From Navaluenga, in Àvila, one of the provinces where fire has been burning uncontrollably in recent days, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, insisted this Thursday on political unity "in response, prevention, and reconstruction" of the areas affected by the fires, and once again offered "the extended hand of the Spanish government" to reach "a country agreement" on climate emergency matters, an issue he considers paramount right now. That is to say, as he has done in his recent public interventions, Sánchez once again brought to the table the "State Pact against the Climate Emergency": a plan presented in September 2025 and expanded in December with 15 axes and 80 measures that has not yet seen the light of day due to a lack of political consensus.

There has been much talk of an alliance to the left of the PSOE, of everything that the Sumar space represents with the possibility of extending it to Podem and, even, to Gabriel Rufián. However, for now, this option is not materializing. Faced with this, within the PSOE there are already those who are thinking of other scenarios if the other left-wing parties finally run divided again. This is because there is a demographic reality that is difficult to appeal: if the PSOE does not currently have options to stay in Moncloa, it is not because it is collapsing, but because of the generalized decline of Sumar, Podem and the rest of the partners of the plurinational majority. It is enough to compare the 31 seats that Sumar won in 2023 with what the polls now predict for them: the latest CIS places them at just over 6% of the votes, half the support they had three years ago.

The Catalan socialists deny any relationship with the media Crónica Libre, the supposed informative "instrument" of Leire Díez's plot in the PSOE. The collaborator and shareholder of the newspaper directed by the late Patricia López, operated under the leadership of the then organization secretary Santos Cerdán, according to the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. There is no trace in the summary of a relationship between the PSC and the plot – although the UCO does not rule it out – and only a specific link with a town hall governed by the socialists. The municipal government of Salou, headed by the PSC-Sumem coalition, paid for an advertising campaign to Crónica Libre.

Describing the PSOE's life these days is equivalent to writing the chronicle of a desolation. If it was already difficult to give full credit to the merely exculpatory initial statements of former government president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, followed by more than two months of silence, his television appearance to give explanations has only worsened the situation, especially in the political arena. In the judicial sphere, it may be different, because there are other rules of the game. The defense will play the card of requesting the nullity of the proceedings strongly, based on procedural problems and guarantees of fundamental rights. Nor is it an easy battle, but Zapatero has an experienced lawyer in this regard, Víctor Moreno Catena. He is a professor of procedural law who, for six years (1988-1994), held high positions in the Ministry of the Interior, first as technical secretary general and later as undersecretary.

Sumar announced this Wednesday that it has agreed with the PSOE on the extension of rents until 2028 through a new housing decree that will also include tax incentives for owners, an indispensable measure to achieve the text to be finally approved with the favorable vote of Junts in Congress.

Is it normal for the PSOE to set up an office for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero? Is it normal for you not to know what Leire Díez told Santos Cerdán? Is it normal for you to receive a PSOE militant? These are just some of the questions that the senators of the Koldo case investigation committee have asked the PSOE president, Cristina Narbona. An interrogation of more than three hours that has turned out to be completely sterile, without any new conclusions —she has not provided any new element and has tried to answer briefly— and where, rather than questions, the right-wing senators have shown indignation about the Leire case, Zapatero, or the three rulings already made in the case of the Attorney General, Ábalos, and the brother of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez. And it is that more than questions about the relationship between Narbona and Leire Díez, accused of orchestrating a war against judges and prosecutors at the behest of Santos Cerdán, the senators have used the committee to talk about the jewels of the former Spanish president, how Julio Martínez points to him, or the behavior of the already convicted José Luis Ábalos.

"The rule of law must reward with the instruments provided for in the legislation those relevant behaviors that affect the discovery and accreditation of crimes of gravity for the democratic system." This fragment of the Supreme Court ruling that sentenced José Luis Ábalos to 24 years in prison was much more than a reduction of the penalty for Víctor Aldama for his collaboration with justice. It was a call to defendants who might find themselves in a similar situation to "sing La traviata"; to speak in favor of the investigation in exchange for the main prize.

