Public criticism from Unidas Podemos ministers such as Ione Belarra and Irene Montero against their coalition partners are common, but this time it was the Spanish government's second vice-president Yolanda Díaz. The cabinet will approve this Tuesday a €1bn credit extension from the contingency fund for the Ministry of Defence, a few days after Unidas Podemos made its refusal to increasing the military budget explicit. Although the Spanish government assures that all the ministries were made aware of the measure on Thursday, Díaz's allies point out that they did not know that it would be carried out immediately nor that it would be leaked to the media on Monday evening. "The manner in which things are done is very important and, in a matter of such sensitivity, it must be done with respect to government allies and Parliament", the Unidas Podemos leader lamented.

The Feijóo effect has boosted the People's Party (PP). They have gone up almost four points in the polls and would obtain a 27.2% share of the vote, the highest in any poll since the November 2019 elections, according to the latest barometer of the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) published on Wednesday. The Socialist Party (PSOE), for the first time since November last year, breaks its upward trend and recedes slightly: it stands at 30.3%, one tenth less than a month ago. Thus, the PP is now three points behind the Socialists. "With the current CIS it is impossible to beat the PSOE," said Feijóo, questioning the methods used. In spite of everything, he valued the PP's results positively and added: "Our objective is to beat the PSOE and the CIS".

Spain's historic turnaround on the Western Sahara conflict has once again laid bare the usual differences between the two coalition partners. However, for Unidas Podemos it has provided an opportunity to explore once again the lost unity and to heal the wounds opened in the last days after the public clash between second vice-president Yolanda Díaz and Podemos ministers Ione Belarra and Irene Montero as a result of the arms shipment to Ukraine. The distance between the second vice-president and Podemos has been increasing since Pablo Iglesias's departure, whether due to tactical or communicative discrepancies. Aware, however, that the image of division weakens their political space and the coalition government, as well as being beneficial for the right, the two sides have conspired to improve coordination and to avoid airing their dirty laundry in public.

Spain sides with Morocco and for the first time supports its proposal for autonomy for Western Sahara. It thus puts an end to its neutrality in the conflict in Western Sahara. Spanish president Pedro Sánchez has sent a letter to King Mohamed, published by the Moroccan royal household, in which he accepts the formula for autonomy proposed by Morocco. He sees it as the "most serious, realistic and credible basis for the resolution" of the conflict. Morocco presented the plan to the United Nations in 2007, and it implies ditching "de facto" any prospect of independence for Western Sahara, which would remain under Rabat's authority in matters such as security.

The war in Ukraine and, specifically, the shipment of weapons has caused another clash between the two partners of the Spanish government. This time, however, it has gone somewhat further and has also caused internal division within Unidas Podemos. Last Wednesday, Spanish President Pedro Sánchez announced at a plenary session in Parliament that, in the end, the Spanish executive would join the rest of NATO countries in sending weapons to Ukraine. Not ten minutes later, the secretary general of Podemos and Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, came out to distance herself from the head of the executive and also from first vice-president Yolanda Díaz, who shortly afterwards would close ranks with Sánchez. Division got deeper as the days went by, especially inside Podemos. Finally, this Monday, Podemos co-spokesperson Isa Serra spoke at a press conference and the party backed down: she supported the government's position, despite admitting discrepancies in this regard.

When on 14 July the twelve judges of the Constitutional Court (TC) overturned - divided and following an appeal by Vox - the first state of alarm decreed by the government of Pedro Sánchez to deal with the first wave of the pandemic, the newly elected Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, appeared in public to show the discomfort of the Moncloa before the sentence. An unprecedented move until now, but one that showed that the battle between the coalition government and the Spanish right is not only being fought in the Cortes Generales, but that the courts are playing an increasingly important role. In the coming months, the TC has to resolve a battery of appeals filed by the PP and Vox that question regulations as relevant as the reform of the law of the Judiciary (LOPJ) or the law of euthanasia. The decisions that the high court will end up taking can dismantle fundamental axes of the policies of Sanchez's government.

Yolanda Díaz will be the new third vice-president of the Spanish government and will keep the labour portfolio when the current second vice-president, Pablo Iglesias, leaves the administration to become a Podemos candidate in the regional elections in Madrid on 4 May. According to government sources quoted by EFE, Podemos would have agreed to lose the second vice-presidency in exchange for keeping the Labour portfolio, one of the portfolios with the greatest social and political weight.

With the announcement of his departure from the Spanish government, Pablo Iglesias is killing a few birds with one stone. His leadership within Podemos had long had detractors, he felt personally uncomfortable with his role in the coalition government with Pedro Sanchez's PSOE, who did not seem overly bothered yesterday by his second vice president leaving. On the other hand, Podemos needed a catalyst to avoid losing its distinctiveness due to the not always pleasant task of government in PSOE's shadow. Leaving the government to face Diaz Ayuso in the Community of Madrid gives a patina of effectiveness to a withdrawal that otherwise would looked like a crisis both in the government and the party. Iglesias has managed to turn his step to the side into a heroic, epic goal: to become the red hope to stop the PP's candidate who most unapologetically competes with the far-right Vox, which she will not hesitate to embrace if need be. Thus, Iglesias hopes to obtain a strong position in Madrid as PSOE tries to find its footing after its supposedly discreet manoeuvre of allying with Ciudadanos in Murcia has ended with the latter dislodged and in free fall at the polls (Sánchez, therefore, is left without his longed-for liberal centre partner), Ayuso strengthened as the new star of the right and with Podemos once again in direct competition with the socialists at the polls.

Tension between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, partners in "the most progressive government in history", has soared in the wake of the Pablo Hasél case. The protests are ideologically supported by Podemos, which has created a deep discomfort in members of the PSOE such as vice president Carmen Calvo, who does considers it "coherent". Here, in fact, two debates are intertwined. The first is whether a government force can be in favour of violent protests against the police commanded by a member of its own cabinet, in this case Fernando Grande-Marlaska. But the underlying issue is different: what is really important is that more than a year after putting the first coalition government of democracy into operation, the result is frankly disappointing, with two partners who are continually at each other's throats and putting on a pitiful show for the public.

The PSOE and Unidas Podemos continue mired in their particular struggle over whether in Spain enjoys full democratic normality or not, after the second vice president of the Spanish government, Pablo Iglesias, said on Monday to ARA that "in Spain there is not a situation of full democratic normality". The Spanish government tried to water down his words and framed them in the context of an election campaign. The Moncloa said that he was referring to the fact that democracy can always be perfected and improved. But so that the socialists could not misrepresent Iglesias's speech, Podemos launched a video in which it uses headlines, beyond the situation of prisoners and exiles, to highlight situations that they consider a democratic anomaly.