The Supreme Court judge who drafted the interlocutory decision that blocks the right to vote for thousands of Spaniards who obtained nationality by availing themselves of the Democratic Memory Law –adopting the PP's thesis that the Grandchildren Law is a “founded, real and serious danger” that could “gravely affect the objectivity and transparency” of the elections– is an old acquaintance of the independence movement. He is Antonio Narváez, who was a magistrate of the Constitutional Court from 2014 to 2023 and, therefore, played a prominent role during the years of the 'Procés'. His name resonates in Catalonia because in February 2021 he stepped aside from the debate on the amparo appeals of the political prisoners against the October 1st ruling. He had to recuse himself after the pro-independence leaders collectively requested his disqualification due to words he had uttered in November 2017.

María Tardón (Zarzuela del Pinar, Segovia, 1957) has been a judge at the National Court since 2018, when she took over from Carmen Lamela, the magistrate who sent the 'Jordis' to prison in September 2017. Tardón, a single mother and a cinema enthusiast, has made cameos in five films and has completed many stages of the Camino de Santiago. She began working at sixteen in a chocolate factory while studying law by correspondence and has been practicing as a judge for 39 years. She had only a four-year hiatus to jump into politics as Deputy Mayor for Security with the PP in Madrid from 1999 to 2003. She is now at the forefront of current events because she will investigate the mass entry of immigrants into Ceuta and her past with the PP has led Minister Óscar Puente to “doubt her impartiality”.

“The interpretation of the Supreme Court cannot be labeled as surprising or unpredictable, much less capricious or the fruit of an alleged animosity.” The first version of the first draft of the Constitutional Court regarding the amnesty for embezzlement, prepared by the conservative José María Macías and to which ARA has had access, proposes rejecting the appeal for amparo presented by Jordi Turull against Manuel Marchena's decision not to grant him amnesty and to keep his disqualification in effect until 2030. The document, which will be debated at the plenary session of the TC on September 22, fully endorses the thesis of the high court, which avoided pardoning the embezzlement by alleging that the members of the 1-O Government enriched themselves because they did not pay for the referendum out of their own pockets: “The benefit can also be defined as the mere possibility of improperly disposing of funds not previously available, a fact that increases spending capacity and the consequent possibility of acquiring goods and services. Being able to dispose of what was not available already implies a benefit,” the draft argues.

A judge from the National Court will investigate the mass entry of immigrants into Ceuta at the end of July. After two initial reports from the Spanish police, which pointed to the passivity of the Moroccan security forces, María Tardón decided on Monday that she is competent to open a case and investigate the possibility that a crime against the peace or independence of the State, against the rights of foreign citizens, and a crime of criminal organization may have been committed. The first move she has made has been to request from the Ministry of the Interior all the documentation that the Spanish government declassified and made public. However, the experts consulted by ARA agree that the investigation will have little reach in ensuring that anyone assumes criminal responsibility. “It is a kind of toast to the sun, it is completely unthinkable that Morocco will collaborate,” says Manuel Cancio, professor of criminal law at the Autonomous University of Madrid. “The judge will run into a wall that will make it very difficult to move forward, Morocco will not collaborate and will not hand over Moroccan citizens,” adds Ramon Ragués, professor of criminal law at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF).

The same week that Pedro Sánchez's judicial nightmare has been reactivated at the National Court, and a few meters from where the former director general of the Civil Guard was testifying, under investigation in the Leire Díez case, the Supreme Court has kicked off the judicial year. Everyone knows – in Ferraz, in Génova, and in La Moncloa – that the timing of the justice system will mark the final twists and turns of the legislative term, both due to the cases splashing the PSOE and the application of the amnesty. And one of the great protagonists has been the reprimands for the criticisms of judges: “It is not admissible for public disqualification to become an instrument of pressure,” declared the president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Isabel Perelló. “If the disqualifications come from those who hold institutional responsibilities, the gravity is greater,” she added.

Now it's for real: countdown for the amnesty for the leaders of the 'Procés'. Or that is what was felt this Thursday in the corridors of the opening of the judicial year at the Supreme Court. According to sources familiar with the high court who spoke to ARA, the application of the law to the 1-O Government, including former president Carles Puigdemont, could be triggered after the resolution of the first amparo appeal by the Constitutional Court, without needing to wait for them to be resolved individually one by one. The same voices argue that the first pronouncement “would generate a doctrine” that could extend to the rest of the cases. It is, precisely, the same thing that the president of the TC defended, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, a few days ago in an interview. That is to say, although Carles Puigdemont's case will not be the first one the TC addresses, the arrest warrant against him could be lifted when the Constitutional Court rules on the appeal of former minister Jordi Turull, which is the lead case and, in principle, will be the first to have a ruling, which all sources assume will be favorable. It would arrive in the month of October and would drag the rest along.

