The elections in Galicia are becoming increasingly tight and the PP sees its absolute majority fully in danger even before the Puigdemont effect was triggered by the proposal for a conditional pardon of the former president by Alberto Núñez Feijóo. This is revealed by the latest poll from the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) prior to this Sunday's regional elections, in which the popular party led by Alfonso Rueda has stalled at 42.2% of the votes and between 34 and 38 seats –the same as in the previous survey–, while the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) is soaring. The sovereignists reach 33.4% of the votes, with growth that would allow them to reach between 24 and 31 deputies, a historic record for the formation. If the CIS is correct, this double scenario makes the conservative absolute majority in Parliament hang by a thread. In parallel, the PSdeG-PSOE plummets to 18% of support, placing it between 9 and 14 deputies, in a particularly negative result for the socialist candidacy.

The Archbishop of Tarragona, Joan Planellas, attends to ARA from the Archbishop's Palace, seven years after taking office. He is also president of the Tarraconense Episcopal Conference, which brings together Catalan bishops.

The Catalan parish that the Pope will visit believes in the impossible, prays for healing, and grants wishes. This Friday, thousands of people have passed through the parish of Sant Agustí in Barcelona to celebrate Saint Rita. It is a festival deeply linked to this order, which is the Pope's order, and deeply rooted in Catalonia. They came from everywhere, with roses to offer and pray. The midday mass in Catalan was packed to the brim, with people standing along the sides and at the back, in a parish that normally prays mainly in Filipino and that also represents the missionary Church.

Calm, serene, and placid are three adjectives used within the Catalan PP to refer to the regional congress that will be held on June 27. Who would have thought, when not long ago Alejandro Fernández seemed doomed by Alberto Núñez Feijóo's inner circle. But there is still uncertainty in some of the moves to shape the new leadership. Especially in a triple change that is being strongly rumored within the PP, with the bet made by Fernández himself, according to multiple sources consulted by ARA: to remove the historic Santi Rodríguez from the general secretariat – so that he ceases to be number two, as he has been until now – and to have the position pass to the current parliamentary spokesperson, Juan Fernández. The consequence would be that the spokesperson position in the Catalan chamber would go to Lorena Roldán, currently deputy, the most questioned piece of the puzzle.

The path to Junts primaries in Barcelona has already begun and four candidates are starting to make their move. As ARA has been able to learn, former Economy Minister Jaume Giró is considering it, although, of the four, he is the one who sees the option of taking the step to run as furthest away. Lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas is finalizing his candidacy while waiting to speak with former president Carles Puigdemont, and the secretary of the Parliament's desk Glòria Freixa is leaning towards running. All three would join the municipal leader, Jordi Martí, who a few days ago officially announced he would run in the primaries, causing an internal earthquake in the party.

Balaguer was the capital of the powerful county of Urgell and provided rulers such as King Peter III the Ceremonious, but that is a distant memory. The degradation of the historic center and social segregation mark a city with dwindling vitality. In the center and around the church of Santa Maria de Balaguer, ruined houses, half-demolished or illegally occupied, show the complexity of the capital of La Noguera, with 17,700 inhabitants, which is not even connected to the highway – the C-13 to link it with Lleida is just a promise, and this makes them lose industrial momentum.

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.

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.

The visit of Pope Leo XIV to Catalonia is the prelude to the changes of bishops in the Principality. Barcelona is the most important, but Tarrasa also needs to be renewed and, in the rest of the Catalan Countries, Mallorca. Juan José Omella, from Aragon in the Franja, landed in November 2015 at the archbishopric of Barcelona with the mitre he had from Calahorra. At 80 years old, five years past the normal age for the position, he will cease to be archbishop and the succession will be finalized this summer, after the pontiff's visit. Here comes Operation Barcelona: who are the best-positioned names? What role will Omella and the Pope play?

The choice of Junts' candidate for Barcelona City Council is not only unresolved, but also complicated. As ARA has learned, the party's spokesperson in the consistory, Jordi Martí, has informed the leadership of his decision to run in a potential primary and fight for the position. An intention that clashes with Junts' leadership's desire to appoint a candidate without an internal dispute. In fact, after receiving a 'no' from independents such as businessman Tatxo Benet or former president Artur Mas and ex-councillor Joaquim Forn, the leadership's most likely option was the spokesperson, Josep Rius. Carles Puigdemont's right-hand man since he was president of the Generalitat.

Movements between Junts and the Spanish government. The Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, was open this Tuesday to approving the tax incentives that Junts is asking for in the housing portfolio: "It is an opportunity that we should take advantage of," she stated in an interview with ACN. The PSOE has tried to convey that the measures of Carles Puigdemont's party can go ahead, and the Junts members also note that, now yes, things can go differently than the last two times the issue has been voted on in Congress. Thus, according to Junts sources consulted, the party accepts the challenge and shows its willingness to approve the extension of rents, in parallel to the executive also promoting a decree with tax deductions for mortgages and rents. The Junts members would accept them being presented in two separate decrees, as long as both end up passing.

