palestine, co-organized by the Spanish and Palestinian Ministries of Culture, the multi-award-winning director of the documentary No other land wakes up to the news of a "brutal attack" by Israeli settlers on a village adjacent to his own. Before speaking to ARA in a hotel in the center of the Spanish capital, Adra contemplates on his mobile phone images he has received from injured neighbors. "In March, settlers already shot at two brothers from this same family. One of them, 28 years old, was murdered, and the other has been left paralyzed," he explains. This is the daily reality in Masafer Yatta, a cluster of small villages in the southern West Bank that has been fighting for years against Israel's plans to eliminate it. The story of resistance of this Palestinian community became famous following Adra's film, winner of an Oscar in 2025, which has also turned him into an international voice for the Palestinian cause. "The documentary had a great impact worldwide, but it is very difficult for us because on the ground the situation keeps getting worse," he reflects, visibly tired both of this role, which so far has not provided solutions for his people, and of the "inhumane" journey required to leave the territory occupied by Israel and to live under the constant harassment of settlers and the Israeli army.

For three days, Madrid has become an exhibitor of Palestinian culture. The Reina Sofia, Thyssen, and Prado museums, along with the Círculo de Bellas Artes, have hosted round tables, recitals, and dance performances open to the public, as well as a ministerial conference of some thirty international delegations convened by the Spanish and Palestinian Ministries of Culture to discuss the cultural reconstruction of a Palestine devastated by the genocide and occupation perpetrated by Israel. The political outcome of the summit has been a final declaration calling for the creation of a "pact for the resilience of Palestinian culture," without concrete commitments yet being outlined, and expressing "deep concern" about the current situation.

One of the cornerstones of the PP and Vox argument in recent weeks has been to point out that the Spanish government would supposedly be trying to alter the electoral roll by massively incorporating people of foreign origin. The "ley de nets" (law of the clean slate), which grants Spanish nationality to relatives of exiles during Francoism, and the extraordinary regularization of immigrants, which grants residence and work permits to people already in the country, have been the focus of criticism from the Spanish right and far-right. Not only because of the impact they predict it could have on the results of the upcoming Spanish elections —regularization does not grant the right to vote, while the "ley de nets" does grant this possibility— but also on the social structure and access to public services. Now Junts has partially joined these theses.

A week after the Spanish government activated the mechanism to present State budgets for 2027, Congress has dealt a first blow to Pedro Sánchez's initiative. The PP, Vox, and Junts have rejected the stability route, one of the mandatory steps to bring the accounts to the Spanish chamber this autumn. However, despite this first parliamentary failure, the Spanish executive can still move forward with the process. And it will do so in the face of a defeat in Congress that at Moncloa they had already accepted and which will not alter their plans. "Some will try to present this vote as a victory or defeat for the government, but they are mistaken. The real question is whether the autonomous communities will have more resources," argued the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, during the debate in the lower house.

The Spanish government's first reaction has not had to wait long for the conviction of Pedro Sánchez's brother to 9 years of disqualification. The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, who is one of the government members who has shown himself to be most belligerent against the judiciary, has assured that the sentence is an attempt to oust the PSOE from the Spanish government. "This era will be studied in history books as the one in which the seams of our institutions were strained with the sole purpose of overthrowing a government due to the inability to do so through the ballot box," he stated.