With the calling of early general elections for November 29th and the dissolution of Congress, all legislative initiatives that were underway in the Spanish lower house lapse, except for popular legislative initiatives (ILP) and initiatives promoted by the autonomous communities. In this way, reforms that had been promoted by Pedro Sánchez's own government will be left in a drawer. Other measures that have not even managed to make the leap to Congress could pass through the Council of Ministers, but they will not see the light of day – only royal decree-laws can be approved that are validated by the permanent deputation, where the Spanish government can approve things because the majority is different from that of the plenary session of Congress (this could be the case of the two housing decrees that derailed last week), or ordinary royal decrees (regulations) that do not have to pass through Congress.

The early call for elections in Spain will not change Aliança Catalana's decision not to run. Neither will the good electoral prospects of Sílvia Orriols' party, which polls, such as this weekend's in La Vanguardia, place as the second force in Parliament. The resolution adopted by the governing committee is firm, although some members of the leadership do privately argue for running in the general elections so as not to leave their electorate orphaned. "There is no debate," insist party sources, however.

Gabriel Rufián has gone up to the Congress rostrum with a stack of papers, some keys, and a 50-euro bill in his pocket. The stack of papers was to show the hundreds of messages he claims to have received from people asking for ERC to vote in favor of the two housing decrees. The keys, he said, were to his home, which is not his own, he added. And the 50-euro bill was to send a message to Junts: "This is their estelada." While it is already common for the republican spokesperson to repeatedly send darts at Junts in his speeches in Congress, this Friday he dedicated his entire intervention to attacking heavily against the no from Junts to the two housing decrees that are to be validated in Congress this morning. And he made a promise: "For as long as I remain in politics, I will strive to ensure you end up in the greatest ostracism".

The pepper spray that PP deputy Ana Belén Vázquez (Bande, 1975) showed on Wednesday in Congress to show solidarity with Ceuta triggered chaos. It happened after the President of Congress, Francina Armengol, expelled her from the chamber and a party employee emptied the spray in the restroom. In total, a dozen people received medical attention, three floors of the lower house were closed, and one worker went on sick leave. But who is Vázquez?

In recent days, a new torpedo has emerged that the PP is using to fire against Pedro Sánchez and the Spanish government. Last week, Beatriz Biedma, the judge from Badajoz who investigated and sent the brother of the PSOE leader to the dock, asked to appear as a private prosecutor at the National Court in the case regarding Leire Díez. The reason? The alleged maneuvers to remove her from the investigation of the David Sánchez case. Since then, news has been appearing in a cascade speaking of an alleged relationship between the Los Rochos drug trafficking clan and those christened politically and media-wise as the sewers of the PSOE. And the PP has clung to it during the control session in Congress to pounce on the Moncloa.

Chaos in Congress following a controversial intervention by PP deputy Ana Belén Vázquez, who displayed pepper spray and ended up being expelled from the hemicycle. But the absurdity did not end there. Later, the Spanish lower house had to seal off three restrooms, a kitchen, and a dining room due to the presence of a toxic substance. A PP staffer ended up admitting that he had handled and triggered the pepper spray while cleaning it at the request of the parliamentarian. Twelve people received medical assistance. Among them, there is a member of the Mauritanian delegation who was visiting the chamber and had to be treated for vomiting caused by the strong smell of gas. Furthermore, a woman from the kitchen is on sick leave due to intoxication –by mandate of her mutual insurance company– and another worker has filed a complaint. Let's take this step by step.

Congress has decided to definitively withdraw the press accreditation of ultra agitator Vito Quiles. The bureau of the lower house took this decision after having already decided to suspend him provisionally in May and withdrawing it for three months. This Tuesday, the progressive majority of the Congress bureau, with the votes of the representatives of the PSOE and Sumar, decided to definitively withdraw his accreditation after analyzing the proposal from the legal counsel. Specifically, three very serious offenses were taken into account: two "obstructions of press conferences" and the "dissemination on social media of images obtained by violating the house's rules," parliamentary sources note. The PP abstained from voting on the bureau's decision.

The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, confirmed this Wednesday that they will open a file for an "alleged very serious or serious misconduct" against the police officers who, on August 23rd, assaulted a minor, a Barça club member, in the vicinity of the Elche stadium. "The action that was carried out is in no way justified, regardless of the fact that the person was carrying a symbol that is absolutely legitimate in a state of law," replied Marlaska to Junts per Catalunya MP Marta Madrenas during the control session of the Spanish government in Congress. In the video distributed through social media, the agents can be seen striking the minor, who ends up on the ground, after taking an estelada from him.

