Podem announced this morning that tomorrow it will vote in favor of the two housing decrees, in line with what the Tenants' Union had requested. With Podem's yes, it remains to be seen how Junts and the PNB will vote.

The Spanish government is optimistic, but the fact is that, 48 hours before the vote on the housing decrees in Congress, they still do not have guaranteed support. Neither for the first decree-law, with a broad battery of measures such as the suspension of evictions and tax incentives –already published in the BOE–, nor for the second, which automatically extends rental contracts, which will be officially published this Thursday. For the moment, the Spanish government only counts on the affirmative vote of EH Bildu and Esquerra, as announced by its president, Oriol Junqueras, although the spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, has said that they will look at it down to the "last comma". Meanwhile, Junts, Podemos and the PNV maintain the uncertainty. In fact, it is with these two parties that the Spanish government has to perform the most juggling acts to satisfy their demands, which are very often contradictory. In parallel, the Tenants' Union has demanded that the groups validate both decrees.

Juan is 72 years old and walks among the tents pitched at Puerta del Sol. He has just taken a photo and shows it: it is the diamond-shaped plaque beneath the sign that gives this Madrid square its name, which was placed by Manuela Carmena's city council in homage to the 15-M movement. "We were sleeping and we woke up," he says. Juan looks at it and recites it out loud, only to then explain that he has two children aged 37 and 39 who only managed to move out three years ago. "We thought that with a progressive government everything was already done, and in reality, nothing was done," he laments. This is a sentiment shared among the protesters who are in Puerta del Solin the state capital: it is palpable in the conversations, on the banners, and in the public statements of the Tenants' Union. Are we facing Pedro Sánchez's 15-M?

The figure of Ada Colau emerged in the fight for decent and affordable housing for everyone. A youthful activism that eventually led her to become the first female mayor of Barcelona when she was 41 years old. From the position (2015-2023), despite two terms in power, the progress in housing policies was limited, frustrating. It remains the great problem in the Catalan capital and in all large cities. One only needs to look at the promises that have led to the victory of Zohran Mamdani in New York and Elif Eralp in Berlin: access to housing is marking the emergence of a new progressivism. The phenomenon is making its way into the urban world, where the problem is bleeding and where the left-wing vote usually carries more weight. Madrid, so tilted towards populist right-wing, is a global exception.

Irene Montero made it official last Saturday that she wanted to head the Podemos candidacy in the next general elections. The announcement was not new, but the fact that she went a step further and showed herself willing to run in open primaries for the entire space to the left of the PSOE to lead a joint list was. It was the first time that the purple party had opened itself so clearly to being part of a joint candidacy after the divorce with Sumar. The formation created by Yolanda Díaz, on the other hand, still does not have a visible face to opt to lead the space. Unlike three years ago, now it is the purple party that is setting the pace for Sumar.

While the Spanish right and far-right lead all the polls, which comfortably give them the next state executive, the Spanish left confirms its division, immersed in internecine struggles, especially between Sumar and Podemos. Thus, MEP Irene Montero officially announced this Saturday her candidacy for Podemos in the upcoming Spanish elections—which will have to be ratified by the membership in open primaries—. "I believe that good people are the majority and that people willing to contribute something so that things change are the majority, and for that reason, I will run in the next general elections," Montero asserted. In her view, "it is a difficult task, but it is worth using politics so that people live well."

María Pozuelo (Lanzarote, 1976), coordinator of Podem Catalunya since June 28, 2025, just one year ago, receives ARA when the pre-campaign for the municipal elections begins and coincides with a climate of possible pacts in the left bloc.