The PSOE maintains unchanged the script it has established since the Leire Díez case broke out and continues to build a wall between Ferraz and the woman known as the socialist plumber. Now it has been the turn of Ana María Fuentes, the current party manager, who has testified at the National Court as under investigation for forgery of commercial documents. The Civil Guard and Judge Santiago Pedraz suspect that she falsified invoices and engagement letters to get money to Leire Díez and, in turn, conceal the payments. Sources present at the statement explain to ARA that Ana María Fuentes has shifted the blame onto Santos Cerdán, who at that time was the party's organization secretary and is also under investigation, alleging that he was the one who made the decisions and who ordered and gave the go-ahead to the engagement orders, invoices, and payments. She defended that she did what he told her, that she limited herself to paying and that she "did not control" expressly and specifically what the money was spent on.

The Supreme Court has acceded to the claims of Vox and Iustitia Europa –an extra-parliamentary party common in cases involving the PSOE– and has temporarily suspended the right to vote for people who have obtained Spanish nationality through what is known as the grandchildren's law. It is a precautionary measure that it has adopted until it issues a final judgment and while Spanish consulates do not "issue certifying documentation" of their status as descendants of exiles. This addresses those "born outside of Spain, to a father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, who were originally Spanish," who suffered exile for "political, ideological, or belief-based reasons, or for reasons of sexual orientation or identity" and who "had lost or renounced" Spanish nationality. This is the exact phrase that appears in the Democratic Memory Law.

The National Court has decided to open a criminal case to investigate the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta at the end of July. After the endorsement of the Public Prosecutor's Office and receiving the reports it commissioned from the Spanish police and the Civil Guard, Judge María Tardón considers that she is competent to analyze events that she believes could be framed within three crimes: one that compromises the peace or independence of the State, against the rights of foreign citizens –in connection with a crime of reckless homicide for the 83 bodies that were found in Spanish waters– and of criminal organization. “We are facing criminal conduct allegedly committed abroad that has seriously attacked the territorial integrity of Spain,” she maintains. “It is deduced that the crime has an intentionality to attack the State,” adds the judge, who recalls that Pedro Sánchez presented the events as a “violation of the territorial integrity of Spain”. Furthermore, she points out that the events were promoted by a “plurality of persons not yet identified” and justifies that a “massive migratory flow” is “one of the characteristic methods” of hybrid warfare.

The entire PP leadership and the vast majority of the barons of the party had an appointment in Madrid this Monday: an informative breakfast by Juan Jesús Vivas at the Nueva Economía Fórum. The president of Ceuta traveled to the Spanish capital 39 days after the massive entry of migrants into the autonomous city that still marks the day-to-day of political news, and in the midst of multiplying political tension and crossed reproaches with the Spanish government. The person in charge of introducing him was Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who praised him for having “embodied like no one else the dignity of the State” and for acting as an “ideal president” to defend Ceuta in “times of unrest”. “You have a place in the hearts of millions of Spaniards”, he said.

After the holidays and a resumption of the political term marked by the Ceuta crisis, the courts return to the forefront of current events. This week, Pedro Sánchez will see two executives from Plus Ultra, the manager of the PSOE, and the former director of the Civil Guard file through the National Court in the two investigations that have gained the most momentum in recent weeks and which could shake him the most: those of the Leire Díez and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero cases. What is expected to happen in the coming days and weeks?

The Public Prosecutor's Office is in favor of the National Court formally opening a criminal case regarding the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta at the end of July. This is stated in the report submitted by prosecutor Jesús Alonso, who concludes that the judge is competent to investigate the facts. After having received the pronouncement from the public ministry and the reports from the Spanish police and the Civil Guard, the magistrate María Tardón must now make a decision. The Prosecutor's Office argues that the “main result” of the migrants' entry affected Ceuta and justifies that the law of the judiciary allows Spanish jurisdiction to scrutinize “conduct developed outside the national territory” when there are “sufficient connecting elements” and when the “legally relevant effects” are projected onto interests protected by the Spanish legal system.

One of the secondary protagonists of Pedro Sánchez's appearance at the Congress of Deputies to give explanations for the management of the Ceuta crisis has been the repeated demand by Junts, Bildu and the PNV for the Spanish government to transfer immigration powers to Catalonia and the Basque Country. ERC has not made any reference to it, but also supports it. The one who opened the door was Miriam Nogueras: “We want them so that Catalonia stops paying for the bad decisions of Spanish governments and starts doing the work that clearly has not been done,” she proclaimed during her speech. It was Junts who, in January 2024, placed this demand on the political agenda after wresting the commitment from the PSOE in exchange for the first three decrees of the legislature. It took a year to materialize in black and white, but the Podem veto has prevented it from prospering.

