The PSOE headquarters on Ferraz street in Madrid woke up to the visit of agents from the Operational Action Unit of the Civil Guard. They carried a judicial order for them to be provided with a whole series of information linked to a case under secrecy that the National Court has been investigating for months. In the event that the socialists had refused to provide the documentation to the police, they even had a signed authorization to search the party headquarters. What was Judge Santiago Pedraz looking for there?

"Out of institutional respect, I remind you that the natural language is Catalan and, if you do not know it, I inform you that there are places available at the adult school. If you wish, I can give you an enrollment form." In this way, the mayor of Ripoll, Sílvia Orriols, reprimanded the new councilor of the PSC, Jorge Iglesias, who was debuting in the plenary session yesterday, for making his speech in Spanish. In a subsequent intervention, Morillo responded that he would do "the possible to learn Catalan", but asked the leader of Aliança Catalana that she "do the possible to carry out social actions". It all began when Iglesias, a retiree born in Montevideo and linked to the Ripollès region, intervened in the swearing-in and assured that he would carry out his activity "with the corresponding loyalty". The other socialist councilor, Paco Morillo, a resident of Ripoll, did not want to intervene in his debut as a councilor.

He won the last three elections in Catalonia, but the doors of the Generalitat remain closed to the PSC. At least until the next Catalan elections. The socialists are soaring in the polls and if elections were held today in Parliament, Salvador Illa would clearly win with between 39 and 45 seats, ahead of ERC (29-34) and Junts (19-24), who have been losing ground as the legislature progressed. The results are collected by the Barometer of the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO) which was made public today, the day after Pedro Sánchez's investiture, although the polls were conducted a few weeks ago, before the PSOE's agreements with ERC and Junts. in the July poll, the PSC was also first, but with an estimate of 31-37 seats, practically tied with Esquerra, which obtained between 31 and 36.

The first polls on the May 12 elections, published this Monday in El Español and La Razón, point to a clear victory for the PSC, with a majority of between 36 and 42 seats, and give second place to Junts, which would overtake ERC at the polls. According to these surveys, therefore, Pere Aragonès's party would be the main loser compared to the 2021 elections. The commons could also suffer the consequences of the early elections, protagonists in recent weeks of the legislature for their no

The PSC remains ahead in the polls a month and a half before the 12-M elections. Also in the latest barometer from the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió (CEO) made public this Thursday, even though the poll was conducted before the announcement by the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, of advancing the elections. Be that as it may, if the parliamentary elections were held today, the socialists would revalidate the victory of three years ago and would aim to obtain between 35 and 42 seats, a slight setback compared to the November survey (the November poll) (39-45). Behind them would be ERC, with 26-32 seats and an average rating of its government by Catalans of 4.3 (the same as the Spanish government's). The Republicans see Junts approaching them, which would rise to 24-29 seats. The poll data was collected between February 9 and March 7. Precisely on the last day, the agreement for the amnesty law was materialized and approved in the Justice Commission of the Congress. During this period, the Koldo case also broke out, which implicates the former Minister of Transport, the socialist José Luis Ábalos, and in early February, farmers began to mobilize in the streets.

Either Pedro Sánchez with Yolanda Díaz or Alberto Núñez Feijóo with Santiago Abascal. This is the choice that the two main state blocs offer for July 23, and it seems that in Catalonia voters have a clear idea of who to lean towards. The PSC, with Meritxell Batet at the helm, would broadly win the elections and could climb to 16-18 seats, doubling the results of whoever ends up in second place. It would be the first socialist victory in general elections in Catalonia since 2008 when Carme Chacón achieved the party's best historical results with 25 deputies. In any case, the socialist victory in the Principality could end up being bitter if the PP dominates the State as a whole. The latest poll published, by the CIS, assures that nothing has been decided yet, although most polls place the Popular Party well above the Socialists. The CEO also detects a greater predisposition to participate than on other occasions in the general elections, which could reduce abstention in these elections.

The electoral cycle is tinged with blue. The PP has advanced strongly everywhere, but especially in Andalusia, the Valencian Country, and also in Madrid, both in regional and municipal elections. Now it is confident of doing the same in the general elections of July 23, as all surveys predict, including the CIS one. They are, along with Catalonia, the key territories to pave the way to Moncloa. For this reason, it is in the Principality that the socialists are playing a good part of their credit. Pedro Sánchez knows that the differential he achieves with the PP in Catalonia could end up being decisive, especially if he loses momentum in other autonomies. The PSC will win the elections by a wide margin, according to the survey that the Opinòmetre Institute has conducted for ARA. With a range of between 14 and 16 deputies, the socialists will return to first place fifteen years later. And what will be the differential with the PP? The popular party, also on the rise, capturing the majority of Cs' vote, would be left with between 5 and 7 deputies in the Spanish Parliament.

