Despite the PP's efforts to avoid any controversy before the November 29 elections, this Monday Alberto Núñez Feijóo once again took aim at the Catalan school language immersion system. Although his "Contract with Spain" only contains a generic commitment to "guarantee the teaching of Spanish throughout Spain" (as if that were not already guaranteed), in reality, what is being prepared, according to party sources, is the intervention of the Catalan system so that it more closely resembles the Galician one. And what is this Galician school system that Núñez Feijóo defends? Well, it is a system with 50% in each language and where the core subjects, such as mathematics, are taught exclusively in Spanish.

Without ideas, without direction, and increasingly distanced from the citizenry, the left to the left of the socialists present a miserable spectacle of impotence and an absence of goals and discourse, such that the only thing that surfaces are worn-out egos that no longer attract anyone, trapped in the mire of the eternal and pathetic psychopathology of small differences. There is no project, only infighting, and not even the emergency of the sustained growth of the far right serves to make people react and place the need to curb the authoritarian drift above the miserable dynamic of move over so I can take your place.

The leadership of Esquerra Republicana has already decided on the traveling companions that Gabriel Rufián will have in the next Spanish elections. The party's executive has shored up Mireia Ingla, Jordi Albert, and Laura Pelay as numbers two, three, and four in the Barcelona constituency, respectively, all three of whom have the utmost confidence of the party president, Oriol Junqueras. "Time proves us right: national candidacies, rooted in the territory, are the ones with the most strength to stop Spanish neo-fascism," asserted the ERC spokesperson, Isaac Albert, in a statement issued by the party this Wednesday.

The day has begun with a protest by farmers, who as I speak to you are heading down towards Barcelona in columns from various points in the country with the idea of meeting at the capital at noon, specifically in Plaça Sant Jaume. It is not an isolated protest, but the continuation of the farmers' revolt, now justified by the rise in diesel prices, which is eating into their margins. But they are not only protesting about the price of fuel or phytosanitary products or fertilizers. They are complaining, as they have been for decades, about bureaucratic procedures, which can outlast different governments without anything changing. A farmer said this morning on TV3 that at the moment “profitability is zero, it is impossible to live off it”. At today's protest, a variation of “Either farming or death” was seen, which is “Either farming or fire”, in the sense that the country will burn due to fires if no one can stay to live off the land and look after the landscape. Certainly, if the farmers fall, everything falls. And then, the question: who has the capacity to satisfy their demands? If we would have enough with sovereignty, imagine with autonomy.

Two Catalans, Ada Colau and Gabriel Rufián, come to the rescue of the Spanish left. 

Israel enters an election campaign with a familiar feeling: politics is once again revolving around Benjamin Netanyahu. But this time the prime minister arrives at the polls after three years that have transformed the country. On October 27, Israelis will vote for the first time since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, which shook Israel and triggered a war that has spread to several fronts, from Gaza and Lebanon to Iran, Syria and Yemen.

What is happening with Gabriel Rufián is what was bound to happen to Esquerra sooner or later. For years now, the speeches of Esquerra's leader in Madrid have sounded more like Podemos or Sumar than Esquerra. He often ignores the possibility of speaking in Catalan. He has ended up designating himself as the critical conscience of the Spanish left. His level of popularity in Spain among voters in this segment is enormous; Rufián knows how to polarize and, living up to his phrase “Less libraries and more TikTok,” his ability to gain audiences on social media is great. He has declared himself willing to head a plurinational list of all the parties to the left of the PSOE. And his party has told him no. At the time of writing this analysis, Rufián has still not decided to be the head of Esquerra's list under the conditions that the party wants.

One of the reasons that have led the Spanish government to call early elections on November 29 has been the 'no' to the housing decrees from Junts, the PP, and Vox. Political parties have different positions on the housing crisis, and also different electorates. They have different percentages of tenants and homeowners among their voters, for example, and this can condition their point of view on the housing crisis.

The calling of snap elections has ended up revealing that Maricarmen's eviction has been used by Pedro Sánchez as the last hook to hang on to in order to run in the elections with some chance of re-election. Why else was he in such a hurry to bring two decree laws to Congress regarding one of the pillars of the welfare state, which is housing, after eight years in government? Sánchez has chosen the field on which to play the match, and he has chosen the housing field, hand in hand with a high-profile eviction. Power is like the market: when it identifies a competitive advantage, it goes all out.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has seen a window of opportunity in the vote that defeated the housing decrees on Friday and has decided to dive headfirst into it. After a weekend of consultations, this Monday he announced the calling of early elections for November 29 and has turned his appearance into the first act of what is expected to be a long pre-campaign. Sánchez has asked for a broader majority to "bend the elites" and has urged the citizenry to place themselves on the "right side of history" in the face of what he has described as "the worst opposition in the history of democracy." Sánchez, therefore, is gambling on an all-or-nothing approach, presenting himself as the defender of the working classes against the powerful.

