The trial against the Pujol Ferrusola family has entered its final stretch. This week has been dominated by the experts proposed by the prosecution and the defense to assess the business dealings of the eldest son of the former president of the Generalitat. And the highlight has been the confrontation between two tax experts and three specialists proposed by the firstborn's defense, which began on Tuesday and will conclude next Friday in an extraordinary session. In total, it will amount to over ten hours of testimony.

Two months ago, at a conference at the Fórum Europa Tribuna Catalunya, journalists asked Sílvia Orriols if they already had a candidate for Barcelona, and the leader of Aliança Catalana said yes. "He is a man and he is known," the head of the far-right party limited herself to saying. She said this while looking at the table where other members of the leadership and the party were seated, and stressed that she could not say anything more until Sant Jordi's Day, when it had been agreed to present the candidate for mayor of the Catalan capital. The presentation of the mayoral candidate, however, has been postponed and will not take place next week. This was announced by Orriols herself this Thursday in Parliament, who admitted that the person to whom they had "entrusted" to be the candidate "has backed out".

"Racist and classist", this is how the Spanish vice president, Yolanda Díaz, of the Sumar space, has described Junts per Catalunya, with whom they agreed to the investiture of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez. Díaz has argued that she "knows very well" who Carles Puigdemont's party is and has asserted that "in her life she has never defined Junts as progressive". This accusation, made in an interview with Onda Cero, comes amid a clash with the Junts members over housing measures, as Sumar wants the group led by Miriam Nogueras to validate the decree-law approved by the Council of Ministers in the package of measures for the Iran war that extends rental contracts. Support that Puigdemont's party refuses to give them because they do not share the measure and becausethey have presented an alternative that involves lowering taxes (deductions for tenants and owners). The vote must take place in Congress on April 28 and Sumar has begun a round of contacts to achieve support, which has started off on the wrong foot.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso has used an advisor of hers in the Community of Madrid to search for and buy a new apartment in the Spanish capital, according to what Eldiario.es publishes this Thursday. The information from the digital outlet, which the popular leader's team has not denied, indicates that the head of office of the Madrid presidency secretariat, Álvaro Sanz, has been in charge of the arrangements for the search for Ayuso's new home: he has made contacts with representatives of at least one property, arranged visits to the property, and even participated in the negotiation of the purchase price.

Ricard Farin (Barcelona, 1995) is a candidate to lead the republican federation in Barcelona with the Activem Barcelona candidacy, the list considered to be from the establishment.

Rosa Suriñach (Barcelona, 1981) is a councilor of ERC in the Barcelona City Council and a candidate to preside over the federation with the candidacy Construïm Barcelona, which brings together the critics.

"The position is very clear," the Finance ministers keep repeating, even though the hottest part of IRPF collection is up in the air. First, it was María Jesús Montero who closed the door on the transfers agreed between ERC and PSC, and now her successor has taken on this role. Arcadi España assures that the Spanish government will not deviate from the agreement signed between Moncloa and the Generalitat in the meeting of the Bilateral Commission last July: "For all the autonomous communities and also for Catalonia, we have the will to increase management capacity, always within the framework of the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT)." What does this mean? Basically, that the transfer to Catalonia of the collection of 100% of the IRPF is not a commitment that the state executive makes its own, and that, in any case, it will be the AEAT that will have the powers in management and collection. The Catalan Tax Agency (ATC) should settle for collaborating in "a networked tax management model," as specified in the Bilateral document.

Sumar has initiated a round of contacts to secure sufficient support to validate the extension of rental agreements, which is to be voted on in Congress on April 28. This is an essential step for the decree-law approved by the Spanish government following the Iran war on housing matters to remain in force. Yolanda Díaz's party assures that negotiations are open with Junts and they see "water in the pool," but Míriam Nogueras's party is by no means in line with this: they maintain their 'no' to the extension of rental agreements and have presented an alternative in housing policies to address the crisis generated by the conflict in the Middle East, which directly clashes with what the Spanish government is doing. The Junts members, therefore, would only be open to discussion if the PSOE and Sumar accept their "emergency" measures and withdraw their decree.

The councilor for Major Projects of the Valencia City Council, José Marí Olano, allegedly favored the placement of several workers in municipal companies. This is suggested by some audio recordings advanced by Eldiario.es which record conversations between Olano and employees of the public company Consorcio Valencia 2007. In the recordings, it can be heard how the politician allegedly facilitated information about future job openings that would have served the employees to be rehired once the company they worked for ceased to exist. The recordings belong to the case opened by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office for alleged crimes of prevarication and influence peddling, in which the mayor of Valencia and high-ranking PP official, María José Catalá, and the president of the Port Authority, Mar Chao, among other public officials, are being investigated.

The controversial reaction of Vox deputy José María Sánchez García, who confronted the presidency of Congress during the debate of a non-law proposal (PNL) on historical memory, has put the focus on the deterioration of parliamentarism. "What happened is not an anecdote. It is a way of doing politics based on noise, intimidation, and disregard for the basic rules of democratic coexistence." This is the conclusion drawn from this episode by the parties of the plurinational majority, as stated in an institutional declaration promoted this Wednesday by the PSOE. Various parliamentary sources from the parties that have signed it, consulted by ARA, agree in diagnosing that the presence of Vox in the lower house has caused a change in parliamentary life, which worsens year after year. The declaration could not be read at the end of Wednesday's plenary session because Vox, PP, and UPN refused to sign it.

