If any impartial observer were to land in Madrid and review what has happened in the last six months, they would ask themselves a question: considering the regional election results, the polls, and the proliferation of alleged corruption cases, why doesn't Pedro Sánchez face an internal revolt within the PSOE? Is there currently too much criticism within the socialist ranks to launch an internal challenge and force, for example, an election? The answer is that the probability is almost zero. Although there are some voices raising a finger, the opposition, infinitesimal, is not articulated, has no visible face, nor support within the party's organic structures, which are dominated by Sánchez's allies. For what reason?

Without any reference to the judicial cases surrounding his environment, but with an announcement that is the message itself, Pedro Sánchez is pushing the legislature forward and this week will begin the process of presenting the 2027 budgets. The announcement was made before Catalan business leaders and also the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, at this year's conference of the Cercle d'Economia in Barcelona. Sánchez has claimed the need for state accounts, which would be the first of the legislature and would arrive at the most delicate moment of the term, when cases of alleged corruption are increasingly besieging the environment of the Spanish president.

Today, June 1, marks eight years since Sánchez has been president of the Spanish government thanks to the motion of no confidence he won against Rajoy. It was the first time a candidate reached the presidency through such a vote.Eight years later we have had the pardons, the amnesty still not completed because the Supreme Court is granting extensions, the demobilized independence movement, Commuter Rail by bus, Illa as President of the Generalitat, an unevenly distributed economic growth, the difficulty, not to say impossibility, of finding a flat, and very strained public services.Without going any further, Catalan doctors are called upon not to do any more overtime, under the eloquent slogan Not one more minute, because they don't finish the work they have and the on-call shifts have already turned days into three eight-hour shifts. Doctors want a response from the administration, like the one teachers have already received, who reached an agreement with the Department of Education this past weekend. This agreement will be submitted for a vote by teachers until Thursday. At the risk of being wrong, I believe that teachers have achieved a good part of what they were asking for, the strike has pushed teachers' pockets to the limit and families' patience, and therefore, the most logical thing would be for teachers to vote yes to an agreement reached by unions that did not settle for the first agreement signed by UGT and CCOO. The minister Niubó said this morning that a "no" would lead to the chaos of the education system. With this reality in the streets, political power continues in its own world.Sánchez, who will still take three weeks to explain himself in Congress, is betting everything on the Pope's visit, which will arrive this Saturday in Madrid, the "unity" effect of the Football World Cup, the August holidays and reaching autumn and having 2027 within reach. He himself says it: “The tricksters with their maneuvers, and we to govern until 2027 and beyond, whatever the Spanish want” “Until 2027 and beyond” sounds like it’s from the astronaut of lawfare, will not be new to them. In this analysis, we already told them weeks ago that the Spanish government not only wants to hold on until 2027, but they are also considering re-investing Sánchez.And the one who has already tied his destiny to that of Sánchez is Illa. At an event yesterday in Tarragona, he said, in Spanish so that the Spanish TV channels could broadcast it without subtitles and Sánchez would not be alone, that Sánchez was a “moral benchmark”.

The former Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has found a new ally to defend him in front of the cameras. Luis Arroyo (Madrid, 1969), a sociologist, political scientist, and supporting actor in some Spanish films and series, has recently become a regular on Spanish talk show sets. Now, at 57 years old, he has put his professional life on hold to defend the former president. "I am not speaking on behalf of Zapatero," he has emphasized in various interviews this week. "I am authorized to express the conversations I have had with him," he said. The situation is not new, because, according to sources close to him consulted by ARA, he is "very trusted by Zapatero".

Upon entering the UGT headquarters in Madrid, it was difficult to tell if it was the closing of the Congress of the Spanish Socialist Youth or a nightclub. The machine version of Pedro by Raffaella Carrà was playing at full blast while the leaders waited for the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, to enter the hall. A militant stood with a raised rose and two books by the PSOE leader in his hand –Manual de resistencia and Tierra firme–, which Sánchez dutifully signed as he passed by amidst shouts and applause. It is the staging of what the PSOE wants to do after fifteen days of judicial earthquake: counterattack.

