The day after the respective parliamentary groups applauded with Christian fervor (of false saints, of whitewashed tombs) in Congress the words of Leo XIV against xenophobia and national priority, the PP and Vox invested the new president of Castilla y León with a government agreement based mainly on this concept. It is hypocritical and contrary to the spirit and letter of everything they claim to defend, from the Constitution to the Charter of Human Rights, but it was completely predictable that it would be so. Castilla y León would not be an exception to what has already happened in Extremadura and Aragon, nor to what will most likely also happen in Andalusia. In fact, in the communities that have not had elections this past winter but are also governed by agreements or pacts between the PP and Vox, national priority has also been incorporated into the roadmap as an indispensable condition for maintaining governments. The scheme is always the same: Vox imposes a blockade on the PP and does not lift it until the PP signs a long document in which it commits to applying Vox's demands in its government action. Since Vox is a completely vertical and hierarchical party, it always does things the same way everywhere, so it is absolutely predictable.The first of these demands is the famous national priority, which conceptually implies the institutionalization of racism and xenophobia, and in practice means a severe cutback in immigrants' access to public services. It is, incidentally, exactly the same recipe proposed by Aliança Catalana in Catalonia, and it is also the characteristic “Theirs first” of fascist populism. It rhymes well with the European Union's migratory policy, which, as the Advocate General of the ECJ has just certified, exports immigrants to prisons in non-EU countries without any guarantees regarding their fundamental rights. Without euphemisms: so that they can be tortured and killed in these other countries, in exchange for receiving the corresponding stipend.Returning to the national priority of Vox and the PP, what many of their supporters do not know is that the cuts in public services and rights that they applaud being applied to immigrants will tomorrow also be applied against them. Hearing Mañueco (the president of Castilla y León is called this, and he repeats in office) stammer vague excuses to downplay the agreement is a sad warning of the justifications that his voters will have to seek when they realize – if they realize – that at the bottom of it all is the dismantling of the welfare state, first, and of democracy itself later, or simultaneously. All this, seasoned with defiant bad-taste fireworks: the president of Extremadura, María Guardiola, who a couple of years ago stated that governing with Vox was her red line, now puts the resources and strength to create a piece of garbage called Extremestiza, to exalt with public money the figures of the Extremaduran plunderers of Latin America, Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro. And what is worse, with Nacho Cano as musical advisor.

The PP and Vox have already closed a government pact in Castilla y León. After the agreements in Aragon and Extremadura, the right and far-right have sealed a new understanding for Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, who had already governed with the far-right, to repeat as president. There have been no surprises regarding the content of the pact, which replicates the spirit of those signed in the two previous autonomies with the PP's adoption of the principle of "national priority." Mañueco stressed, in a press conference this Wednesday, that it is "the same text as in Extremadura and Aragon," which sets a "priority allocation according to real, verifiable, and effective residency" in the territory, and defended that it falls within "the legal framework."

The motion of no confidence weighs heavily on the political debate since the indictment of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, almost two weeks ago. Although the PP resists presenting it, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has taken a further step in the strategy of pressuring Pedro Sánchez's investiture allies and this Monday he offered himself, especially to Junts and the PNB, to put an end to the legislature. In an interview on Telecinco, and after the Spanish president vowed this weekend to resist in Moncloa, the PP leader has called for efforts to be united for an instrumental motion of no confidence. The objective would be to bring down the PSOE government, besieged by cases of alleged corruption, and call for immediate elections. "Decency and elections," he summarized.

It matters little that he is heard dealing with the then director of the Office of Anti-Fraud of Catalonia about the need to air dirty laundry about the main pro-independence leaders. Nor does it matter that conversations with former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo have transpired, speaking openly about Operation Catalonia ("I will deny, even under torture, that this meeting took place," he said in the audios). Not even that there are messages with his number 2, certified by a notary, in which they talk about Kitchen. For years, Jorge Fernández Díaz has played the role of the minister who knew nothing of what was happening around him. A defense strategy that he followed to the letter this Thursday when he testified as the main investigated party in the trial over the espionage of the former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas.

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.

The judicial maelstrom affecting the PSOE translates into noise in Congress, but not into tectonic shifts. The motion of no confidence, which is the parliamentary tool that could provoke them, hovers over the lower house with no prospect that the PP, the only opposition party with enough deputies to register it, will force one. This immobility is explained by the fact that Junts and the PNB, Pedro Sánchez's investiture allies with the most options to distance themselves, are resisting aligning themselves with Alberto Núñez Feijóo – and by extension with Vox – however much they have raised their tone against the socialists in recent days.

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.

The elections in Galicia are becoming increasingly tight and the PP sees its absolute majority fully in danger even before the Puigdemont effect was triggered by the proposal for a conditional pardon of the former president by Alberto Núñez Feijóo. This is revealed by the latest poll from the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) prior to this Sunday's regional elections, in which the popular party led by Alfonso Rueda has stalled at 42.2% of the votes and between 34 and 38 seats –the same as in the previous survey–, while the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) is soaring. The sovereignists reach 33.4% of the votes, with growth that would allow them to reach between 24 and 31 deputies, a historic record for the formation. If the CIS is correct, this double scenario makes the conservative absolute majority in Parliament hang by a thread. In parallel, the PSdeG-PSOE plummets to 18% of support, placing it between 9 and 14 deputies, in a particularly negative result for the socialist candidacy.