"Oh, it's difficult to say when the works will begin. It's a complex, very important and strategic line for the country. The urban planning part has been done since 2010 and now we will have to start with studies and projects. It won't be tomorrow; these infrastructures cost". These are statements by the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, to Catalunya Ràdio about the macro-project that has been decisive to unblock the approval of the budgets: the orbital railway line. ERC wants to reactivate a plan that has been in a drawer for twenty years to give its "yes" to the accounts. In fact, the Republicans present it as a future bet for a network that this year has experienced an unprecedented crisis and is still trying to recover some semblance of normality.

One of the mantras ERC resorts to in defining its relationship with the PSC is that of "gaining sovereignty". The Republicans explain that their agreements are based on achieving more resources, competences, and decision-making capacity for Catalonia. Have they achieved this? For now, through republican and socialist pushes and pulls, they have been unblocking some of the files agreed upon in the investitures of Salvador Illa (2024) and Pedro Sánchez (2023). However, they have found the solution in a mixed formula: establishing companies jointly owned by the Generalitat and the State, where the state administration has a majority.

Rarely (very rarely or never) do you attend the presentation of the same budget project twice in a year. This is what has happened on this occasion in Parliament, where the accounts for the remainder of the fiscal year have been submitted, after they were withdrawn last February due to disagreement with ERC.

After swallowing the bitter pill of withdrawing the first budgets he presented as President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa is now, truly, beginning the path for Parliament to give the green light to the first accounts of the legislature. With the support of ERC and Comuns secured, Illa is ensuring one of his main objectives for the legislature. The accounts for this 2026 will be the Government's first and, perhaps, only ones, because 2027 is an election year, with municipal and general elections in sight, and 2028 is already his last year of the legislature, two scenarios not conducive to negotiating accounts. Therefore, having achieved these budgets, Illa is ensuring, for now, the continuity of the legislature.

The State and the Generalitat have signed this Wednesday the agreements with ERC for the Catalan budgets at the Bilateral Commission they held in Madrid, which lasted less than an hour. The Republicans set this condition to have a guarantee of compliance with the pacts that depend on Pedro Sánchez's executive, among which is the creation of an investment company, that is, a company that will be approved by the Council of Ministers during this 2026 and will be participated by both administrations. This company will serve to "provide greater agility, flexibility and operational capacity" for the execution of studies, projects and works linked to infrastructures and other public investments, as the Government explained in a press release. In parallel, however, they are not giving up on the possibility of moving forward with a "State-Generalitat parity consortium for investments" which would depend on the Ministry of Transport. For this to prosper, however, it requires the approval of Congress, where the proposal derailed a few weeks ago due to the opposing vote of Junts.

Conversations had been on track for days, but the Government did not want to formalize an agreement until after the Andalusian elections. Well, it was just the next day when Esquerra officially gave its yes to Salvador Illa's first budget after explaining the pact first to the executive, and then to the national council. Salvador Illa and Oriol Junqueras will sign the agreement this Tuesday at the Palau de la Generalitat. The pact has not been put to a vote, but according to various sources consulted, and the party has "informed" the national councilors of the pact's content.It is in the national council meeting where the voices of the party's critics have been heard. With ERC's yes, the Government only has to finish negotiating with the Commons on the updating of its pact.

It has gone from being a project kept in a drawer since 2010 to becoming the protagonist of the budget negotiations between the PSC and ERC. At ARA we explain what the Orbital Railway Line (LOF) is in seven key points:

Once the Andalusian elections were over, the Government is launching the machinery this week to approve its first budgets. The socialists wanted to let May 17th pass so as not to interfere with the campaign of the former vice-president and former Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, but talks with ERC have been on track for days. The republicans put forward the orbital railway line as a breakthrough after the transfer of personal income tax fell from the demands —at least in the short term— due to the clash with the Spanish government. This Monday, the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, have formalized the agreement in an event in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia.

