"Any party official must know that they are nobody without their party, and the duties are very clear: more mayors, councilors and deputies." This phrase from the state leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, did not go unnoticed at the Catalan PP congress last week that re-elected Alejandro Fernández as president of the formation in the Principality. It was a message to Fernández to make it clear that after yielding in all his organizational plan for the party, the trust had to be rewarded with results and internal efficiency. The leader of the Catalan populars has in his hands the growth of a Catalan PP that will serve as a springboard for Feijóo to reach Moncloa. However, what is the state leader's plan for Catalonia? How does he intend to seduce the Catalan electorate?

Ten months and a half remain until the municipal elections, and parties are still debating candidacies and programs. At Junts, moreover, they have an important decision to make: what will they have to do with Aliança Catalana (AC). To curb its growth before the elections, but also to know whether they should form alliances afterward, knowing that Sílvia Orriols' party has set its sights on replacing them. What does the leadership say, and what does the local sphere think?

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.

June began in Parliament with a heated control session in which the opposition tried to surround the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, for the cases of alleged corruption affecting the PSOE and Pedro Sánchez's circle. And the first control session of this July has started the same way, with one more step from the Junts politicians. The president of the Junts group in the Catalan chamber, Mònica Sales, demanded this Wednesday that Illa ask for "forgiveness" for the judicial cases and stop "hiding himself". "When Catalonia has a problem, you disappear; when the PSOE has one, you are always there," she said. "This weekend you had the opportunity to ask for forgiveness on behalf of your party," she retorted, referring to the PSOE federal committee, in which the president said that socialists have "no fear" of anything. Illa, in turn, reiterated that he fears nothing and that he has already given the necessary "explanations".

To oust Pedro Sánchez, the PP needs Junts and the populars' latest moves consolidate a shift on the Procés and Carles Puigdemont's party in particular. However, for the moment, it's all just simple rhetoric. As ARA has learned from various sources familiar with the PP and Junts, there are no contacts between the parties.

The most common practice in democratic countries' political parties is to hold elections in governing bodies with a periodicity of usually four years. In the Catalan PP, however, this has not been the case. A four-year extension has allowed Alejandro Fernández to accumulate two terms in one: he was elected in 2018 in Sitges, but the party did not convene the congress planned for 2022. Four years late and despite multiple challenges and public clashes with Alberto Núñez Feijóo's state leadership, Fernández has managed to survive and this Saturday he has been re-elected with 97.51% of the votes in the formation's sixteenth congress, in an enthronement led by the Galician leader at the Hotel Grand Marina in Barcelona. Furthermore, he has managed to impose his entire plan thanks to Feijóo's full approval, but, according to the Catalan politician, this has been done "from unity." However, the state leader has asked him to look out for the party and has sent a message: "Change cannot be made without Catalonia and much less against Catalonia," he stated.

Last-minute developments in the Catalan PP. In a party with several factions, a congress like the one this Saturday opens up unknowns and leads to movements that could alter the calm scenarios that party heavyweights had designed weeks ago. The Catalan popular leader, Alejandro Fernández, intended that the appointment of Juan Fernández as future general secretary would lead him to step down as parliamentary spokesperson, with the position going to Lorena Roldán, his right-hand woman in the Parliament and the only "alejandrista" in the parliamentary group. But in recent days, there have been several moves that, as ARA has learned from multiple sources, have led to alternative scenarios emerging. The struggle to choose the party's number two, therefore, involves betting on Juan Fernández or opening a third way. And in this latter scenario, one of the names that has been most strongly mentioned as a possible general secretary is David Solé, the right-hand man of the mayor of Castelldefels, Manu Reyes.

Reneix Nous Catalans, renamed Catalans Segle 21. And it is reborn under the warmth of Junts personalities such as former minister Victòria Alsina, responsible for immigration in the Junts leadership, but also with the blessing of former president Artur Mas and former Convergència immigration official Àngel Colom – promoter of Nous Catalans–. At the presentation this Tuesday afternoon in Barcelona, around forty migrant entities have given their support and received the Flama del Canigó, accompanied by Junts members such as deputy Ennatu Domingo.

The award of suspect hand-picked contracts in Altafulla with several politicians under investigation once again puts Parliament in the spotlight. Why? One of the people being investigated in the case is the current ERC deputy and former Minister of the Interior Joan Ignasi Elena, who this Monday testified as an investigated party at the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC). Elena has dissociated himself from any illegal activity in a matter that the defense views as purely administrative. In fact, Elena defends his work and honesty, and denies the accusatory narrative that has led to the investigation. For this reason, he hopes it will be dismissed. However, if the investigation leads to the opening of a trial, as happened with the former President of Parliament Laura Borràs in 2022, it will again put the chamber at the crossroads of suspending a deputy for a case of alleged corruption. What does the regulation say? Has it been changed, as promised?

Junts is in turmoil the day after Jordi Martí's victory in the primaries in Barcelona, which has made him the party's candidate in the municipal elections in the capital. He was not the leadership's man, quite the opposite; prominent members of the top brass maneuvered to boost the officialist Pilar Calvo, a deputy in Congress and president of the National Council. But the operation failed: Xavier Trias' right-hand man has won and, with him, the clearly convergent DNA. And this has caused an upheaval in the formation, as this newspaper has confirmed from various sources.