Nobody questions that Gabriel Rufián has established himself as an undisputed benchmark for the left throughout the State: he is, after all, the fourth best-rated politician in Spain and the preferred by Catalans. ERC's spokesperson in Congress has long made an uninhibited call – and discredited by the leadership of their partyLast week, Gabriel Rufián took another step and

"We have taken a step forward by obeying the popular mandate. I appreciate the effort of the seven organizations that have made it possible for us to present the best candidacy: For Andalusia". Antonio Maíllo, the candidate for the left-wing coalition led by Esquerra Unida and Sumar, recalled that Podemos is one of these seven formations that next May 17 will try to spring a surprise in the Andalusian Parliament elections. But at Sunday's rally in Seville, there was no trace of Podemos. The purples, who have reluctantly accepted the Andalusian coalition after two resounding electoral defeats (in Castilla y León and Aragón), do not want to get involved in anything that is not strictly essential. And, despite the evident electoral climate in Andalusia, Sunday saw the presentation of the state pact, which also brings together Comuns and Más Madrid.

"We have taken a step forward obeying the popular mandate. I appreciate the effort of the seven organizations that have made it possible for us to present the best candidacy: Por Andalucía". Antonio Maíllo, the candidate of the left-wing coalition led by Izquierda Unida and Sumar, recalled that Podemos is one of these seven formations that next May 17 will try to surprise in the Andalusian Parliament elections. But at Sunday's event in Seville, there was no trace of Podemos. The purple ones, who have grudgingly accepted the Andalusian coalition after two resounding electoral defeats (in Castilla y León and Aragón), do not want to get involved in anything that is not strictly essential. And, despite the evident electoral climate in Andalucía, this Sunday the state pact was presented, which also brings together Comunes and Más Madrid.

What should be the unitary left-wing front proposed by Gabriel Rufián? Aware that his party, ERC, does not subscribe to the proposal, the republican spokesperson made an explicit request to him this Thursday: "I ask my party to lead this. And if it costs me my position, I'll go home." Rufián wants Oriol Junqueras' party to adopt the proposal and unite, under its banner, this confluence in Catalonia. And in the State? The republican spokesperson in Madrid has argued that Podemos should play this role: "Podemos can help these confluences." The second stop on his tour of the State has taken him to Barcelona, to the auditorium of the Campus de la Ciutadella at Pompeu Fabra University, alongside Irene Montero, Podemos's number two, who has taken up the proposal's gauntlet.

Uproar on the right and desolation on the left of the socialists, where the noisy leaderships of four days ago are getting lost in a general blurring. With canonical cases in both Catalan and Spanish politics, albeit with different forms and styles. Two examples of how stars that seemed to break barriers are fading: Pablo Iglesias, convinced that his presence was enough, did not want to understand that politics has a part of heavy and unsightly work behind the scenes, he was lazy about organic entanglements and got stuck when it came to moving from rhetoric to action. Result: he is a little more out of play every day. In the Catalan case, Ada Colau, who entered the mayorship with momentum, gradually blurred as if she couldn't find her place in the world of institutional politics and got lost in the transition from verbal illusions to practical concreteness. The drift of Podem and Comuns and the consequent fragmentation of their space, on a direct path to insolvency, force us to question the so-called far-left. And it's not just a problem for Catalonia or Spain.

In the survey by the Sociological Research Centre (CIS) last June, Gabriel Rufián first appeared as one of the names Spaniards considered as a candidate for the presidency of the State. The percentage was very low, 0.6%, but what was significant was that a leader of ERC, specifically the party's spokesperson in Congress, appeared in the predictions. The Rufián phenomenon has been growing over the months – in this March's survey the percentage had grown to 5.8% –, spurred on by his campaign for a left-wing front. All the sovereignist left-wing parties, starting with his own, ERC, turned their backs on him and the feeling was that Rufián was rowing against the current, even though he never tires of saying that what he defends is what he hears on the street and what the left has always been criticized for: lack of unity. And especially at a time of rising right and far-right. Sumar welcomed Rufián's proposal, but invited him to join the coalition that was already negotiating with Esquerra Unida, Comuns, and Més Madrid. A project in which Podemos, incidentally, is not involved. It is precisely for this reason that the person who has taken up Rufián's challenge is Irene Montero, the number two of the purple party.