Almost every week a new indictment appears related – more directly or indirectly – to the PSOE. The latest name to emerge is Juan Manuel Serrano, who was president of Correos from 2018 to 2023 and director of Pedro Sánchez's cabinet at Ferraz. His name joins a long list of people – with different levels of responsibility – allegedly involved in fourteen open lines of investigation. The first convicted person was the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, but there are a total of 50 officials related to the Spanish government or the PSOE, members of the Civil Guard, and men who were of Sánchez's utmost confidence who have ended up before a judge. That's up to 109 if we also count the 59 businessmen, family members, and lawyers – and other profiles – indicted in the different open cases.

Don't think of an elephant... Did you think of one? Probably, yes. Now you must be wondering why this article starts like this, asking about an elephant, but the answer is simple: to show how the A-B-C of any electoral campaign operates and that it is key to winning elections. As George Lakoff theorized in his reference book Don't Think of an Elephant! (2004, Chelsea Green Publishing), whoever sets the framework for the debate and manages to talk about what they want and in the language they choose, has a high chance of taking victory at the polls. And this is the underlying battle that the PP and the PSOE have been fighting for months in Madrid, as whoever manages to impose the terms of public discussion is the one who comes out with an advantage for the next general elections. The confrontation is between two visions: those who brandish the ghost of corruption (the PP) against those who threaten with the ghost of neo-fascism (the PSOE).

Cristina Narbona has completely dissociated herself from the maneuvers that Leire Díez allegedly instigated to destabilize judicial cases around Pedro Sánchez. The president of the PSOE, who exchanged WhatsApp messages with the then socialist militant on the day the Spanish president began the five days of reflection, has made it clear that “he had no knowledge whatsoever” of the alleged plot being investigated by the National Court. He said this when questioned by journalists after a declaration as a witness under half an hour before Judge Santiago Pedraz. Leire Díez told him that she "knew facts that could be important" and she referred her to Santos Cerdán because he, as the party's organization secretary, was in charge of communication policy. According to what ARA has been able to learn, behind closed doors she said that Díez called her because she "wanted to collaborate and help" and had "useful information for the party." "I'm referring to information, not sewage," she clarified. Of course, she acknowledged that the Civil Guard's reports describe "worrying indications."

The dish of the day is Spain, finalists of the World Cup, but, before that we cannot lose sight of the fact that Pedro Sánchez's brother has been sentenced to 9 years of disqualification for malfeasance, for having created and awarded him a job at the Badajoz Provincial Council out of hand, which, according to the ruling, was neither urgent nor necessary. But the ruling itself dismisses that there had been influence peddling, that is to say, that no one called to pressure for this job to be created. In other words, it is proven that David Sánchez was nepotized. It is ugly in all cases, but more so in the case of a brother of the president of the government. Another thing is that such a nepotism would reach the courts if we were not talking about the brother of the president of the government and, much less, that the sentence would be 9 years of disqualification. And for this reason, the socialist government, as Minister Puente says, considers that the purpose of the sentence is to overthrow the Spanish government “given the inability to do so at the ballot box”, an assessment with which we can agree, but which means that the executive power considers that the judicial power is malfeasance for political reasons. La Moncloa did not speak of lawfare, but it did speak of a “political cause,” from which, therefore, a political conviction would follow. Sounds like a trial, doesn't it, PSOE? The PSOE continues to live the nightmare of feeling excluded by the system as a state party. At the same time, the system is teaching the PSOE the right way: if you don't make deals with Catalan and Basque independentists, your problems will end. But, as we were saying, the news of the day is that Spain is already in the World Cup final.In all fairness, the championship Spain has played has not been spectacular, but it has been very solid. Consider that they reach the final having conceded one goal in the entire tournament. And yesterday it eliminated the powerful and feared France with solid football, always well positioned on the field, reducing players like Mbappé or Dembélé to impotence. As Martí Molina titles it, yesterday's match was a football lesson from an incredible generation, with special mention to three Catalans: Cubarsí, Olmo, and Lamine Yamal. Tonight, at 9, the other semifinal will be played, England-Argentina (since the Falklands War and Maradona's goals in '86, it's more than just a match), but the strength Spain is showing makes it the favorite, in my opinion, whether the English or Messi's team advance.The World Cup has a major political derivative, because it has become the great machine for feeding identities. At a time when states have shrunk in the face of the disruptive power of billionaire technology companies and can barely ensure the social contract, the World Cup ensures the emotional contract. And the states play it to the fullest. Look at this video, and tell me if you have ever seen the always grumpy Felipe de Borbón so exultant: he and his family, with the shirt with their names printed on it, celebrating yesterday night's 2-0, in a double exercise of showing what behavior is expected of a Spaniard on occasions like this and that his harmony with the joy of his subjects is total. And on Sunday, to the box with Donald Trump.In short, a selection is a flag and a name, a cry. That is why Spain prohibits by law the participation of selections like the Catalan one in international competitions (even though the Catalan Football Federation is older than the Spanish one (1900 the Catalan, 1913 the Spanish) and punishes athletes who refuse to go. By the way, the tweet from the Royal House encourages the selection to win the final with a phrase that will sound familiar to them: "!A por ello!". They don't get out of there.Good morning.