Our day will come, could be read on Saturday in the animation stand of the Balaídos stadium in the match between Celta and Barça. With dozens of flags  

The PP has been living in a Groundhog Day for a long time. Every time a judicial scandal from the political circle closest to Pedro Sánchez breaks out, the idea of forcing a motion of no confidence arises. This is what has happened these days with the indictment of former socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for influence peddling at the National Court. Just as happened with the investigations against José Luis Ábalos, first, and Santos Cerdán, months later, in cases of alleged corruption. Should Alberto Núñez Feijóo push for a motion of no confidence to try to shorten the legislature? The conclusion reached by Génova for now is the same as in previous cases. The PP will not take any step without having guaranteed support.

Calm, serene, and placid are three adjectives used within the Catalan PP to refer to the regional congress that will be held on June 27. Who would have thought, when not long ago Alejandro Fernández seemed doomed by Alberto Núñez Feijóo's inner circle. But there is still uncertainty in some of the moves to shape the new leadership. Especially in a triple change that is being strongly rumored within the PP, with the bet made by Fernández himself, according to multiple sources consulted by ARA: to remove the historic Santi Rodríguez from the general secretariat – so that he ceases to be number two, as he has been until now – and to have the position pass to the current parliamentary spokesperson, Juan Fernández. The consequence would be that the spokesperson position in the Catalan chamber would go to Lorena Roldán, currently deputy, the most questioned piece of the puzzle.

The Andalusian elections confirm that the Spanish right is heading towards living within what Moreno Bonilla and Feijóo had insisted throughout the campaign they wanted to avoid: the mess (in the original version, el lío, a terminology inherited from Rajoy). The mess is having to govern with Vox, and that is exactly what the Andalusian PP will have to do in this new legislature, now that they have lost their absolute majority. In regional negotiations with the People's Party, Vox acts as a party that does not know the meaning of expressions like institutional loyalty or proportionality . Apparently, they don't even understand what negotiating exactly means: for Vox, there is only the possibility of imposing their slogans and ideological obsessions, or breaking the game. They are not government partners: they tutelage governments. Lately, Vox's slogan is called national priority, which means institutionalizing racism, supremacism, and xenophobia, and making them transversal elements in government action. After that, there follows a list of hatreds (feminism, environmentalism, etc.) at the top of which is the Catalan language and anything that Spanish far-right nationalism identifies as "catalan". This is "the mess" that Moreno Bonilla will have to face, who does not emerge exactly unscathed (5 fewer seats and loss of the absolute majority) from the scandal of breast cancer screenings, despite the fact that there were more than enough reasons for the wear and tear to be more pronounced.For its part, the question that the Andalusian PSOE can ask itself is whether it has already hit rock bottom and if it still has sheets to lose in future electoral washes. In hindsight, it is easy to say, but the truth is that the socialists could hardly have chosen a worse candidate than María Jesús Montero, a woman who is Andalusian by birth but who is little or nothing so in practice, much more linked to Madrid, to Pedro Sánchez and to the party apparatus than to Andalusian political discussion, which is intense, dense, and vibrant. The old tactic of sending politicians who have "succeeded" in Madrid as ministers to the "provinces" (Pilar Alegría to Aragon, María Jesús Montero to Andalusia), which has been used so many times by both the PP and the PSOE, interchangeably, is not yielding results for Pedro Sánchez.The significant rise of the sovereignist left Endavant Andalusia, led by José Ignacio García, compared to the blockage suffered by the Sumar, Podem, and Esquerra Unida coalition, Per Andalusia, with Antonio Maíllo as candidate, confirms that "what matters to people" is also ideological, and that sovereignism makes sense (and has voters) when it is presented as a form of democratic improvement, linked to the demands for the rights and freedoms of individuals, both individually and collectively. The fact that Endavant Andalusia has received more votes than Vox in constituencies like Cádiz or Seville is also relevant. By blocs, the right-wing parties total 68 seats, compared to 41 for the left-wing parties. The mess that we already know in the Balearic Islands or in the Valencian Country is beginning in Andalusia.

Juanma Moreno Bonilla entered to applause at the PP's state headquarters the day after the Andalusian elections. Despite the bittersweet taste of his victory, this Monday among the popular ranks the "spectacular" result obtained by the popular candidate is claimed. In statements to the media at the entrance of the party's state board of directors, Moreno Bonilla has argued that, no matter how much he has fallen two deputies short of an absolute majority, the 53 seats are a "sufficiently forceful" result to leave Vox out of his future regional executive. "It is a very good result that gives us room to maneuver to govern alone," he stated. For now, Vox has not set this price, as it did in Extremadura and Aragon, awaiting the start of negotiations. Moreno explained that he has not yet had contact with Santiago Abascal's party.

