The migratory crisis experienced at the borders of Ceuta has once again strongly brought to the public debate a concept that seemed to have been forgotten: territorial integrity. Understood as the inalienable principle of international law that grants a state the right to preserve its territory intact and to inviolably protect its borders, this idea has once again topped the media headlines and monopolized the most fiery speeches of many politicians from the rostrums. But where does this concept come from and why is its violation once again feared?

August arrives. Cities empty, the frantic pace fades, the heat suffocates the asphalt and citizens pack their bags for the beach or seek the cool refuge of the mountains. It is time to hang the "Closed for holidays" sign on businesses and disconnect from routine. But what happens meanwhile with the institutions?

Salvador Illa reaches this Saturday the equator of his term at the head of the Generalitat, and he arrives facing a phenomenon well known to political science: the wear and tear of government action. Demoscopics show us that after the victory at the polls, the PSC experienced an upturn. However, as the legislature has progressed and the harshness of daily management has taken hold, citizen support has suffered a constant and progressive decline until hitting rock bottom and settling at the lowest point of support since the start of the term. How is this cycle of loss of popularity explained and what real options does the PSC have to regain lost ground before the next elections?

It is the first multi-operator vehicle in the Spanish state and its main function will be for people to receive ES-Alert messages and have coverage in places where telecommunications have been lost due to fires or other emergencies, as in the case of last year's blackout. This is the premise with which the Government launched a new mobile unit this Wednesday, a vehicle prepared to travel to rural environments and act in the face of serious incidents.

Junts per Catalunya formalized this Monday its integration into the European Democratic Party (PDE), an adhesion that had been being finalized for months as the ARA advanced. With this step, the party led by Carles Puigdemont closes a long period of political orphanhood on the Old Continent, which dated back to 2018. It was that year when the PDECat was expelled from the Party of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) under pressure from Ciutadans and in a context marked by accusations of corruption against the formation then led by David Bonvehí for the 3% case.

Since it was put on the table, Vox has made the amnesty law one of its main battle horses, promising actively and passively that, if it comes to the Spanish government, it will "reverse" and "repeal" the norm immediately. The People's Party has also joined this idea, and its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in a dynamic that, analyzing the archives, is common among the populars: promising the repeal of PSOE laws to end up keeping them intact once they come to power —as happened in the past with the abortion law or same-sex marriage. Despite the constant insistence of the far-right on this supposed repeal, the threat clashes head-on with an insurmountable wall: the architecture of the rule of law. According to experts consulted by ARA, Vox's promise is legally unfeasible and the elimination of the law would have practically no effect on the accused. In fact, the party itself admits to ARA that it is aware of this legal wall.

Austria's Minister of Labour, Christine Aschbacher, had not planned to resign from her post until 48 hours earlier, when accusations of plagiarism surfaced on a blog by a professor commenting on her final thesis in 2021. Nor did French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux, who in 2017 had hired his daughters as parliamentary assistants during the summer, even though French law still allowed the hiring of relatives. Nor Peter Magnus Nilsson, who in 2023 resigned as chief of staff to the Swedish prime minister for fishing eels without a license and denying it to the authorities when discovered. The culture of resignation is widespread in Nordic and Central European countries and contrasts with the attitude taken by politicians in Southern Europe.A clear example of this resistance are the presidents of the Spanish government in a context where the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, remains in office despite the judicial cases surrounding his party and the constant demands for resignation from opposition parties, some of them until now parliamentary partners. Sánchez, however, is not the exception. While the United Kingdom, in ten years, has seen six prime ministers pass through number ten of Downing Street, in 51 years of Spanish democracy only the first Spanish president, Adolfo Suárez, resigned from his post.This same inertia is transferred to Catalan politicians. Precisely in recent months, the word "resignationin the mouths of the opposition parties and also from the teachers' collectives who are demonstrating against the Government: they have pointed out the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, and the director general of the Mossos, Josep Lluís Trapero, as well as the head of Education, Esther Niubó, from whom the opposition has demanded that she step down.now for the error in the PISA tests.

Jordi Sendra has been officially chosen as the Junts per Catalunya candidate for the mayoralty of Tarragona this Wednesday. Sendra obtained a total of 108 votes (85.04%) in a primary election in which 127 (82.47%) of the 154 registered militants participated, and which was marked by the absence of alternative candidates. The vote, held between this Tuesday and this Wednesday, culminates what the Tarragona militants requested, who requested to be able to vote in a referendum to decide their future mayoral candidate.

During the last few weeks, the figure of the confessor has taken on absolute prominence in the Spanish judicial ecosystem. But the so-called reward law – the State's practice of granting benefits and sentence reductions in exchange for internal information – was not designed in Madrid's offices to combat political corruption. Some of its roots take us back to prisons in the United States and the streets of Palermo (Sicily), where the state had to accept a prior defeat in order to move forward: the only way to destroy a closed criminal organization is to buy the betrayal of its own members.