Pedro Sánchez appeared this morning in Congress and began by making a profession of Spanish identity: he recalled that the lions at the door of Congress were sculpted with bronze cast from cannons captured in Morocco in the 19th century and that Ceuta and Melilla will be Spanish “until the end of time”.He has built a narrative about the government's response, in fact, he has flooded the chamber with figures, data, days, and hours, a flood that he ended up summarizing in one figure: 72 hours after the mass entry, more than 90% of the people who entered, 63,000 people, had already returned to Morocco. And that this had been done in collaboration with Morocco. And that there was no police report warning of what was about to come:And he topped it off: he has ordered the publication of all police documents regarding prevention. He said that the government has nothing to hide.It is likely that Sánchez's explanations will not be of much use, politically. Because they arrive late, very late, weeks late, during which he has been on vacation. And because Ceuta is still not okay. And because the police report that El Español published yesterday points to Morocco, due to the passivity of the Moroccan police, and leaves Minister Marlaska exposed. Passivity that we all saw. Does the minister not control his police? Does he not have information from the police? Ceuta may be the end of Sánchez's escapade. Our journalist in Madrid, Núria Orriols, says so:“It will be difficult for him to get out of this, this time, Pedro Sánchez”.And because apart from the right and the far-right, which have long wanted him out of government and in prison, the mismanagement of Ceuta has left those who are horrified by the likely prospect of a PP and Vox government without arguments.Yesterday's demonstrations in the evening were about three things: in favor of Ceuta, against Sánchez, and making an apology for the far-right. All three things simultaneously. In what proportions? Ceuta first, yes, but it was the motive that legitimized and justified a protest. Without losing sight of the fact that when we say Ceuta we are talking about two things: the massive entry that the people of the city have been suffering for a month and the disastrous management of the Spanish government. It is a complicated panorama for Pedro Sánchez that we will see what repercussions it may end up having, but it is undoubtedly the biggest dent in the bodywork of a government that has already taken quite a few hits.Good morning.

Between May 17 and 18, 2021, 10,000 people entered Ceuta from Morocco in the last major migration crisis—up to the present—in the autonomous city. Coinciding with those dates, the mobile phone of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, was infected with the Pegasus spyware. So were those of the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles; the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska; and the Minister of Agriculture and former Spanish ambassador to Morocco, Luis Planas. Who spied on them? As with the mass entry this summer in Ceuta, the Spanish government claims it has no certainty, but from the first minute, internal investigations (and common sense) have pointed to the Moroccan secret services. This Thursday, from Congress, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, took the opportunity to recall it: "What document or clue was on your phone for you to behave this way? Why are you afraid of Morocco? What does Morocco know about you?".

The resumption of parliamentary activity in Congress, in September, will have as one of its pending tasks to unblock the approval of the conclusions on the attacks of August 17 in Barcelona and Cambrils. Two and a half years after the investigation commission on 17-A was established, the parliamentary groups have already drafted their final proposals, but have not yet submitted them for a vote. The differences between the parties of the plurinational majority, which have been noted in the registered documents and during the sessions, have led them to negotiate in an attempt to approve a consensual text. For now, according to various parliamentary sources consulted by ARA, there is no definitive agreement, although the parties have agreed to try again after the holidays. The main obstacle is for PSOE and Junts to agree, as they are the ones with the most opposed positions.

August arrives. Cities empty, the frantic pace fades, the heat suffocates the asphalt and citizens pack their bags for the beach or seek the cool refuge of the mountains. It is time to hang the "Closed for holidays" sign on businesses and disconnect from routine. But what happens meanwhile with the institutions?

Political debate often strains the seams of institutional decorum and courtesy in political forums. This Tuesday, the Commission on the Status of Deputies accepted sanctioning the comments of the leader of Aliança Catalana with a minor offense, Sílvia Orriols, about Najat Driouech, an ERC deputy, whom she accused of making "a show of Islamic misogyny" for wearing a veil.

