Barcelona en Comú faces the municipal elections of 2027 with the challenge of presenting, for the first time, a candidate other than Ada Colau. Gerardo Pisarello, a deputy in Congress and former first deputy mayor, has taken on this role, after winning the primaries against comedian Bob Pop. But, even before choosing a mayoral candidate, the party's new executive began to outline a strategy to improve the results predicted by polls and present themselves to Barcelonians as an alternative to the PSC. According to sources from the leadership, conveyed to el ARA, this strategy involves regaining presence in the Besòs Axis neighborhoods, where they believe they have room to grow and prevent a vote drain towards the far-right.

The PSC and Units per Avançar are the best-matched couple in Catalan politics. The alliance between these two political forces began in 2017, when the socialists started to want to get closer to the skeptical nationalists (or even scared) with the break-away approach of independence and who had already begun to miss CiU. The leader of Units, Ramon Espadaler, embodied this profile: former minister in the government of Jordi Pujol and Artur Mas, he launched in June of that year what he then defined as a "Catalanist" and Christian democratic platform that, in Catalonia in the months leading up to 1-O, advocated for dialogue with Spain with the backing of former members of Unió. The then first secretary of the PSC, Miquel Iceta, did not hesitate to make them an offer to run together in the elections. The wedding was officiated in a hotel in front of the PSC headquarters on Nicaragua street under the slogan "Alliance for common sense and Catalanism" and was the prelude to the move to recruit centrist profiles that Salvador Illa deployed when he landed in the Generalitat. However, and almost ten years after that understanding, Units does not renounce to make its mark to avoid being swallowed by the socialist tide, now that the PSC governs at all four levels of administration.

Carlos Cuerpo and Arcadi España have moved up a rung in the Spanish government after the departure of María Jesús Montero. The hitherto number two in the Spanish executive, however, not only hands over the first vice-presidency and the Ministry of Finance, but also the negotiating power with the so-called Catalan file. Specifically, Arcadi España will be the one to tackle the hot potato of materializing the new financing and reopening talks with Esquerra after the transfer of the IRPF derailed. España was one of the strong men of Ximo Puig's Valencian government and those who know him define him as a convinced federalist and Valencianist, as well as being a firm defender of new regional financing. In fact, he endorses the reform that Montero agreed with ERC. And what do PSC and ERC think of the new minister? The Republicans view him favorably for giving a new "opportunity" to negotiations.In Palau they also look hopefully at the new minister, whom a voice from the Catalan socialists describes as "receptive" to the demands of Catalonia, many of them coinciding with those of the Valencian Country."Arcadi is social democracy made politician, dialogue made ruler, common sense made person," wrote former Valencian president Ximo Puig in a message on X after his appointment was made public. In statements to el ARA, he reaffirms: "He is a person with an open disposition, without closed dogmatisms, with the capacity to listen and empathy." España was Puig's chief of staff during his time in Madrid, also when he was general secretary of the PSPV and when he presided over the Generalitat Valenciana, and subsequently served as minister of Territorial Policy and also of Finance. "Federalism is part of his political culture," defends Puig, who recalls that he is one of the people who has most defended new regional financing within the PSOE. In fact, this is one of the issues that Esquerra values.

The Government has placed Asia at the top of its international priorities list. So much so that the president, Salvador Illa, made his first two intercontinental trips there, first to Japan and Korea, and then to China. This week, the Minister of European Union and External Action, Jaume Duch, has returned to the Asian giant for the second time to continue working hard and strengthen the ties between Catalonia and the country, while awaiting the finalization of procedures to open the new delegation of the Generalitat in Beijing. This Friday, the minister signed, on behalf of the Government, two memorandums of understanding with the leading provinces of Jiangsu and Hainan, where he also participated in the Boao Forum, the Asian Davos.

The president of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, can boast of having won back for the People's Party (PP) one of the Socialist Party's (PSOE) historical strongholds since the restoration of democracy. He did so in 2018, when he became president through a governing pact with Citizens (Cs) and the external support of Vox, despite not winning the election. In fact, the PP's results, in an election where three right-wing parties were running, were far from their best. Three years later, he was re-elected with an absolute majority that allowed him to shed the burden of his investiture partners, a result so exceptional that he has it tattooed on his wrist. Moreno, who describes himself as a "liberal in the broadest sense," They will face off on May 17th to the third round to remain at the head of the Board, with all the polls in his favor despite the burden of having had to weather the breast cancer screening scandal in the community.