If the previous Spanish legislature (2019-2023) was marked by judicial cases against the independence movement, the current one has become a real judicial minefield for the PSOE. The common thread between the two was, moreover, the amnesty, which Pedro Sánchez pledged to approve to secure the votes of ERC and Junts for his investiture. Although its implementation, two years after it was approved, has not yet been completed – with more than a hundred politicians, activists, and public officials with pending proceedings – one of the tangible effects of the measure has been the anger of the political and judicial right over the socialists' concession. In fact, the legislature began with constant protests in front of the PSOE headquarters encouraged by the far-right and also by PP officials.

It is now known that the end of the Spanish legislature will be a judicial ordeal for the PSOE. As we explain today, there are up to seven open judicial fronts against members of the party or the government, and that's if there are no secret cases underway that could appear at any moment. Many things can be said, but the only certainty is that the legislature began with right-wing protests in the streets and demonstrations by judges against the amnesty law, and it ends with a judicial siege on a party as has not been remembered at least since the end of the Francoist era.

The day Judge José Luis Calama indicted former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Oriol Junqueras defended pursuing any "type of corruption", but also warned of possible lawfare: "Always in favor of corruption being pursued and at the same time, I want to recall that some accusations made throughout history were absolutely false and invented." And he gave as an example Jorge Fernández Díaz's "the prosecution will sort it out for you." ERC's spokesperson in Madrid, Gabriel Rufián, also denounced a "witch hunt" against the left, who, despite this, admitted to being "pissed off" by the high regard he has for Zapatero: "If it's true, it's a shame."

Government changes in Spain go through processes of demolition. They seem like regime changes, and sometimes they even are. I'm not talking about the virulence of political confrontation. Internal struggles within and outside parties do not make Spain unique. No, what makes Spain unique is an unfinished territorial architecture that always threatens to be demolished or reconfigured. It is this unresolved issue and the bloody expression of ideological difference that turns politics into a battlefield.

The decision to investigate former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero following the Plus Ultra case has opened various debates on the need to regulate lobbyists or clarify the status of former presidents, especially their professional activities to prevent tiresome conflicts of interest, but also to prevent the commission of criminal offenses such as influence peddling. This is precisely one of the accusations made against the former leader as a result of the consulting work done for the company Análisis Relevante.First of all, it would be desirable for the state bill on interest groups that entered Congress in January 2025 to be unblocked. But it should not be forgotten that lobbying regulation is already a reality in Catalonia –a pioneer in creating a Register in 2014, today with more than 7,000 registered, more than 400 in Parliament–, Asturias, Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Country, Madrid, Navarre or Aragon, and also in the EU institutions –it is estimated that there are 30,000 lobbyists in Brussels for 35,000 Commission officials– and in states like Lithuania, Poland, Ireland, France, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium or Germany.These are regulations that must be placed in the context of the great cultural change that has taken place in the "administrative house" in the last decade: transparency; access to public information by citizens, the status of senior officials, including incompatibilities, conflicts of interest and "revolving doors"; the financing – essentially public – of political parties; corruption case whistleblowers, or the criminal classification of a range of corruption-related offenses. The gap, therefore, lies with regard to lobbyists who interact with the powers of the State, and not because there have been no initiatives in this regard, even during the constituent debate when Manuel Fraga raised it from his experience in the United Kingdom. Without forgetting another omission: the status of former presidents, currently in limbo, beyond the protocol or office-related issues provided for in a 1993 decree. The investigating judge's order concerning Zapatero states "the existence of an organized plot of illicit exercise of influence, structurally organized and led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who would have placed personal contacts and access capacity to high-ranking officials of the administration at the service of third parties interested in obtaining favorable decisions". Furthermore, the influence "was not directed at obtaining general treatment or an indeterminate expectation, but at achieving a specific administrative resolution: the approval and disbursement of the public aid requested by Plus Ultra within the framework of the Solvency Support Fund".A legal and transparent activity