Junts' primaries in Barcelona are not only serving to dispute the legacy of former mayor Xavier Trias – who has given explicit support to municipal leader Jordi Martí – but have also consolidated Carles Puigdemont's party to put the pedal to the metal against insecurity in Barcelona. This was evident in the four-way debate on the last day of the primaries campaign, in which topics such as daylight murders, drug trafficking like marijuana, and dirtiness resulting from incivility and drunken tourism were discussed. This weekend, the party's Barcelona militants will decide the mayoral candidate between Jordi Martí, Congresswoman Pilar Calvo – close to the national leadership –, MP and Parliament's table secretary Glòria Freixa – a pragmatic liberal –, and former MP and Puigdemont's former lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas.

Junts' primaries in Barcelona are at a key point to choose the candidate for mayor among the four mayoral candidates, all of whom live in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district, a key area for Carles Puigdemont's party in the municipal elections. The choice is between the current municipal leader, Jordi Martí; the first secretary of the table and deputy, Glòria Freixa; the deputy in Congress Pilar Calvo, or the lawyer and former deputy Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas – the only one who lives in Sarrià; the others live in El Putxet, although Calvo is a member of the Eixample district, where she also used to live. The race has the decisive debate this Friday afternoon before the militants can vote in a process that will end with the publication of the results on Sunday evening.

Pope Leo XIV concluded his apostolic journey to the Spanish state this Friday, leaving behind many political messages. The head of the Catholic Church, with more than 1.4 billion faithful worldwide according to data from the Holy See, has been increasing his geopolitical impact for months. What has he emphasized in this week's 22 interventions?

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, is playing the immigration card to counter the right, coinciding with the moral battle waged by Leo XIV on the same issue. This Friday, the state executive received the blessing of the head of the Catholic Church for its humanitarian work with newcomers. From the Las Raíces immigrant reception center in La Laguna, Tenerife, which houses 700 arrivals from the Canary coast, the Holy Father was clear: "I appreciate the collaboration of the government, various institutions, and so many men and women of good will who make this humanitarian aid possible," he emphasized, in a speech in French so that the 250 people who could witness it would understand.

"Dear migrants, I want to bow before your dignity. Human dignity has no passport nor does it lose value when crossing a border." With these words, Pope Leo XIV made a call this Thursday to shake consciences about immigration and shamed xenophobia from the place where the drama of immigration in Spain is experienced most intensely: the Canary Islands. In an event with immigrants from the Arguineguín pier, in Gran Canaria, also known as the "pier of shame" – where nearly 3,000 people were crammed during the pandemic – he strongly criticized Europe's "indifference" and asked for "an examination of conscience." An examination that he extended to the countries of origin and transit, regarding the conditions that drive emigration and recruitment by mafias, in a plea for international cooperation.

The tower of Jesus of the Sagrada Família and Catalonia are blessed as a beacon of Christendom. Pope Leo XIV, predominantly using Catalan in the homily and blessing, crowned Antoni Gaudí's masterpiece this Wednesday with the blessing of the tower of Jesus, coinciding with the centenary of the death of the "architect of God", as the pontiff defined him.

In Montserrat, the spiritual heart of Catalonia, Saint Ignatius of Loyola examined his sins to begin leading a life in God's service, abandoning the sword that had always accompanied him as a knight. With this reference and commending himself to La Moreneta, Pope Leo XIV made a strong plea for peace this Wednesday in a turbulent world. "May hatred give way to hope and peace," he stated from inside the basilica after the rosary prayer presided over by himself. But he also had a message in favor of immigration when he finished his speech: "Thank you, Catalonia, for having welcomed so many people from other countries, because you teach how to integrate everyone into a single family," he said from the outside, in line with what he had defended on Tuesday at the Lluís Companys Stadium.

The day has arrived. Pope Leo XIV landed this Tuesday in Catalonia and in his first homily from Barcelona Cathedral, he has already made several parts in Catalan. Beyond starting and closing in the country's language, he has delivered entire paragraphs, although the use of Spanish has been predominant – a language he knows well and which marked his life as a bishop in Peru. The pontiff stated that "Barcelona is called the capital of Catalonia" and spiced up the claim with the fact that this gives "Barcelonians and Catalans" a "special vocation" to become "builders of unity".

At the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, foreign players, the most important in the squad, have long been cheered. Vinícius, Rodrygo, Valverde, and Mbappé arrived in Madrid as professional athletes and, despite some racist episodes inherent in the world of football, the integration of privileged people has never been a major problem. But this Monday at the Bernabéu, a different kind of foreigner was being cheered, those who had to leave their homeland to find "better opportunities".

At the headquarters of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, in front of all the bishops, who were wearing the zucchetto, Pope Leo XIV called this Monday for decisive action against the "pederasty" perpetrated by priests and religious of the Catholic Church: "Justice and reparation," he summarized. The pontiff defended a zero-tolerance policy against what he described as a "plague." "The ecclesial community is called to respond with listening, truth, justice, reparation, and an ever more determined commitment to prevention and a culture of care," he insisted. In this regard, the Pope also admitted that "hurt people must be able to find sincere listening, warmth, protection, and real paths to healing.