The seal on the agreement was put by Salvador Illa and Oriol Junqueras in a meeting of just over two hours at the Palau de la Generalitat on Tuesday afternoon. But the pact had been being forged since the previous weekend after days of deadlock. At the Palau and at the PSC headquarters, the strategy of buying time to avoid a parliamentary defeat that would have left the executive shaken eventually prevailed. The party's number 2, Lluïsa Moret, had a lot to do with it, explain various sources to ARA. But to limit the damage, the socialists demanded, in return, a commitment from the republicans to stop positioning the IRPF as a red line. All this, to reset the clock. To get here, however, the conversations went through ups and downs, from tense meetings to lunches and homemade doughnuts to save the negotiation.

Salvador Illa decided to push ahead after ERC's refusal to negotiate the budget and presented the bill two weeks ago without having the Republicans' support guaranteed. This pressure tactic against Oriol Junqueras' party failed to budge them from their position: the Republicans had maintained their red line for beginning negotiations unless the Spanish government made a gesture of ceding control over income tax revenue. The budget was headed for failure this Friday, as Esquerra would have voted for its amendment to the entire bill, thus causing it to collapse. To avoid defeat, Salvador Illa decided to withdraw the budget this Wednesday. as some sources consulted by the ARA pointed outand give negotiations with the Republicans another chance. However, Esquerra has also shifted its position and no longer refers to income tax as a condition. sine qua non to negotiate the budget. "It's a very important condition," Oriol Junqueras stated when journalists asked him if it remained an "essential" condition, as it had been until now. In fact, Esquerra has opened itself to negotiating an alternative proposal to the Personal Income Tax (IRPF) if the Catalan Government puts one on the table. The target date for a new budget is before the summer.

The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has convened the parliamentary groups at the Palau de la Generalitat to address the potential consequences of the conflict in the Middle East and analyze how Catalonia should respond. The meeting began in the early afternoon and includes representatives from all parliamentary groups except Vox and Aliança Catalana. This summit is the result of of a request that Junts conveyed to the president in the last control session of the Parliament to share measures that anticipate the negative effects of the conflict.

The first budgets designed by Salvador Illa's government are "fully focused on municipal development." This is the thesis that The Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, defended in his first appearance in Parliament To explain the main lines of the budget, with 9.1 billion euros more available for the Generalitat compared to 2023. One of the secretariats that fares best is that of Local Governments and Relations with the Aran Valley, which increases from 196.5 million euros to 351 million to give municipalities a boost to carry out urgent works, unblock projects that have been stalled for years, or continue with the neighborhood planAll of this comes a year before the elections, a crucial event for mayors, where everyone wants to arrive with as much work done as possible to showcase during the campaign. What could the municipalities lose if the Catalan Parliament ends up rejecting the budget? No From Esquerra?

African swine fever (ASF) has reached Barcelona. A new positive case of a wild boar infected with the virus has been detected within the Barcelona municipality, as reported this afternoon by the Catalan Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, who indicated that this new case will appear in tomorrow's official count by the Ministry of Agriculture. This latest positive result has prompted heightened precautions in the Collserola mountain range, where the closure of the natural park has been reinforced, as reported earlier today by the online newspaper. NationOrdeig explained that a resolution will be issued tomorrow to extend access restrictions to the natural environment, specifically expanding them to the entire Collserola Natural Park. "We are continuing with the containment strategy for the epicenter and the entire Collserola area; as you know, closing the entire natural park is impossible," the minister admitted, "but we are implementing a containment strategy and also reinforcing our resources with captures," he continued. The minister detailed that they met this morning with the municipalities affected by the natural park's entry into the highest-risk zone, as well as with the park's consortium, and that the resolution will be made public tomorrow, Thursday. The Minister of Agriculture again asked for patience and insisted that "the solution will not be short-term under any circumstances." Ordeig explained that containing the virus in this area is easier because it borders the Mediterranean Sea on one side, but, conversely, "there is a difficulty" because it is all happening in a densely populated urban area full of businesses, making perimeter closures difficult.