In the Kitchen case trial, in which the leadership of Mariano Rajoy's Ministry of the Interior sits on the defendant's bench, political leaders of the Popular Party are beginning to be interrogated. After the statements of six investigators, it was the turn of Ignacio Cosidó, who was director general of the Spanish police from 2012 to 2016. In a statement that lasted more than an hour, he disassociated himself from the espionage of Luis Bárcenas and framed the investigation into the former PP treasurer within the Gürtel case, concerning the illegal financing of the PP. "I always understood that the UDEF was carrying it out," he stated when questioned by the prosecutor. The UDEF is the Central Unit for Economic and Fiscal Crime. "I knew the UDEF was involved, but I didn't know other units were involved," he added later. The trial suspects the involvement of the deputy operational directorate (DAO) and the Central Unit for Operational Support (UCAO). Five hours later, on the other side of the Plaza de la Vila de París, the trial against José Luis Ábalosresumed. The star witness was Isabel Pardo de Vera, former president of Adif, who denied that there were irregularities in the purchase of masks – a "wise decision" – and in the hiring of Jessica Rodríguez. Let's take it step by step.

After three months of listening to witnesses, the trial against the Pujol Ferrusola family is immersed in the declarations of experts, who must shed light on the business dealings of the eldest son of the former president of the Generalitat. Two of those who appeared this Tuesday at the Audiencia Nacional were names that emerged in the media in July in the framework of the Montoro case: Francisco Piedras and Manuel de Vicente-Tutor. They are tax inspectors, they are managing partners of Equipo Económico – the firm founded by Cristóbal Montoro and which is at the epicenter of the alleged corruption scheme – and they are being investigated by the courts of Tarragona.

Fiscal hell is a concept that has been gaining ground on the right of parliamentary arcs. It was popularized by the president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre, and has now been adopted as their own by parties ranging from the PP to Junts, including the far-right Vox and Aliança Catalana. It doesn't take much imagination to conclude that it is a frontal criticism of the current tax model in both Catalonia and the State. Now it is the turn of Carles Puigdemont's party, which in this week's plenary session in the Parlament has obsessively proposed to attack the taxation maintained by the Generalitat with a double initiative: to deflate personal income tax (IRPF) (to eliminate inflation from the Government's revenue) and to subsidize the inheritance and gift tax. Junts knows it will lose the vote (it will probably only have the PP, Vox, and Aliança on its side), but it intends for it to be the start of a cultural battle against the left.

The two councilors of the PSC of Ripoll who allowed Sílvia Orriols to approve the budgets thanks to their abstention were leaving office on Monday amid reproaches and with a clear warning to the party. "We want to state that the local branch does not share this decision in any case; what's more, it is in absolute disagreement. There is no member of the list who has shown any predisposition to take over from our councilors. This is a decision made unilaterally by the national leadership of the PSC," stated Enric Pérez and Anna Belén Avilés in a joint statement. In summary, the two councilors warned that no one from the candidacy would take over from them. Orriols resorted to irony in Wednesday's control session in the Parliament, thanking the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, for what the socialists are doing in Ripoll: "Thank you for the budgets, but above all for having dismantled the PSC, which has been a masterstroke," he snapped.

Pedro Sánchez applies Johan Cruyff's football maxim to politics, which went something like "If we have the ball, they can't score any goals." Or, with a slight variation, "if you have the ball, you don't need to defend, because there's only one ball." Therefore, the point is to have the ball, meaning to set the terms of the debate. In this regard, the extraordinary regularization of immigrants is an impactful measure, the first in 20 years, and it goes to the heart of the debates currently shaking the Western world. Impossible to ignore.

With the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and his wife on the other side of the world, on an official visit to China, Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has closed the investigation and sent Begoña Gómez to trial. He did so this Monday in an order full of historical and literary references, unusual in legal language. As he has done throughout the investigation, in his latest order, Peinado shows great interest in linking her to her husband, despite the fact that Sánchez's role is not part of the investigation. He refers to her as "the wife of" up to four times, insisting that Gómez's professional activity experienced notable growth once Sánchez arrived at Moncloa.

The Spanish government is usually prudent when it has to comment on the judiciary, but there are two exceptions: the case of the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, in which they defended his innocence until the end, and the case of the Spanish president's wife, Begoña Gómez, who this Monday Judge Juan Carlos Peinado brought a step away from trial. This Tuesday, up to three ministers have closed ranks with Pedro Sánchez's wife and have even insinuated that there is political persecution. Moreover, they have reaffirmed that everything will be corrected by higher authorities. "We are in a state of law and not in the regime of Ferran VII," said the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, alluding to the reference that Peinado made in his ruling comparing the Spanish government to an absolutist regime.

Green light for the regularization of migrants. After the public hearing process and the mandatory reports, the Spanish government approved this Tuesday the royal decree that will serve to regularize the situation of more than half a million people who are already in the State but do not have their rights recognized. "It is an act of coherence and social justice," proclaimed the spokesperson and head of this portfolio, Elma Saiz, this Tuesday. "It is a historic measure and has all the legal guarantees," she added. How will the procedure work, however?

The comedian Jair Domínguez faced this morning the trial promoted by Vox against him. The far-right party reported him for an alleged hate crime for having said that