There is a rather comical inertia in journalism: when you need to inflate the dog on any topic you've already gone over a thousand times, bring in a non-verbal communication expert to finish the job. It's very useful. It gives an appearance of depth, of analytical insight loaded with superpowers, to explain what context and logic have already made obvious.The Antena 3 noticias team, in their voracious compulsion to destroy Pedro Sánchez, invited a professional expert on this matter to interpret his emotional and psychological state during the control session in Congress. Initially, he compared his image to that of a year ago in the same situation and highlighted that he was not wearing a tie, seeking a more informal and approachable appearance. Impressive. It is of admirable sagacity. Next, he pointed out that the Spanish president had started “quite nervously” because he was touching the papers with his notes on the speaker's podium. The newscast then created a magnifying effect on Sánchez's hand, so that those fingers automatically became suspects of any evil, even though barely any relevant movement was appreciated. To summarize, the specialist diagnosed that Sánchez was in a situation that reflected stress. It does not escape any minimally informed citizen that in recent months he must have been quite stressed.They also chose a fleeting moment when Yolanda Díaz was seen sitting on the bench consulting some papers. They decontextualized the image and enlarged it so much that it lost its sharpness. The specialist concluded that she “was focused on something else” and this meant that she was thinking: “I expect what is happening here”. Two seconds extracted from a long control session serve to demonstrate that Díaz, after more than five years as vice-president, it is quite logical that she knows the ropes in these sessions. The great analysis came at the time of deciphering Feijóo's attitude. From Antena 3, we would have been surprised by another conclusion. They extracted an image of an instant in which the PP leader moved his forearms up and down, to reinforce a statement. Just for that, for this well-chosen second, he sentenced that this way of addressing his target demonstrated "conviction and security". Of course, quite the opposite of Pedro Sánchez's nerves and stress. The hero of Congress, Feijóo. When Gabriel Rufián asked the Spanish president to look him in the eyes and Sánchez raised his gaze to look at him, the expert concluded: "Pedro Sánchez's reaction is one of freezing." It is difficult to imagine what else he could have done besides looking at him. And this, the expert used to reiterate the idea of touching papers to reduce stress.The funniest thing about it all is that the same communication expert seemed to have rehearsed his own gestures to convey security and authority in the matter. The elementary catalog on how to move your head, point your finger, and move your arms to have credibility on television. And he did it in such a staged way that the result was quite the opposite.

The People's Party of Catalonia is also approaching the far-right and hardening its discourse on immigration. The national PP has done so in recent months, and now the Catalan Populars are reproducing it in their political paper, which the party must approve at its 16th congress on June 27 – it is the text that will mark the strategic line of the party in the coming years. Under the premise that "those who come to commit crimes must know that they have no place in our society," the Populars demand "the immediate and effective execution of expulsion orders for any foreigner in an irregular situation who commits a crime," thus focusing on the fight against repeat offending.

Pope Leo XIV has not yet set foot in Catalonia and we are already saturated with religious events thanks to an extraordinarily devout television. TVE's La 1 is assuming the broadcast of all ceremonies with unprecedented faith and joy. To top it off, in some television slots (for example, Monday afternoon), it offered triple coverage: La 1, La 2, and the 24h channel in unison offering the same religious content.Beyond the bows and kisses on the hand at the airport, of all the experts praising the Pope with devotion and of the teenagers singing mass songs in front of the public TV microphone, the profile of the parishioner that has been shown to us in the mass events in Madrid stands out. The same way of dressing, with shared color tones, a certain social class, a very similar family style, and medals hanging from the neck that seem mass-produced. In this era of religious fervor that we have to endure and that transcends the Church itself, television shows us a believer of a certain homogeneity in appearance and conduct that distorts the idea of faith and confuses it with status and an ideological temperament.With the Pope's visit to the Congress of Deputies, television showed us another type of uniformity that is very unusual in the broadcasts that normally reach us from there. In recent years, in the hemicycle we have seen shouts, grimaces, aggressive confrontations, contempt, and unpleasant gesticulations that the deputies directed at each other. On Monday morning, beyond the red carpet and the pomp to receive the Vatican authority, in the seat of legislative power we discovered docile and quiet deputies lining up to greet the pontiff. In the hemicycle, all together in their seats, very elegant and polite. Full to the brim, even to the visitors' balconies. In some programs, they even revealed that the authorities had only spent two minutes in the stands to go through the motions. All attentive to the Pope's words and, to conclude the speech, La 1 emphasized that the seven minutes of applause the deputies had dedicated to him were a record for a parliamentary ovation. In times of polarization and maximum political tension, it turns out that the audience, from their homes, observes that the one who holds conciliation power in the State, believe it or not, is the Church. A Church that does not precisely have very democratic values. Not only because of its convictions regarding abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, or equality between men and women, but also because it is an institution that has inflicted much pain with sexual abuse and has remained silent about its crimes. What message does a Pope give to citizens, giving a sermon from the presidential lectern of Congress with all the deputies acting as obedient altar boys? An ultraconservative one, with the Church and faith as the only possible unifier, which does not correspond to that of a non-confessional state nor to the values of a large part of the citizenry.