All eyes are on the door of the Sant Jordi Hall when, a few minutes after 6 p.m., the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, enter together, accompanied by the President of the Parliament, Josep Rull. They do so practically without looking at each other until they sit in the front row of the hall where the event marking the start of the Year of Irla is being held. There has been no meeting between Junqueras and Illa, and much of the informal conversations before it began had to do with the negotiations between the Socialists and the Republicans. The event is to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Irla's birth, but the budgets are the elephant in the room of the Sant Jordi Hall.

The Esquerra federation in Barcelona is preparing to open a new chapter after the rebellion that forced its leader, Creu Camacho, to resignThe party has already opened primaries to choose a new executive committee. An alternative candidacy joined the effort on Monday. to the one promoted by the current councilwoman Rosa SuriñachThis faction, which emerged from the ranks of critics of the national leadership, is led by a group of supporters of Oriol Junqueras and Elisenda Alamany, headed by Republican activists Ricard Farin and Núria Clotet, according to reports. The Newspaper and has confirmed ARA.

A failed budget marked the end of Pere Aragonès's government exactly two years ago. Now, Salvador Illa faces a resounding defeat in the Catalan Parliament, and speculation has begun about whether the conflict will also end at the ballot box. except CommonsThe other parliamentary groups, including ERC, have submitted amendments to the entire budget. The Catalan government (Palau de la Generalitat) is avoiding this scenario and reiterates that having a budget is "plan A, B, and C." Negotiations remain stalled, and now the Republicans are even talking about June as a possible timeframe for unblocking them—provided the central government and the Moncloa Palace commit to transferring the personal income tax revenue. This Saturday, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, again pressured ERC to agree to approve the budget given the context of the war in the Middle East and its potential economic consequences. In an address to the Catalan Social Dialogue Council—which includes representatives from unions and employers' associations—Illa asked the Republicans to "rise to the occasion of this extraordinary moment the world is experiencing." "They are the best social safety net," he declared.

Soviet accounts, a model of country conditioned by the "extreme left" or a government surrendered to "communism". These are some of the qualifications that Junts, PP and Vox have dedicated in recent weeks to the PSC executive following its budget agreement with Comuns, who have extracted from the socialists the commitment to veto speculative housing purchases and go one step further in public intervention in the real estate market. They are variations of a criticism that is gaining more and more strength in the right sector of the hemicycle and that also has its echo in the discourse of Foment del Treball, which has also labeled as "pro-communist" these policies.

So far, it hasn't helped at all. the PP leadership has become involved in the negotiations in Extremadura. As expected, Vox voted 'no' to the investiture of María Guardiola in the second vote, held this Friday afternoon. The rejection means that Guardiola has once again lost her attempt to be invested by the Assembly of Extremadura, as It already happened two days ago in the first voteThe far-right party has fulfilled what it had conveyed to the People's Party this Thursday morning: a No The PP sources attributed the resounding defeat to "external factors" in the negotiations. However, despite this new setback, the baroness The Popular Party has avoided a clash with Santiago Abascal's party, ruled out stepping aside, and asserted that it will not throw in the towel.

Esquerra Republicana presented a comprehensive amendment to the Catalan government's budget on Tuesday. The Republicans explained last week that if talks with the government continued without progress, They would flatly refuse to sit down to negotiate the accounts.Seven days later, this warning was confirmed by the general secretary of ERC, Elisenda Alamany, who, in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio, reiterated that the party sees no "guarantees" to open talks on the figures presented by the Catalan government last week. ERC maintains that, without a gesture from the Spanish government demonstrating their willingness to cede to Catalonia the power to collect personal income tax (IRPF), they will not negotiate Salvador Illa's budget. At the Palau de la Generalitat (the Catalan government headquarters), they are not throwing in the towel and insist there is room for agreement: "The government's position remains unchanged," said the minister and spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque. "I believe this is the coherent mechanism in light of our position. Esquerra Republicana will not endorse the Catalan government's resignation to the PSOE," warned the ERC's second-in-command, who also indicated her willingness to withdraw the amendment if the Spanish government makes a gesture regarding the IRPF. Talks between the Republicans and the Catalan government remain open. Just this Monday, the two sides met again, according to sources familiar with the matter consulted by ARA, but the meeting failed to resolve the impasse over the Personal Income Tax (IRPF). Dialogue between Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and the Spanish government is also ongoing. "There is room for maneuver and we have enough time for what we agreed upon to materialize," stated ERC spokesperson in the Catalan Parliament, Ester Capella, at a press conference. Oriol Junqueras's party had scheduled the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) meeting for early March. as a key date for the state executive to demonstrate its commitment to the IRPF (Personal Income Tax).At this point, however, this meeting with all the regional finance ministers has no date and is up in the air. "We are not in a scenario where there will be a Fiscal and Financial Policy Council; we don't have a date. Nor do we know, if there were to be one, what the [Finance] Minister would bring and what she would explain," Capella acknowledged.