“Does a man know when his time of relevance has ended? Does he understand it? He knows it because he feels it, but he does not understand it. The agony of the light is an experience as universal as it is incomprehensible,” wrote Antonio Scurati.

The countdown has been activated after Pedro Sánchez announced that he is calling general elections for November 29. The deadlines will begin to count from this Tuesday, which is when the decree calling for elections will be published in the Official State Gazette (BOE). Those who will have to maneuver against the clock will be the parties of the Broad Front –the new brand of the Sumar space to the left of the PSOE– to nominate their candidate. The parties will have until Friday, October 16, to register the coalitions: it will be the moment when they must confirm whether or not they run in the elections together. Comuns, United Left, Més Madrid, and the Sumar Movement will run under the same ballot, but they have to finish sealing the alliance with forces such as Compromís, the Aragonese Chunta, and Més per Mallorca. Three years ago, Sumar registered the coalition three hours before the deadline ended.

The announcement by the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, of the dissolution of the Cortes and the call for general elections on November 29th has put the country's productive fabric on alert. The Catalan association of small and medium-sized enterprises, Pimec, has demanded that the main parties ensure the upcoming election campaign serves to "place the productive economy and SMEs at the center of the political debate." In a statement, the organization presided over by Antoni Cañete demanded that "the political situation does not sideline the reforms needed by the productive fabric."

Surely you are aware: we will go to vote on November 29th. It was 9 in the morning when, after spending the whole weekend making political and legal consultations, and looking at polls, Pedro Sánchez appeared at Moncloa and announced the calling of snap elections: “After informing, as is appropriate, the Head of State, I have decided to convene an extraordinary Council of Ministers this very morning to dissolve the General Courts and call general elections that will be held on Sunday, November 29th, in accordance with the deadlines established by law.”

Pedro Sánchez has called snap elections that, in reality, are a plebiscite on his person and, especially, on what he represents and what we know as Sanchismo. Sanchismo is defined, first of all, by opposition. In a world dominated by a strong conservative, and even reactionary, impulse, Sánchez has managed to build his own profile that is almost countercultural: his congenital smile and optimism clash with the depression of the international left. The other great ingredient of Sanchismo is a specific way of doing politics, with a strong sense of power (something that especially makes the right nervous and has led him to clash with the deep state), and a mixture of opportunism and a sense of opportunity, just as he demonstrated back in the day with the amnesty and now with the housing decrees.

Everyone to the polls. Pedro Sánchez has put an end to the rumors by announcing the end of a legislative term that will be high-stakes until the very last moment. His government had long since lost the majority to approve relevant projects, and the Moncloa was holding out, waiting for the ideal moment to challenge the right-wing parties, the clear favorites to govern from now on. In the PSOE, they believe the moment has arrived with the housing crisis and that they are prepared to face the elections with guarantees. How are the parties arriving at this call to the polls?

The last time he took a few days to reflect, Pedro Sánchez returned with "more strength", ready to "put a stop to the politics of shame". During those five days in April 2024 –in the middle of the election campaign in Catalonia–, everyone was pending his decision, which at the time had to do with the attacks his wife received, today about to be tried for embezzlement and influence peddling. Now things are slightly different: no one expects him to step aside, but everyone is waiting for him to make a decision. Will there be elections before the end of the year? At the PSOE they are prepared and with each passing day the voices pointing out that the legislature has ended are growing.

Exactly one week ago today, I received a call from the CIS. It was surprising because, in case you don't answer calls from numbers you don't recognize, at the moment of the call, it was announced in capital letters on the screen: "CIS: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas".

The decrees should have been approved. Now: I am not sure that Junts has made a mistake in electoral terms.

There are indeed temptations. For what? To call elections, naturally. From whom? From the only one who has something to say about this issue, which is the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez. This weekend he will talk about it with his inner circle. There is anticipation for what he might explain on Monday to the PSOE executive, which meets at the central headquarters on Ferraz street. It will not be just another meeting. In fact, in the party, they say there could be news even before Monday. The climate left by the failure of the vote on the two decrees on measures to address the housing and eviction problem is one that sparks fires. In the government, there are diverse opinions. In the party, the idea is gaining ground that now might be a good time to jump into the pool, that it is time to cast the dice.