The uncertainty about the application of the amnesty law to the leaders of the Procés has left a judicial labyrinth open. Waiting to see if the Supreme Court will apply the CJEU ruling, within this labyrinth there is a path that is still unresolved and leaves an open question: in case of a hypothetical non-application of the amnesty, is it possible to open the file for a second pardon to erase what was left pending? At the time, the Spanish government partially pardoned the leaders of the Procés – it was the only possible way after the sentencing court opposed the measure of grace – that is, they forgave them the prison sentence, but kept intact the disqualification penalty that affected Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa, who were also convicted of embezzlement. This disqualification, for example, prevents the current leader of ERC from running in an election –as he has shown himself willing to do– or to teach.

With the ECJ's endorsement still present and the day after former president Carles Puigdemont denounced Spain to the European Commission for non-compliance with the law, separatism has taken advantage of the last control session with the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, to pressure him, but above all to bring back his hemeroteca. This has been done by the leader of Junts in the Parliament, Mònica Sales, when she told him: "First he said "no amnesty or anything like that"". Shortly after, the head of ERC in the chamber, Josep Maria Jové, was added, who asked him to "remember": "You didn't want it." The President of the Generalitat avoided engaging and defended looking "forward": "An amnesty was necessary so that negotiations could be normalized in Catalonia.

“This will all end up in international courts,” predicted the then-President of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, in November 2017. For now, the amnesty – which at the time could not even be imagined – has already passed the validation of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and it is not the first setback that European justice has dealt to the Spanish Supreme Court. From exile, Puigdemont's defense has chained a series of favorable rulings across the continent. A series of victories that, for now, have not served him to return to Catalonia without the risk of being arrested.

The ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Thursday regarding the amnesty has once again focused attention on who judges our representatives and how. Once the Constitutional Court (TC) determines its position, the final decision on the application of the law to the leaders of the 'procés' will fall to the Supreme Court (TS), given that they were or should have been tried by this body. But why go directly to Madrid?

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has given a clear endorsement to the amnesty law this Thursday, which has triggered a wave of reactions uniting the independence movement and the Catalan and Spanish governments in a single demand: the immediate application of the law by the Spanish judiciary. The ruling has been received as a "resounding victory", although with the caution of knowing that the final executive decision rests with the state courts. In the words of former president Carles Puigdemont, "the game will no longer be played in Europe but at the Bernabéu, with the referees and the crowd leaning to one side".

Political debate often strains the seams of institutional decorum and courtesy in political forums. This Tuesday, the Commission on the Status of Deputies accepted sanctioning the comments of the leader of Aliança Catalana with a minor offense, Sílvia Orriols, about Najat Driouech, an ERC deputy, whom she accused of making "a show of Islamic misogyny" for wearing a veil.

Parliament acted this Tuesday against the violations of the Code of Conduct in the hemicycle. After nine months and dragging four files –one from Aliança Catalana and three from Vox– before the Committee on the Status of Deputies, the body chaired by Antoni Castellà (Junts) agreed, in a secret closed-door session, to classify the actions of the leader of Aliança Catalana, Sílvia Orriols, as a minor offense. Now the committee will transfer this opinion to the bureau of Parliament, which will be responsible for deciding and applying the final sanction. This punishment can range from a public reprimand to a financial fine of between 600 and 12,000 euros.

"Cutting down trees is not a crime", said Salvador Illa this Monday in an interview with RAC1. The President of the Generalitat called for a "change of mentality" in forest management and argued that "the forest must be managed". A few months ago, Parliament modified part of a Government decree on measures related to the agricultural and forestry sector. What exactly changed?

"Whoever comes to commit crimes must know they have no place in our society." Read in isolation and without any context, it might currently be difficult to guess which leader or political party this phrase might come from. The reality, however, is that it is an excerpt from the Catalan PP's position paper for its 16th congress just a few days ago. This discursive forcefulness brings an evidence to the table and introduces a lively debate: Spanish politics, as well as Catalan politics, is shifting towards an increasingly radicalized right.

Governing without depending on pacts is the great aspiration of any candidate for Moncloa. With this objective in their sights, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has resurrected a controversial recipe that his predecessor, Pablo Casado, already put on the table: giving an extra bonus of deputies to the most voted list in the general elections. Would it be possible with a simple reform of the electoral law as the popular party proposes? All experts consulted by ARA agree emphatically that no: to be able to apply the measure, the Constitution would have to be reformed.

The governing committee of Aliança Catalana has unanimously agreed this Sunday, in a meeting held at ten in the morning, to "withdraw confidence" in Arnau Liesa as the party's candidate for Figueres City Council and to initiate the procedures for his expulsion from the formation. As reported by the party in a statement, the decision was made after learning of a "personal situation" which, it asserts, had not been previously communicated and which it considers "incompatible with the foundational principles" of the political project. The committee adds that, once the decision was communicated, Liesa "has opted to voluntarily disassociate himself from the party," a fact that the party "appreciates".