The convergent gene re-emerges within Junts in the midst of a process to straighten out the party and its ideological bases, but there is a Junts sector that still self-identifies as left-wing. This situation is causing internal tensions, both at the national and local levels, and sources consulted by ARA explain that a portion of the party's leaders believe that the time has come to dispense with this current, and some even advocate for ending all currents within the party and channeling nuances through unity. Right now, however, this is not a viable scenario, as no major shifts are expected from former president Carles Puigdemont. But, what is the influence of the left within Junts?

It's not new, but it does intensify every day. The PP of Madrid and the far-right Vox are shamelessly spreading the theory of electoral fraud. In the same vein as Donald Trump in the United States after his 2020 defeat – which ended in a failed coup insurrection – and as the Spanish right had already hinted with attacks on mail-in voting in both the last general elections and the Extremaduran contests, the flag of electoral fraud, which points to Pedro Sánchez as guilty, is once again flying.

The Sindicat d'Estudiants dels Països Catalans (SEPC) repainted two weeks ago the pro-independence mural in the UAB's Plaça Cívica that the rectorate had erased by judicial order during Easter week and which had been welcoming students for thirteen years. Only two days later, the pro-Spanish elements eliminated it. This was done by the association Unión de Brigadas, which brings together seven small groups from all over Catalonia – four of which are active –, mainly from the metropolitan area of Barcelona, who are dedicated to removing pro-independence symbolism from public spaces.

Political parties have been able to hold the first day of the electoral campaign in Andalusia this May 1st, after the starting gun was fired last dawn. And, despite the president of the Regional Government, the Popular Party's Juanma Moreno Bonilla, not wanting to admit it, the party setting the pace of the campaign is Vox. The Andalusian president knows he could lose the majority by just a handful of votes. And that's why his party is concentrating on trying to strengthen the centrist electoral base, to avoid defections, despite the headaches caused by "the 'national priority' that the PP itself has agreed with Vox" in Extremadura and Aragon. The political victory that Alberto Núñez Feijóo has handed to the far-right has completely disrupted an election that is the Galician leader's first acid test after his umpteenth strategic turn with concessions to Le Penism, which popularized the slogan 'Our people first'.

The direction that the far-right has taken in Spain and around the world has generated a consequence that has been quite visible in recent weeks: the divorce from the Church. The most palpable proof was the clash between Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV over the war in Iran. However, in Spain, the distancing has also become evident in the migratory debate. To the point that a few days ago the bishop of the Canary Islands, José Mazuelos, came out to strongly criticize Vox, but also the PP, for opposing the massive regularization of immigrants: "Many people should get into a cayuco". In fact, the migratory issue has dominated Spanish politics in recent weeks and the regional pacts between the PP and Vox, which have focused on "national priority" in public aid and benefits. And it is precisely this that has caused the most frontal rejection from the Catholic Church hierarchy and entities like Càritas.

Junts has accelerated the appointment of candidates for the municipal elections. According to Junts sources consulted by ARA, the objective is to have the names of the list leaders ready "this summer" for what will be a trial by fire for Carles Puigdemont's party, especially in a context where the threat of Aliança Catalana looms, which could steal support from them. Beyond the tug-of-war in inland Catalonia, there is an absolute priority: the metropolitan area and "zero municipalities," those in which they have no representation. What is the reality and the plan to reverse this electoral nightmare?

The agreements between PP and Vox in Extremadura and Aragon have had a "box or fence" that was not only about management, but above all about ideological war. On paper, Vox has won it with the achievement for the first time of "national priority" in "aid, subsidies, and public benefits" – in both regions. As ARA has been able to learn, Vox approached the negotiations as a key scenario for the cultural battle a year before the Spanish elections, with two essential axes: immigration based on the slogan "first those from home"; and deregulation, the chainsaw of the Argentine Javier Milei. National priority has been an agreed element as a prelude to new offensives: "It is the Overton window," say consulted Vox sources, who cite a concept from political science that describes the progressive acceptance of ideas that were initially rejected.

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.

President Salvador Illa defended his chief of staff, Eduard Rivas, this Tuesday morning, after his involvement in alleged irregularities when he was mayor of Esparreguera (Baix Llobregat) became known. Rivas, who led the town hall of this municipality for the PSC between 2015 and 2024, is being investigated as part of a process that probes public contracts of the council, according to has been reported by El Periódico, which explains that the Mossos confiscated the socialist official's mobile phone three months ago. Illa has reaffirmed his "full confidence" in his collaborator.