A decade ago, when a President of the Generalitat landed in Madrid, it was to defend the possibility of Catalonia voting in a referendum on independence. Artur Mas did it first; then Carles Puigdemont, Quim Torra and, finally, Pere Aragonès. Ten years later, however, with new majorities in Parliament, the Catalan government presents itself as the best guarantee of "institutional cooperation" and "loyalty" to the Spanish government's project. The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, starred this Monday in a press breakfast in the Spanish capital, organized by Efe and RTVE, in which he highlighted the moment that Catalonia without the Procés is experiencing: the Generalitat has budgets; it "leads" the new financing proposal where all autonomous communities gain resources, and it is synonymous with "stability". In addition, he has called for "speed" in applying the amnesty law, hitting a nerve with those like the PP and Vox who accuse the PSOE of reviving independence: "It is the first time in forty years that there has been no nationalist and independence majority. It has not revitalized, on the contrary [...]. I know what I'm talking about".

It will probably not surprise anyone if we state that Salvador Illa is the main pillar that Pedro Sánchez has left in Spain. The current head of the Catalan executive was the PSOE leader's bet to reconquer the Palau de la Generalitat in 2021 after years of independence governments. He did not achieve it at first, but after three years of waiting, the socialists returned to preside over the Government.Their idyll had been born from Illa's time as Minister of Health: it was in the midst of the pandemic when the two socialist leaders forged a bond, political and personal, that has not cracked with the passage of years. Not even now, when the Spanish president is going through his worst moment of the legislature, besieged by various judicial cases that involve his closest political and personal circle. In fact, it is now that Salvador Illa has shown him his most unconditional support. Also at the risk of tying his political future to the fate of the Spanish president.

The causes surrounding the PSOE have some common ground. One of these common denominators are the main investigated individuals – José Luis Ábalos, Santos Cerdán, and Koldo García – who appear in different courts. But another is people who had never been involved in politics, who were not initially on the radar, and who have ended up becoming key figures in the ongoing investigations.

The battle between PP and PSOE transcends internal affairs and already has consequences in relations with third countries. More than three years after the government of Pedro Sánchez signed a treaty of friendship with France, in January 2023 in Barcelona, it has not yet come into force. One of the reasons for this blockage is the opposition of the Popular Party, which considers one of the points of the document to be unconstitutional. The PP justifies its opposition because they assure that the Spanish executive has made a "legislative mess". They frame the criticism within their generalized denunciation of Sánchez's methods, whom they accuse of constantly trampling on the rule of law, also with this bilateral agreement with France. The Spanish government, on the contrary, attributes to the PP a desire to "sabotage the interests of Spaniards" for partisan reasons.

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.

The National Court has indicted the director of the Civil Guard, Mercedes González, in the Leire Díez case and summoned her to testify on July 16. She is not the only official of the armed institute that the court considers under suspicion: it is also investigating the operational deputy director (DAO) of the corps, Manuel Llamas, for Díez's alleged maneuvers to halt investigations affecting those close to Spanish President Pedro Sánchez. Specifically, Judge Santiago Pedraz, who made this decision after the request from the Public Prosecutor's Office and popular accusers led by the PP, believes they may have committed crimes of prevarication and obstruction of justice.