Podemos has reached an agreement with Izquierda Unida and Sumar to run in coalition in the upcoming Andalusian elections on May 17. The pact was sealed before the legal deadline for registering the left-wing confluence under the umbrella of the Por Andalucía brand, which ended at 11:59 PM. In a last-minute negotiation, which lasted more than twelve hours since it began on Thursday morning, the three formations have announced an agreement to run together in a candidacy that will be led by the candidate for the presidency of the Junta de Andalucía, Antonio Maíllo.

Nine times has the spokesperson for Podemos, Pablo Fernández, repeated the "outstretched hand" of the purple party to go in coalition with Izquierda Unida (IU) and Movimiento Sumar for the Andalusian elections on May 17. And it is that after two resounding falls at the polls in Aragon and Castilla y León – with less than 1% of the votes – Podemos is making a 180-degree turn to the strategy of recent months and, for the first time, is opening up to an alliance with Yolanda Díaz's party in an electoral event. It thus lifts the veto it had imposed on Sumar and which had derailed other understandings: "With all actors," he made clear at a press conference. The offer, which comes four days before the deadline to register coalitions, would not change the number 1 position of Por Andalucía, the leader of IU, Antonio Maíllo.

The week begins in a very dangerous way. As you know, Trump has announced attacks on Iranian power plants if Iran does not unblock the Strait of Hormuz Iran has warned that its response will be to attack the desalination plants of the Persian Gulf countries. You attack my electricity, and I'll attack your water.

At the beginning of the year, the PSOE and Podemos parties agreed on a mass regularization of migrants to grant legal status to half a million people already living in Spain. They did so by drafting immigration regulations to avoid having to go through Congress, where they would have struggled to secure a majority to pass them. However, the PP has found a loophole to try to influence the Senate through the law on repeat offenses, promoted by Junts and approved last week in the upper house. The PP pushed for an amendment to toughen the conditions for the regularization of migrants, and, as ARA has learned, Junts will vote in favor this Thursday in the final vote in Congress. The regularization will still go ahead, but controls for obtaining a residence permit will be increased.

It has been a turbulent week for the left of the PSOE. It started with the hangover with a resounding kick in the elections in Castile and León and it has ended with the Sumar ministers challenging Pedro Sánchez to include measures in housing in the social shield against war. In the midst of it all, the emergence of the Irene Montero - Gabriel Rufián tandem has shaken things up. The event they will share in Barcelona In twenty days, he has brought Podemos back into the equation, pulling it out of the isolation it had been mired in for some time. Those close to the ERC spokesperson in Congress describe it as "just one event and nothing more," but Podemos members hint that it could crystallize into a future electoral alliance. "I can't think of a better team; they have a path I hope they can follow," declared Podemos' general secretary, Ione Belarra. And Irene Montero herself publicly acknowledged that an electoral partnership with Rufián is a "very good idea" and, contrary to what those close to the Republican maintain, confessed that events like this are held "not only for the general elections, but also for the general elections."

"A party that has had Francesc Macià, Lluís Companys, Josep Irla, Josep Tarradellas, and Pere Aragonès is above all else." The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, asserted this Friday the importance of his party, above any specific dispute, including regarding the candidates. "We are not afraid of anything," he responded in an interview with Ser Catalunya when asked if he feared that Gabriel Rufián might leave ERC in search of a national left-wing front. "ERC goes far beyond all of that," he insisted, adding that "if we weren't afraid of prison, how can we be afraid of anything else, much less this?"

The division of the left is as old as the left itself. Ideological purism, doctrinal rigidity, and poor tactical ability, sometimes compounded by a personalism they theoretically reject, are characteristics historically associated with the groups and factions that have positioned themselves to the left of the "official" left. These conditions often lead them, almost inexorably, to dissent and fragmentation, ultimately resulting in political impotence inversely proportional to the ideological virtue they preach.