This is not lobbying. Lobbying is a legal, transparent activity classified among those of citizen participation, carried out by a group of interest that provides technical information to officials, civil servants, or deputies to improve public policies and influences the decision-making process of public policies or regulations. The footprint of their actions is recorded in reports and in the public agenda of the lobby and politicians. On the other hand, influence peddling is a crime – which only exists in Spain – that consists of influencing a public official or authority by leveraging a position of power to obtain an economic benefit for oneself or for a third party through a resolution.How to avoid confusions? To prevent lobbying from falling into crime, the activity must be completely transparent. There is only lobbying when influence activity is carried out by organized groups, which are listed in a public register –usually mandatory, showing all organizational and economic data– and which attempt to technically influence through reports or proposals. Since there is no position of power, the public decision-maker ends up acting discretionarily. The lobbyist, moreover, is a remunerated professional –this excludes NGOs, unions, and employers' associations–, subscribes to a code of ethics, and enjoys a system of incentives: preference in communications, access to public dependencies, organization of joint events, etc. In influence peddling, the influence is spurious, it is not exercised on equal terms: whoever commits the crime takes advantage of a personal or power relationship to exert a type of pressure, which is also opaque, and which seeks to influence so that the public official is forced to rule inexorably in the way requested.

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“You cannot force a country to choose between democracy and stability, because there is no greater instability than that which stems from corruption”. The phrase is by Pedro Sánchez and was addressed to Mariano Rajoy the day before the motion of no confidence that made the socialist leader president of the Spanish government, on June 1, 2018. Next Monday it will be eight years.

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After a week stunned by the Zapatero case and the investigation pointing to a plot within the PSOE, the socialists are counterattacking. The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has requested to appear before Congress to inform about "the political situation related to the latest known judicial investigations." That is to say, to talk about the scandals surrounding his party. This is reported by sources from the Spanish government, who assure that they have "nothing to hide" and no problem discussing, if the PP wishes, the cases affecting the PSOE and also those of the PP, such as Kitchen, which is on trial. The PSOE has vowed to resist at Moncloa. The appearance has no date yet, but it will be after June 19, when the next European Council will take place, which Sánchez also wants to account for.

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Sánchez is this morning at the lowest point of his presidency. Lower means that every day is worse than the last. It reminds me a lot of 1996, during the last months of Felipe González and Aznar's first victory, when cases and revelations rained down every day. Yesterday, the Civil Guard entered the PSOE headquarters and was taking information for 12 hours. We don't know what they seized, but we know what the judge's report says, and it broadens the focus: the PSOE allegedly maneuvered to obstruct justice. Or as the judicial report says, it allegedly orchestrated a “trama to destabilize judicial proceedings against the PSOE or the Spanish government.” The judge is investigating whether the PSOE paid people to pay police officers or prosecutors to hinder investigations against the PSOE, against Sánchez or his circle. Who would be part of this group and what were they doing? On this page you have it: Who's who in the alleged plot to “obstruct” judicial cases. From the details that have emerged, the PSOE allegedly paid former militant Leire Díez about 4,000 a month, with false invoices. That is, the PSOE allegedly put its party structure at the service of illegal activities. This would be very serious, and even more so if we consider that it is unlikely the party would do anything without Sánchez.

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It was April 24, 2024, on the eve of the campaign for the Catalan Parliament elections, when Pedro Sánchez dropped a bombshell on social media. A letter to the citizens in which he confessed to being "deeply in love with his wife" and wondered if it was worth going forward after learning that proceedings had been opened against Begoña Gómez in a court. He took five days to reflect, during which many assumed he would resign... but he stayed. He decided to resist. The reader may wonder why this episode is being brought up now, but there is an explanation: it was during this period of reflection that Judge Santiago Pedraz places the beginning of the new judicial front that since this Wednesday the PSOE faces.

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One year and one day after Leire Díez, known as the PSOE's plumber, burst into the news, her name has once again been strongly heard. In the last 366 days, Santos Cerdán has resigned as number 3 of the PSOE, has gone to prison and has been released, and Díez has gone from anonymity to the political forefront. And now the National Court has definitively connected their paths. Judge Santiago Pedraz believes that, along with other people, they concocted a network with the aim of "systematically and continuously destabilizing and hindering" any judicial case that could splash Pedro Sánchez. Santos Cerdán, who was the "leader" and made the "strategic" decisions, commissioned Leire Díez in April 2024 to "coordinate and execute" all actions. The plan involved offering "remunerations or favors" to Civil Guard officers, investigators, or prosecutors "in exchange for information or acts contrary to the exercise of their duties." The focus was particularly on judges who were beginning to investigate Pedro Sánchez's wife and brother.

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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?