“Fifteen days earlier I was sitting at a table where decisions affecting an entire country were being made. Fifteen days later, I was alone, in nine square meters, trying to understand how I had gotten there”. When it has been exactly one year since he entered prison, Santos Cerdán has published La caída. Poder, relato y destrucción en la era del juicio político, the book in which he breaks his silence. Throughout 164 self-published pages, he recounts his experiences during the almost five months he was in Soto del Real, explains how he lived the days that led to his downfall, and offers a long philosophical dissertation on Justice and the media. He complains, for example, that public opinion is a “permanent tribunal without guarantees” that has imposed on him an “anticipated social condemnation” and attributes the investigation into him to “something that was not seeking the truth”.

This weekend, the PP of Catalonia held its congress, and the party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, came and said: “Like most Catalans, we also want to turn the page”. The phrase has been interpreted as an offer to Junts so that one day it may be possible for the PP candidate for the presidency of the Spanish government to receive their votes. Junts must already know what they want to do, but it would seem that Feijóo is playing at an interested confusion: Junts voted with the PP and Vox that Sánchez had to resign, but has said in every way that he does not intend to invest Feijóo, meaning that for now Feijóo will have to wait.But it is interesting to delve into Feijóo's phrase to see what the popular candidate understands by wanting to turn the page.And the answer could not be more predictable: that Catalonia should return to the common regime autonomous path, that it should pay, that it should be silent, and if it has to do something exceptional, it should do so to offer new glories to Spain. And that's when Feijóo pulls the rabbit of the Sagrada Família out of his hat. Look at this tweet on social media:“The image of the Sagrada Família. The one the PP wants to represent”. It reminded me of what happened a few years ago, when TVE premiered Operación Triunfo and the PP said that the contest embodied their values of effort and meritocracy to achieve success. Does something work and is liked? They make it their own. Theirs, in their own way. Listen to this minute and a half of Feijóo, very revealing of the thinking he has about Catalonia:“I want to mention something that has surprised again, finally, and that we haven't seen in Catalonia for decades. It is a moment that moved millions of people, and it is none other than the extraordinary inauguration of the tower of Jesus of the Sagrada Familia with Pope Leo XIV. It was the symbol of a capable Catalonia, of a Catalonia that was thinking big again. Capable of doing extraordinary things and capable of building a collective ambition”. Look, Mr. Feijóo, I'm very glad you liked the blessing ceremony of the tallest tower of the Sagrada Família, but hire a speechwriter who doesn't mix apples and oranges. You say he's "surprised again, finally"? Finally what? "That we haven't seen Catalonia for decades"? Do you really think that Catalonia hasn't done anything good in 34 years, between the '92 Games and the inauguration the other day? Has representing 25% of Spanish exports and 20% of GDP happened on its own? Has the player that the followers of la roja pray to and who has half the world in love come up like a mushroom? Does it seem to you that wanting independence is not thinking big, that organizing a referendum to discuss it as the most democratic countries do is not characteristic of a country "capable of doing extraordinary things and capable of building a collective ambition?" Here, the one that is not capable of doing things is the State. And I'm not referring to doing extraordinary things, but ordinary ones, like getting trains to run. What is commendable, Mr. Feijóo, is that with the fiscal deficit – extraordinary, this one – that has been dragging on for decades, the Catalans, as your predecessor Rajoy used to say, do things. But please, continue. "That day we did not see one part of Catalonia impose itself on another; we did not see one part of Spain against the rest of Spain. No, what we saw was a part of Spain offering the best it has, and we want to see it again more".

In a week marked by the ruling against José Luis Ábalos, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's agendas and Pedro Sánchez's appearance in Congress to discuss the judicial cases hounding the PSOE, another prominent name linked to alleged corruption has surfaced. It is that of Yolanda Santos, a socialist councilor in the Soria City Council, arrested this Tuesday by the Civil Guard. According to investigators, the person in charge of the Environment and Tourism areas in the municipality may have committed irregularities in the awarding of contracts to a company to which she had been linked a few years ago.