Bus 37, past seven in the evening, was packed with people carrying Spanish flags who were approaching Plaza Cibeles in Madrid. There were quite a few who approached the driver –who answered kindly– to find out where it was best to get off to attend the rally in support of Ceuta. There was no specific pattern: people of all ages, young and old, who the moment they joined the mass of people already at the Puerta de Alcalá did not hesitate to shout the slogans: "Pedro Sánchez, son of a bitch" or "Resignation" of the Spanish government. In this way, in Madrid and dozens of other cities across Spain, thousands of people demonstrated over the crisis in Ceuta and turned the indignation over what is being experienced in the autonomous city into a cry against the Spanish government. A mobilization –called by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), presided over by the PP– that took to the streets the political message that the right wanted. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, José Luis Martínez-Almeida (PP) and Santiago Abascal (Vox) made an appearance at the Madrid rally, while some PSOE leaders also mobilized, ignoring the socialist leadership because they considered that this Wednesday, Ceuta Day, they had to take to the streets.

The National Immigration and Borders Center (Cenif) has concluded that the entry into Ceuta of nearly 80,000 migrants at the end of July had the complicity of Moroccan security forces. This is according to the report submitted to the National Court, to which ARA has had access. It alleges that it was a process that had “prior planning” and “objectives other than migratory ones,” and that it was “facilitated” by an “active guidance of the masses towards crossing points” by the security forces and bodies of Morocco, added to a “scarce presence” of agents. It is a version that clashes head-on with the explanations given so far by the PSOE ministries and Pedro Sánchez, who at all times have distanced Morocco from the crisis and have highlighted the “cooperation” of the Alawite country. All this on the day before Sánchez appears in Congress to give explanations for the events in Ceuta.

Fifteen years after the announcement of the definitive cessation of armed activity, ETA prisoners are once again topical because semi-freedom regimes have confronted the Basque government with the Prosecutor's Office and the National Court in recent months. Throughout 2026, two prison surveillance judges have revoked five decisions by the executive, which are shared by the PNB and the PSE. Justice has particularly questioned the haste in granting regimes under article 100.2 of the prison regulations, which allows a prisoner to leave prison to carry out a specific treatment program aimed at their reintegration; or third degrees, which allow them to live outside prison and only return to sleep.

An “anti-party” that “does not align with any ideology” and rejects the “regime of 78” is responsible for the National High Court investigating the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta and that, in parallel, a court in Madrid has opened a criminal case regarding the purchase of the luxury penthouse for Isabel Díaz Ayuso. It is Iustitia Europa, a group known for intervening as popular prosecution in judicial cases involving the PSOE environment and which will make the leap to general elections in 2027. “We are transversal and we defend that the solution to corruption must come from civil society. After almost fifty years, we have a serious problem in Spain and we must move away from left-wing and right-wing ideologies,” defends its president, Luis María Pardo, in conversation with ARA.

In recent days, anonymous posts have been appearing on social media promoting a new mass entry into Ceuta this Saturday. To prevent this, both Madrid and Rabat have mobilized. "By providing ourselves with more personnel and material resources, and with a deployment of the armed forces," explained the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, this Thursday. "We will continue to implement the necessary personnel to help return to normality as soon as possible and to prevent events like those of July 30 from happening again," he added.

On July 16, 2025, seven years after leaving the Ministry of Finance, it became publicly known that Cristóbal Montoro – along with his team – was being investigated by a judge in Tarragona for allegedly trafficking in the modification of laws to favor gas companies in exchange for bribes. In twelve months, the investigation has progressed slowly and Rubén Rus's orders have arrived sporadically. One of the major new developments was a report from the Tax Agency that located 850,000 suspicious euros: this is the amount that gas companies sent to Equipo Económico – the firm founded by Montoro and at the epicenter of the alleged scheme – between 2011 and 2019 in installments and with an operation to try to disguise them. Around this document, the two visions of the investigation that have been constructed can be traced.

The PP has been forced to balance with Vox in the face of the humanitarian emergency situation in Ceuta. And the distribution of unaccompanied migrant minors who remain in the city since they entered swimming from Morocco is testing the complicity and understanding between Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal. The far-right party announced on Saturday that its three vice-presidents with responsibilities in Childhood – in Extremadura, Aragon, and Castile and León – will not attend the meeting to be held on Thursday to begin addressing the distribution of minors. However, the PP will leave Vox alone because the regional ministries that depend on the Popular Party – in Andalusia, where there is also a coalition, and in the other seven territories where they govern alone – will attend the meeting.