Hejoint US-Israeli attack against Iran It had been brewing for some time in the offices of Washington and Tel Aviv, but the imminence of the offensive didn't become clear until the day before it began. This short window of opportunity and the rapid spread of the conflict, with Tehran's response against several countries in the regionThe closure of airspace has taken citizens around the world by surprise, particularly those who were in the Persian Gulf on Saturday, whether working, on vacation, or traveling. Many are now stranded, uncertain of when they will be able to return home. For this reason, the Spanish government has already begun evacuating 30,000 Spaniards from the region, as announced by Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares at the press conference following the cabinet meeting. He explained that 175 Spanish citizens are already flying to Madrid from Abu Dhabi and are scheduled to arrive at Barajas Airport at 7:00 PM. He urged all Spaniards in the area to register as travelers to help keep track of the number of people in the Middle East. A request that the Catalan government has also made—currently counting 1,200 Catalans—with the aim of being able to send instructions for their return to Catalonia if the violence escalates. In fact, the Minister of Foreign Action, Jaume Duch, has assumed that the number of citizens is higher: "These are the people we would like to identify themselves, so that we have the means to know who they are and where they are, and to be in contact with them," he said. According to data from Idescat, 6,115 Catalans live in the Middle East.

With March 20th marked on the calendar as the date that could derail the government's budget, the PSC is working against the clock to try to add ERC's votes to the project. To the calls for responsibility made by the President of the Generalitat, Salvador IllaThe Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, added this on Monday during the first of the appearances before Parliament regarding the 2026 budget, which all ministers will make during the week. Before the Committee on Institutional Affairs, Dalmau insisted that the country "needs" a new budget and that the government cannot continue governing with the 2023 budget. by patching it up through credit supplements"The Catalan government will fulfill 100% of the investiture agreements. That is our objective," he told the Republicans, who insist they will reject the project if there is no agreement to transfer personal income tax collection to the Catalan Tax Agency. The main stumbling block in the negotiations remains the "guarantee" the Republicans are demanding from the Socialists. Dalmau has not commented on the possible ways to achieve this, which range from an amendment to the Organic Law on the Financing of Autonomous Communities (LOFCA) to the Ministry of Finance itself, in the proposal it will submit to the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, opening the door for regional tax authorities to manage major taxes. For now, however, the Ministry of Finance rejects all of these scenarios.

The Minister of Territory, Housing, and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque, is one of the pillars of Salvador Illa's government. The President of the Generalitat entrusted her with two of the portfolios expected to play the most prominent role during this legislative term: housing and the Rodalies commuter rail network. She was also given the task of serving as the government spokesperson. Paneque, a close confidante of Illa, received the offer to join the government just over a year after winning the municipal elections in Girona as the PSC candidate. However, the mayoralty slipped through her fingers when Guanyem formed a pro-independence government with ERC and Junts, With Lluc Salellas at the helm. Now, with the countdown to the municipal elections underway, the Girona pro-independence movement has seen the Rodalies commuter rail chaos as the ideal opportunity to try and weaken Paneque, with an eye toward a possible mayoral candidacy in 2027.

"It is a degrading fact". This is how blunt the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, was when asked about the burqa in his first interview after his medical leave. The head of the Catalan executive was positioning himself on a topic that Vox has introduced into the media agenda, and which gained traction when the PP announced it would support the ban in Congress. Junts distanced itself, but counterattacked with its own proposal in the same direction, something that ERC also began to study a few days later. And in the same way that Vox has placed the debate on the burqa in the spotlight in Congress, Aliança Catalana has brought it to Parliament. Who has not yet taken any steps forward is the PSC. What do the socialists think about this debate?