Today it is Barcelona's turn in the teachers' protests and the strikers have gathered in one of the most visible places in the city, the Sagrada Família. These strikes that teachers are carrying out by regions are multiplying the effect of the sector in struggle and are making the crisis long for the Government.Meanwhile, the Government is preparing for this week, which will be the staging of the budget agreement between the Government, Esquerra and Comuns.While Esquerra is convening the national council today to give the green light to the budgets, President Salvador Illa is going to Sant Sadurní d’Anoia today to present the initiative for the orbital railway line, the result of the agreement between the Government and Esquerra.

The day has arrived. This Sunday Andalusia votes in elections that are regional and that many will perceive as a genuine primary. But in a certain sense, it is also a final, an event in which morale and the possibilities with which the PP will have to face the rest of the legislature for the whole of Spain are at stake. If the current Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, manages to regain his absolute majority, the bells will ring loud at Calle Génova in Madrid, where the popular party has its central headquarters. And if he does not obtain this result, they will also ring them, but they will emit a different, more subdued sound, because it will be necessary to go looking for Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, to try to guarantee a new parliamentary majority. And from previous experiences, it is already known that an operation of this kind is always a headache.

The Community of Madrid "is doing very well" and claims to be "the economic engine of Spain". However, according to Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government, this positive scenario occurs "despite" Pedro Sánchez's executive. Sources from the Madrid Ministry of Economy and Finance denounce "the asphyxiation" to which, in their opinion, the State has subjected them. Since 2019, when Ayuso took the reins of the regional government, the "consolidated debt" of the Spanish government with Madrid already amounts to 12,367 million euros, according to the calculation of Ayuso's team. "Mr. Sánchez's government is holding hostage the money of the people of Madrid that goes to issues as important as healthcare, dependency, or education," says the counselor Rocío Albert, in charge of Madrid's economic affairs, in statements to the press.

"We trust in the comeback." In this way, the PSOE spokesperson, Montse Mínguez, responded this Monday to all the published polls that point to a historic defeat for the socialists in the Andalusian elections on May 17. "Let's not get demoralized, quite the opposite," she added, and assured that there are "many people worried about public services" who will trust María Jesús Montero to change the model that the PP has established in the last two legislatures. "We will fight until the end, the vote is on May 17 and that is the poll that counts," she stated.

The day after the Andalusian elections on May 17, the "process of fiscal cession and privileges to Catalan separatism will be restarted". This is the thesis of Juanma Moreno, the PP candidate, presented during the first week of the electoral campaign in Andalusia. And this, as this newspaper published less than a month ago, the new Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, has even closed the door to the total collection of personal income tax. Nevertheless, this argument serves Moreno to argue that a "strong" and "stable" government is needed to "confront this injustice". Vox also resorts to Catalonia, using the old argument of comparative grievance between Catalans and Andalusians against the PSOE candidate, María Jesús Montero, España's predecessor at the head of the Spanish Treasury. In fact, the hypothesis that the right-wing parties fuel is that the PSOE is temporarily deceiving Andalusians so as not to harm Montero in the electoral race. They also reproach him for the new regional financing model agreed with ERC, which they claim harms Andalusia, even though it would add almost 5,000 million euros annually, when Moreno was asking for 4,000, at least until the end of last year.

It was only a matter of time before the management of the hantavirus crisis spilled over into the political arena. This happened on Thursday, two days after the debate began on whether the Canary Islands should be a stop or not for the ship MV Hondius where the outbreak of the disease has been detected. The PP has already criticized the role of Pedro Sánchez's government, and Vox has insinuated that if the Minister of Health, Mónica García, has finally accepted the cruise ship's passage, it is because she expects a future position in the World Health Organization (WHO).

Artificial intelligence (AI) has infiltrated almost every corner of our daily lives, often without us being fully aware of it. A few days ago, the news of a €1,000 fine for a judge for using AI to issue a sentence highlighted the risks of delegating human decisions to algorithms. In this context, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) has presented a revealing study on AI's vote recommendation. The results are curious: the PSOE systematically leads recommendations in all languages and platforms, followed at a distance by Sumar and Podemos. In contrast, the PP suffers the consequences: it has 96.3% visibility, but only a moderate recommendation of 28.2%, far from the PSOE. Vox, despite appearing often, receives marginal recommendations, below 6%.The study, jointly led by professors Ferran Lalueza and Víctor Gil, has analyzed 1,220 queries on five major platforms (ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Grok, and Perplexity) and in four languages (Catalan, Galician, Basque, and Spanish). "Previous studies have shown that these tools have a great capacity to influence people's voting decisions," says Cristina Aced, a UOC professor and member of the research team, in conversation with ARA. "They are very persuasive when building the foundation of their discourse," she explains.The methodology consisted of formulating 61 questions based on the real concerns of citizens according to the CIS, including housing, unemployment, immigration, and healthcare. To avoid personal biases, the research was not conducted as conventional users, but through an application connector. Aced details that this is done to carry out the study "more objectively", as the system "does not take into account the user's memory or their geographical location". The study also reveals that not all AIs are equally opinionated: ChatGPT and Grok tend to position themselves openly, while Gemini or Copilot are more neutral. According to Aced, this is due to "how they are programmed", although they recall that "in the end it depends a lot on the tool you use and the sources they draw from".