Salvador Illa has crossed the Atlantic again, but this time to visit the United States –a few months ago he visited Mexico–. Specifically, the state of California. The objective, according to the Government, is to strengthen ties with the North American technological and audiovisual sector. Illa has visited various companies and signed collaboration agreements with institutions. And while the president was signing these pacts in California, in Catalonia his government was getting the budgets on track with Esquerra, to the point that next week they seem to be definitively approved.

Given the impossibility of advancing in the short term with the transfer of personal income tax (IRPF), Esquerra had to look for another trophy that would allow it to exhibit some influence in Salvador Illa's government. It has ended up choosing the railway 'fourth ring road', the orbital line that the tripartite had begun to plan and which had been stored away since 2010. And once it has the PSC's commitment, the republicans consider that the time has come to approve the Government's budgets. As reported by RAC1 and confirmed by ARA, next Monday the leadership has convened an extraordinary national council at 6:30 p.m. to validate what the negotiating team has achieved and give the go-ahead to the accounts, which the executive will present imminently. The agenda includes an analysis of the political moment and the state of the budgetary negotiation.

This morning, sports, Barça, gave us a reason to create a cheerful cover, that of theThe result has been another night of celebration for a fanbase that, unlike what happens in so many other aspects of the country, has high self-esteem. We hope that the adherence to Catalan identity that Barça has provided in a society of immigration continues to function thanks to these successes and the identification with this very young and very normal team. Another good piece of news: the PCR test on the Catalan woman who has been in isolation at the Hospital Clínic since Saturday has come back negative for hantavirus. The woman was admitted for quarantine because she had been in the same plane for a few minutes with the Dutch woman who contracted it on board the cruise ship and who ended up dying.The woman continues to show no symptoms and, in accordance with epidemiological surveillance protocols, will remain confined and under observation at the Clínic for prevention. In seven days, another PCR will be performed to confirm the negative result.And here we return to the harsh reality: from today onwards, the Rodalies service is once again subject to a charge. (It has always been subject to a charge, of course, we all pay for it: we are referring to the user's direct payment). Payment in exchange for what? The trains run when they want, the timetables are an intention, but of course, in many journeys, the train is a bus. The improvement of the service is being slow. It is clear that due to the harsh reality of education. A week of strikes in schools and institutes begins. Relations between the department and the unions are very tense. The only thing missing was for the unions to find out from the radio that the counselor wanted to see them on Thursday. They will meet on Thursday and, on top of that, we have the scandal of the infiltration of two Mossos agents into a teachers' assembly that we already talked about last Friday. Now that more details are known, apart from what it has of authoritarian regime espionage, it is even more humiliating that the police were discovered on such a simple mission.Let's see if it solves things a bit that we have budgets for this 2026. Late, but we will have budgets. So once the Andalusian elections have passed on Sunday, PSC and Esquerra will be able to present their agreement. It is scandalous, but Catalanophobia sets the pace of Spanish politics. Moreno Bonilla is campaigning to preside over Andalusia by constantly talking about Catalonia. After the breakdown weeks ago due to the new financing system for Catalonia, Esquerra set out to find a striking agreement. There is talk of a transfer of powers from the State, but in the meantime, Junqueras has explained that the agreement will include a train, curiously. This: An orbital axis that connects Maresme with Garraf, passing through the two Vallesos, Baix Llobregat and Penedès. In black the sections that exist and in yellow those that should be built. We are talking about up to 5,000 million euros of investment, which the State should largely provide. The project is old, but now they have taken it out of the drawer where it was sleeping.Good morning.

For a few weeks now, the Government and Esquerra have been negotiating the budgets that derailed in March with discretion. The two parties decided to give themselves a second chance to try to reach an agreement before the summer holidays and, after multiple meetings and working groups, as the ARA has learned, socialists and republicans in Barcelona and Madridhave unblocked two issues that pave the way for the accounts. If part of the Quart Cinturó (by road) was what unblocked the 2022 budgets of Pere Aragonès' Government, the orbital railway axis, a kind of railway Quart Cinturó, is what seems to be getting Salvador Illa's first accounts on track. It is about the railway network to connect the second metropolitan ring without passing through Barcelona.

Just a year ago, the PSC spokesperson in Tiana, Miquel Santiago, announced his resignation. The decision took the local group by surprise, as they had planned for him to be the candidate in 2027 after being number 2 in the previous elections and for the party leader to step down due to poor election results, which confirmed the victory of an independent party, now with an absolute majority. Little did the socialists of this Maresme locality imagine that a year later Santiago would propose himself to be the leader of Aliança Catalana, a party at the opposite end of his beliefs.