Judicial proceedings are piling up in Altafulla. In addition to the case concerning the awards to former minister Joan Ignasi Elena and former Initiative leader Joan Herrera, which also involves the Commons MP Félix Alonso and former minister Salvador Milà, now another case directly splashes the mayor, Jordi Molinera (ERC), and the councilor Tomàs Serra, who was elected by Junts and continues in government as an independent after his former party left the coalition government last year. In fact, this move is what is now in the sights of the Vendrell courts, where an investigation has been opened following a complaint by the president of the Junts municipal group for alleged crimes of bribery and prevarication. In an order to which ARA has had access, the judge summons Serra and Molinera to testify as investigated parties in this case on January 2, 2027.

While the Spanish legislature is alive, the Spanish government maintains steps to try to bring the new regional financing model to light. With what calendar is it working? Once the Andalusian elections are over – in which the former vice-president and former Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, ran as a candidate –, the state executive has reactivated the machinery and has set a new meeting of the Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy (CPFF) for Wednesday, July 29, which should serve to put on the table the new financing system that the socialists agreed with ERC (and presented in January). Previously, on July 14, the Spanish government will hold a preparatory technical meeting with all the autonomous communities and that week it will distribute the concrete proposal to all communities. The next step will be for the Council of Ministers to approve the proposal to then send it to Congress, probably in September. And there, it still has to win the necessary support for this new model to see the light.

New round of witnesses in the trial for allegedly "discriminating" against national police and civil guards with covid vaccines. After the commanders of both forces cleared the defendants, among whom are former ministers Josep Maria Argimon and Alba Vergés, this Monday it was the turn of other former Health directors to explain themselves. Among them, Vergés's advisor who sent a key message in the investigation of the case, in which she said: "Once again, the minister asks to stop Civil Guard and National Police. We cannot justify it. We should stop it".

Juan Carlos Peinado has shaken off the pressure and gone on vacation without resolving Begoña Gómez's request to be allowed to leave Spain. The judge who had to step in has ended up being Antonio Viejo Llorente, the same one investigating Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner. His decision has been not to allow Pedro Sánchez's wife to travel to Ankara to attend the NATO summit, which will be held from July 7 to 8, mainly because Turkey does not belong to the European Union and, therefore, he considers that a hypothetical extradition would be more complicated. However, he does allow her to travel to London to attend her daughter's graduation, which will be on Friday the 10th.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso approved last week, thanks to the PP's absolute majority in the Assembly of Madrid, a controversial law on conceived but not born. The rule grants the status of family unit member to the embryo, so that, from the moment pregnancy is proven, families will be able to access maternity benefits without waiting for the birth. This is a measure that is part of in the cultural war against the progressivism of the Madrid president which, one year before the regional elections, is in full competition with Vox to prevent them from undermining this absolute majority. In fact, a few days after Juanma Moreno Bonilla had to give in to the far-right to be invested as president of Andalusia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has announced that, if he is president of the Spanish government, he will follow Ayuso's steps and promote a state law for the conceived but not born.

"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.

"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?

Franco had just died, Arias Navarro was still president and the country lived between hope and fear. In this context, fifty years ago, the Rally for Freedom was held, the first major democratic political event authorized in Catalonia since the end of the war, which boosted the PSC and gathered 15,000 people. Raimon Obiols (Barcelona, 1940) was one of the participants and this year the Government, through the Directorate General of Democratic Memory, and the Rafael Campalans Foundation paid tribute to him at the Barcelona Bar Association.

Gerard Juny resigned this week as a militant of Aliança and head of communication in La Selva. "Aliança is too far left for me and too complexed," he stated, while admitting he would continue to vote for them because there was "nothing else." The young man from Girona made this decision after the leadership expelled the candidate in Figueres, Arnau Liesa, for maintaining a romantic relationship with a sixteen-year-old former student.

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?

It has been almost four years – October 2022 – since Congress approved what has been dubbed the "nets law." It is not a law as such, but rather a provision included in the democratic memory law that recognizes Spanish nationality for descendants of exiles from the Civil War and Francoism. Given the volume of requests – especially from Latin America – and the limited resources of consulates abroad, where applications must be processed, hundreds of thousands are still pending resolution. However, it is in the media spotlight these days because the PP and Vox have used it as an argument to accuse the Spanish government of trying to alter the electoral roll for the upcoming Spanish elections. What exactly are we talking about?

On the night of July 23, 2023, the PP was 1,749 votes short of its sixteenth deputy in Madrid. A week later, it obtained it thanks to the vote of Madrid residents abroad (the PP surpassed the PSOE by 8,600 votes in this count). It was the only incident of the so-called CERA vote (electoral census of absent residents), which the PP and Vox are now criminalizing with an eye on the supposed "rigging" that Pedro Sánchez is preparing for next year.