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There is a demolition underway, but it is not just that of the government (this will largely depend on how long Sánchez's investiture partners hold out, because he intends to hold out) but that of the entire institutional and political edifice of the Spanish state. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that the demolition that has been occurring for years against more limited objectives is now happening on the scale of the Spanish government. The judicial coup état has been a reality within Spanish political life at least since 2010, with the Constitutional Court's ruling on the Statute of Catalonia, and this has been repeatedly denounced – preaching in the desert, needless to say – by various progressive jurists. Afterwards, we have come to know that other powers of the State, such as the Public Prosecutor's Office or the police, were working against rulers and elected representatives, as we saw with the cases against Catalan independence and the Spanish left. Finally, it has also happened to the PSOE, for having sided with the enemies of the Spanish fatherland, that is to say, for having built a governing majority precisely with the Catalan (and Basque) independentists, with the Spanish left, and with almost all minorities represented in Congress.It is evident that the PSOE, with Sánchez at the forefront, finds itself cornered and is carrying out a confused forward flight in which it is very difficult to know what is true and what is not in the avalanche of filth that falls daily upon Spanish public life. It is also evident that the Popular Party acts with privileged information, to the point of announcing or incorporating into its arguments and speeches the next moves of judges and police officers. It is another piece of evidence that an former president of the Spanish government has never before been indicted, let alone on the basis of indications, in a country that has been governed by individuals such as Felipe González, José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy, possessors of fortunes and assets over which the most absolute opacity prevails. The fact that the UCO entered the PSOE headquarters on Ferraz street in Madrid this Wednesday should, it is presumed, be equivalent to the search of Génova street in the same city in 2013, with the detail that we have known for many years that the PP headquarters was paid for with illegal money. at Ferraz street in Madrid, it is presumed that it should be equivalent to the search of Génova street in the same city in 2013, with the detail that we have known for many years that the PP headquarters was paid for with illegal money.We have also recently seen Mariano Rajoy, María Dolores de Cospedal, and other PP leaders parade before the courts in the Kitchen case (abusive use of the police to spy on political opponents), and leave with their heads held high after declaring that they knew nothing or did not remember, assisted by a magistrate who was in a hurry to interrupt the most uncomfortable interrogations. Tomorrow, Sánchez's brother will also appear before the courts, for another case fabricated from inspirations and suppositions. Feijóo is right about one thing, and that is that the atmosphere is suffocating. The right's total attack consists of wanting to govern on top of a wasteland covered with the ruins of the rule of law. They have models of how to do it (the falls of Lula da Silva in Brazil and António Costa in Portugal, based on false charges) and they apply them thoroughly.

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The Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard entered the PSOE headquarters this morning to request information. They are looking for an alleged illegal financing network of the party. Let's see, a police entry reinforces the feeling of guilt of the investigated person, which, in the era of narrative over facts, is ideal for those who wish harm to the suspect. But if anywhere we know what effect the interested administration of the judicial instruction and police investigation has with a specific intention, it is in Catalonia.

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A paranoia runs through the PSOE. This is the feeling that this Wednesday socialist deputies who attended Congress early to attend the control session had, and who were surprised by a news item from El Confidencial that pointed to a search at the PSOE headquarters for an alleged irregular financing scheme. The shock was immense: they didn't know what was happening and the feeling of being completely exposed to the succession of events, in the midst of a storm over the Zapatero case, was absolute. After the initial shock, there was, in quotation marks, a kind of relief despite the seriousness of the accusations: from the party they indicated that the Civil Guard had appeared at the headquarters (it was there for twelve hours) to request information about a new case related to Leire Díez: the National Court is now investigating whether she and former PSOE leaders tried to obstruct judicial proceedings affecting the party or the Spanish government. That is to say, a case that directly points to the structure of the socialist party and which has led to a new indictment of Santos Cerdán and the party manager, Ana Fuentes, among others.

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When all the polls, and even more so after the blue wave of May 28, predict a more or less tight victory for the right-wing bloc in the State on July 23, the CIS does exactly the opposite. According to the organization led by José Félix Tezanos, the left not only does not retreat, but advances, as both the PSOE and Sumar could improve their results to the point of bordering on an absolute majority. On the other hand, the PP and Vox would not reach it in any case.

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