At eight in the morning, twenty PP deputies were already queuing to enter the Congress of Deputies. On days when there is a joint session with the Senate, the hemicycle becomes small and it is difficult to fit. And this Monday, which was a historic day in Madrid, some were afraid of not finding a seat. The Pope's visit is an exceptional mobilization of resources and organization, even for those accustomed to dealing with state and international authorities. To give the reader an idea: while Leo XIV arrived at 10:30 at the Carrera de San Jerónimo, Congress opened its doors at 7:30 so that both parliamentarians and journalists could enter and have the necessary credentials (to reach today, considerable paperwork has been required). In addition, although the press normally moves up and down with some freedom around the hemicycle and the courtyard of Congress, this Monday the place to follow the event had to be chosen: the courtyard to see the arrival accompanied by music; the tribune inside the hemicycle or from the usual press facilities. What's more: at the end of the event, the deputies had to wait a few minutes inside the plenary until the Pope's entourage dispersed and they could circulate normally.

For the first time in history, the Pope has delivered a speech to Congress. In a hemicycle dressed in gala for the occasion and on a visit that he wanted to serve as a "gesture of closeness" towards Spain, Leo XIV has once again fully entered the Spanish political debate to fundamentally amend the postulates of the far-right regarding immigration. He has once again referred to the "tragic migratory drama" and has reproached the national priority that the PP and Vox have recently agreed upon in the autonomous communities. "Where a person is discriminated against because of their national, ethnic, religious or linguistic origin, the universal principle of the equal dignity of all human beings is seriously violated," he proclaimed. "The situation of migrants and refugees demands a response that looks at people," he added. Likewise, he has put forward a "double demand for social justice" with immigrants: they must be offered "safe and legal pathways," a "respectful welcome," and "real opportunities for integration," and, in parallel, the "right to stay in their own land" must be promoted by working to ensure that "no one has to leave their home." Precisely on Thursday, the Pope will travel to the Canary Islands, which is the final destination of the most dangerous migratory route in Europe.

This afternoon, the Government and education unions are meeting, to see if they can reach an agreement to call off the mobilizations that continue to be scheduled for the coming weeks and until the end of the school year. The Government has proposed advancing by one year the salary increase agreed with UGT and CCOO, more money for tutoring allowances, and a reinforcement of staff for inclusive schools. Positions are far apart. The conflict seems far from being resolved. However, the Government breathes more calmly after securing the 'yes' from Esquerra to the budgets.But the political news continues to be strongly conditioned by Zapatero's indictment, which has fallen like a bomb on Sánchez's government. Because Zapatero was, as Feijóo told Sánchez this morning, "his moral compass." In the control session of the Spanish government in the Congress of Deputies, a defensive Sánchez was seen. Listening to him, whether he was answering Feijóo or Rufián, it seems clear that Zapatero's indictment is already hitting the government's core, that there are not many more arguments left in Moncloa to defend themselves, and that it is now all about repeating that the elections will be next year and will not be brought forward.Where does this impression come from? Well, from the fact that instead of convincingly denying any possibility of corruption, Sánchez recalled Zapatero's merits: that he ended ETA, that he took Spain out of the Iraq war, that he got same-sex marriage approved… Even, Sánchez has brought out the worn-out card of Feijóo's photos on a narco's boat, in Galicia, years ago. And Feijóo has felt brave enough to twist Aznar's call to action (“he who can, let him do it”) and has transformed it into “he who can, let him steal”.Then it was Rufián's turn to ask, who with a desolate tone, as if someone in his family had died, almost implored Sánchez to give “some answer”. To Zapatero, the man who defeated the PP against all odds that very tough weekend in March 2004, the populars really want him. But today, in Congress, the feeling has been that the imputation of justice has decimated the reserves of conviction, which were already meager, that remained in the Spanish left.Good morning.

The Ministry of Finance has on the table a bill proposed by non-profit foundations that manage social housing, such as Habitat3 or Provivienda. The entities – grouped under the ALIVAS umbrella – want to create a new legal figure with the aim of expanding this segment of the residential market in Spain, the "social housing providers". According to sources from the Spanish government, they explain to ARA, the intention is for the law to reach Congress "as soon as possible", and for the socialist group to process it because the process is "faster" and has "fewer procedures" if done through parties.