The law of the unborn conceived, promoted by Isabel Díaz Ayuso in the Community of Madrid and assumed by Alberto Núñez Feijóo as a promise if he reaches Moncloa, is ambiguous because it is presented as a policy to promote birth rates and support families, but it turns the aid into the gateway to an ideological framework that could put reproductive rights at risk.Allowing pregnant women to receive benefits from the 14th week of pregnancy may seem, at first glance, like a simple administrative modification. And it is true that, legally, this law does not modify the state norm that regulates rights related to sexual and reproductive health, including the right to abortion. But its scope is not exhausted in the letter of the law. Behind it is the will to introduce, step by step, the postulates of the anti-abortion agenda of the extreme right.The great legal transformations do not usually suppress rights from one day to the next. They usually modify the conceptual framework from which these rights are interpreted. Ayuso's initiative is inspired by the American movement of the "fetal personhood, which has gained significant traction in recent years in the United States. Its goal is to create a "fetal personhood" that shields the rights of the unborn above all others, thus coming into conflict with reproductive rights, including access to abortion, contraception, and even fertilization in vitro.To understand what this concept implies, it is interesting to follow the chronology of this biological process. Embryonic development begins with the fertilization of the ovum by the sperm when they unite to form a zygote; after a few days, the blastocyst implanted in the mother's uterus gives rise to the embryo and, around the ninth week, the embryo becomes a fetus. Science can describe this path, but it cannot point out the exact moment when a developing human life becomes a "person". This answer is not scientific, but moral, philosophical or religious. And now it also wants to be political, to end up ideologically governing public policies on the beginning of life.Prenatal life deserves moral consideration. But one thing is to recognize moral value in prenatal life and quite another to make it a subject of rights comparable to a born person. The Madrid law for now does not restrict any of the woman's rights and can be read solely as an aid to motherhood. But it is not neutral, because it shifts the debate towards the status that the unborn should have. And this movement is slippery. First it is said that the conceived counts so that the parents receive aid. Then, that if it counts to obtain it, perhaps it should also count for other purposes. And finally, that if it has rights in some areas, it is not understood why it should not have them in all. The underlying problem is that some postulates that the extreme right engenders and to which it gives life can end up weakening, to the point of making them die, recognized democratic rights.

With Juanma Moreno Bonilla handed over to Vox, in the baron popular has lost, at least publicly, the moderate label it had earned by contrasting its ideological profile with that of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The PP is convinced that if it wants Alberto Núñez Feijóo to reach Moncloa, it will have to be hand in hand with Vox. That is why the popular party has been paving the way for pacts with the far-right at the regional level and, in recent days, the popular leader has tried to join in. Of course, with his clumsy style and following a rather erratic line.

The Popular Party has a closet full of flags that it brings out into public debate as it finds they can be useful. It parades them, surrounds them with noise, forces false disjunctions and equally false debates with them, and then brings out the next one. It doesn't matter if it's immigration, Catalonia and the Catalan language, the territorial organization of the State, the fight against corruption, the various negations it carries with it, or the defense of what it calls the family unit. It all consists of managing to parade a flag, or several flags simultaneously, and making a racket.Now we are talking about the unborn conceived, a grotesque concept that aims for a fetus to be another member of the aforementioned family unit. In this case, the flag comes from the looms of Ayuso and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, experts in victorious flags, who have already legislated on the matter in the Assembly of Madrid (what an ironic name, Assembly of Madrid). Vox also wants to dispute it, this flag, because it suits them very well: after all, anti-abortionism and the denial of women's reproductive rights occupy a prominent place in the fascist/neo-Francoist ideology they promote from Abascal's party. There is also a component of stale sexism and patriarchalism: the creature begins to exist from the moment the father impregnates the lucky mother, or perhaps already when the father unzips his fly. As if all this were not enough, it is a discourse that is also supported by the MAGA movement and Trumpism. Thus, the unborn conceived is a finding that is in tune with the spirit of the times and deserves the nihil obstat of the new fundamentalism. Oil in a crucible.The idea of counting an embryo as a family member, besides being macabre and aberrant, is also very accurate. A few weeks ago, at the proposal of Vox, the unborn concept was discussed in the Balearic Parliament – a avant-garde chamber, since it is presided over by an far-right hothead with the support of the PP – and it was already seen that the idea is so good that they should also include dead relatives within the family unit. Thus we would have the unborn concept and the deceased already buried: all together they would form an ideal and very complete family unit.It goes without saying that the law approved in the Community of Madrid under Ayuso's absolute majority, and which Feijóo promises to introduce into a state-wide law if he governs, represents an alarming regression in rights and freedoms. It also raises questions: how does the unborn conceptus reconcile with Vox's national priority? And with Aznar's national majority? More specifically: is an immigrant embryo a member of a family unit? And if so, does this family unit, which counts its fetuses, deserve to be part of the national majority and, therefore, receive privileges reserved for citizens of national priority? Vox has already answered no. Or perhaps someone doubted that, among embryos, there are also first and second class ones? The problem with parading so many flags at once is that they trip over each other and everything.

Step by step, whether forced by pacts with Vox or on its own initiative, the PP is adopting the postulates of the far-right in different areas, such as immigration, gender violence, or, now, the anti-abortion agenda. Alberto Núñez Feijóo announced this Monday that when he reaches Moncloa he will promote a law for the unborn so that women can receive aid from the very moment of conception, when they confirm their pregnancy. It is a supposed law that is presented as social and in defense of the family, but which in reality seeks to establish an ideological principle that conditions women's rights, which is that, as Isabel Díaz Ayuso herself said, "the unborn is a person from the first minute".