These days, when I feel like provoking people by saying that the next general elections – whether this year or next – are not definitively decided, I encounter reactions of disbelief and even severe criticism around me. If in the group exchanging opinions there is someone from the right or liberal, the interruption is immediate, and they say things to me like “Have you lost your mind?”, “You’re completely lost”, or “It’s unbelievable you could think that.” On the other hand, if in the same group there is someone from the left – it doesn’t matter if radical, moderate, or in-between – what they first express is a lack of faith, but immediately accompanied by expressions of the type “Are you sure?”, “And what are you basing that belief on?”, or if the interlocutor is fond of irony, “Félix Tezanos must have told you that,” the director of the Sociological Research Centre (CIS), always accused of sweeping in favor of his own, the socialists. This difference between the respective reactions reveals that the right is very hopeful about regaining power, and sees it as practically done. It also reflects that the left lives with an accentuated feeling of anticipated defeat, but deep down wishing for an unexpected turn, an unlikely stroke of luck, or simply a miracle that will allow them to remain in power.

Let me start by saying that this article is speculation. But speculation based on a real foundation, and that is that right now ERC has a problem with its leader in Madrid, Gabriel Rufián, and Junts has one with its absolute leader, Carles Puigdemont, about whom there is currently no consensus on what his future should be once the amnesty is applied, in principle in the autumn, and he definitively returns to Catalonia. Furthermore, there is a strong possibility that the Spanish elections will be the next to be held, as Pedro Sánchez could use the rejection of the budgets as leverage to confront two models of country. And this would place them around February or March, before the municipal elections in May.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo had a hope with Juanma Moreno Bonilla. He was the regional baron with the most possibilities, according to the polls, of maintaining the absolute majority and continuing to govern without the concurrence of Vox. But the result of the elections dispelled any doubt that the destiny of the PP requires having to coexist with the far-right, even its most moderate leader, as has been demonstrated with this Thursday's pact which cedes important spaces of power to Santiago Abascal's party in Andalusia. With Juanma Moreno's new coalition government with the far-right, the PP-Vox coalition becomes the regional executive model that governs the most people in the State, specifically 27.3%, ahead of popular governments on their own, which rule over 20.8% of citizens, and PP governments with far-right support, which affect 16.8%.

The National High Court judge José Luis Calama is not the only one investigating José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The Tax Agency also is. A communication sent by the Spanish Treasury to the magistrate reveals that less than a month ago it opened a tax investigation against the former Spanish president and his family. Specifically, the Tax Agency initiated the inspection against Zapatero on June 15 of this year, when he was already implicated in the National High Court for influence peddling, criminal organization, and document forgery and a few days after it opened a separate case for the jewelry found in his office. On the same day, another tax investigation was opened against his wife, Sonsoles Espinosa.

Moviment Sumar, the party founded by Yolanda Díaz to have its own brand, is going through one of the weakest moments in its short history. On the eve of the formation's third assembly, the internal war that has emerged in recent weeks has made evident wounds that will be difficult to heal in the eyes of the electorate. From July 11 onwards, the party will be led by the tandem formed by Verónica Martínez Barbero, current spokesperson for Sumar in Congress, and Rosa Martínez, Secretary of State for Social Rights. One of the strong figures will be Ernest Urtasun, Minister of Culture and also a member of the Comuns executive. However, there is a relevant name who will not continue: Lara Hernández, who until now was the party's coordinator and who has decided to step down after denouncing a “brutal smear campaign” against her. Her resignation adds to a long list of visible figures — both from the party and the parliamentary group — who have abandoned a ship that has never really set sail.

Why do legislatures not run their course? The uncertainty of elections weighs heavily, and a good part of executives intend to see things through to the end, but many governments end up going to the polls ahead of time. In the case of European democratic systems, around 40% of elections are held before the end of the term set by current legislation. Therefore, holding elections before they are due is quite common. One might be tempted to think that early elections mainly occur due to negative factors, such as a corruption case, but this would not be the case. When a party governs alone, without a majority in the chamber, and especially when the economy is doing well, calling an election is usually a sure bet that governments use to obtain the desired majority of seats.

PP and Vox have closed the last of the pending pacts. After reaching an agreement in Extremadura, Aragon, and Castilla y León, Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party and Santiago Abascal's party are closing the circle in Andalusia with the investiture of Juanma Moreno thanks to the votes of the far-right. The popular candidate did not overcome a first vote two days ago, but this Thursday afternoon he has managed to leave the Andalusian Parliament as president after having overcome the last hurdles of the negotiation with Vox 'in extremis'. Once again, the "national priority" and the incorporation of the far-right into the government have been part of the core of the pact and are the two main concessions that the PP has been making to Vox for months to maintain regional power.

The Paris Court of Appeal acquitted this Thursday the historic ETA leader José Antonio Urrutikoetxea, known as Josu Ternera, in the last proceeding he had open in France. The president of the court read the acquittal verdict in front of Ternera, who attended the hearing accompanied by his lawyers, as reported by the Efe agency. The trial, held in April, accused him of belonging to a terrorist organization for the period between December 2002 and May 2005, when he fled Spain – then a deputy in the Basque Parliament – to escape an investigation into his possible involvement in the 1987 attack on the Civil Guard barracks in Zaragoza, which killed eleven people.