Isabel Díaz Ayuso approved last week, thanks to the PP's absolute majority in the Assembly of Madrid, a controversial law on conceived but not born. The rule grants the status of family unit member to the embryo, so that, from the moment pregnancy is proven, families will be able to access maternity benefits without waiting for the birth. This is a measure that is part of in the cultural war against the progressivism of the Madrid president which, one year before the regional elections, is in full competition with Vox to prevent them from undermining this absolute majority. In fact, a few days after Juanma Moreno Bonilla had to give in to the far-right to be invested as president of Andalusia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has announced that, if he is president of the Spanish government, he will follow Ayuso's steps and promote a state law for the conceived but not born.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, the all-powerful chief of staff for Isabel Díaz Ayuso, will not go "forward", using the expression he himself has so often used against PSOE leaders. The judge has decided to dismiss the case against him for leaking the names and photo of two journalists from El País who were investigating the tax fraud case of the Madrid president's boyfriend. After hearing the statements of both Rodríguez and Alberto González Amador, Ayuso's partner, the magistrate considers that there are no indications of a breach of secrecy, as stated in the order to which ARA has had access. The PSOE has already warned that it will appeal the decision.

New revelations complicate the situation of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner. A report from the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) indicates that a company owned by Alberto González Amador did not have "the necessary means for the provision of consulting services" that it billed to Quirón Prevención, as it was a company for aesthetic and beauty treatments.

The latest changes to public transport in the Community of Madrid have sparked a dispute between Renfe and the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP). Since this Monday, the census registration has become an indispensable requirement to obtain the public transport pass in the community, something Renfe rejects. The Spanish railway operator denounces that the regulatory change encourages "segregation" among users and "differentiation" when accessing a right and a service like public transport. The issue is that the Ayuso government's decision has caused controversy because it targets irregular migrant populations, who often face difficulties when registering in cities, as has been repeatedly denounced by various social entities or the Ombudsman himself. Furthermore, the change also comes at a time when the PP is embracing the "national priority" promoted by Vox, which means sidelining irregular foreign populations.

The Supreme Court has put a stop to the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Vox, and has rejected temporarily paralyzing the extraordinary regularization of immigrantswhich began a month and a half ago. The Contentious-Administrative Chamber decided this after five hearings held this morning, which served for the Madrid executive, the far-right party, and three ultra associations to launch attacks against the regularization process promoted by the Spanish government after an agreement with Podemos. In one of them, the State Attorney announced that as of May 21st, 549,596 applications had been submitted and 91,905 had begun to be processed. Those who passed the first filter received a provisional authorization to work. In many cases, these were people who had jobs: they were working illegally and now do so legally, or they have found work elsewhere. "We are not talking about entry, but about a radically different issue. We are talking about a group of people who were in Spain, who can prove five months of residence, and who had deficits in accessing rights," argued the State Attorney. He also highlighted that the regularization serves to "respond to labor market challenges" and seeks to offer "effective and rapid integration" to people who have "roots" and an "inseparable bond of coexistence" in Spain.

Agustín de Foxá (Madrid, 1906-1959) was a Spanish aristocrat and diplomat best known for a novel openly hostile to the Second Spanish Republic, Madrid, de corte a checa (1938). The book that interests us here, however, is another: Por la otra orilla (1955), in which he paints a nostalgic and paternalistic view –very typical of that era– of Latin America. I own the first edition of this collection of chronicles published by Ediciones de Cultura Hispánica, with a cover that inevitably evokes the aesthetic of the NO-DO (the book, by the way, cost 80 pesetas in 1955; it was very expensive). Abstracting from the cloying adjective of some passages, as well as the underlying ideology, it is a generally interesting and well-written work.In Foxá, Hispanic America seems to him, in general, a space of cultural continuity, a “bother world” where Spain has left a deep mark and, at the same time, has received influences that have also transformed it. His descriptions combine imperial nostalgia, aesthetic fascination, and the search for an exoticism that aims to be effective and is often expressed through poetic prose. Foxá observes the New World as an inverted mirror: a territory where Spanish history has taken unexpected paths. Throughout its 526 pages, this perspective, characteristic of the Francoist mentality and the texts published by Ediciones de Cultura Hispánica, tends to idealize the colonial past, presenting it as a civilizing and sentimental bond, but in Foxá's case, without entirely shying away from the most problematic parts previously sugarcoated. On page 437 ("El cenote sagrado"), he even relativizes, for example, the issue of human sacrifices in Mexico, which was quite problematic in the midst of national-Catholicism.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso further tightens the noose with Mexico. The Madrid president doesn't seem to have had enough of the controversy over her trip to the country, in which she claimed the conqueror Hernán Cortés, and this Thursday she made another statement with a clear provocative intent: 'Mexico did not exist until the Spanish arrived,' she said in the plenary session of the Madrid Assembly. 'It was another civilization,' she added in response to criticism from the PSOE over her stay in Mexico.

In recent days, Isabel Díaz Ayuso has been on an official trip to Mexico. The distance has prevented her from getting involved in the week's hottest news and the purpose of her transatlantic visit has been called into question. For this reason, as soon as she set foot in Spain, she needed an emergency loudspeaker to intervene, albeit with a delay, in all the controversies.Tuesday at noon, Nacho Abad welcomed her to En boca de todos, one of the most sensationalist and extreme programs on television. A space with a register not very suitable for presidential interviews. Abad, with a subservient attitude, prepared a script where Ayuso could practice her two favorite sports: victimhood and taking credit. As soon as they started, Abad gave her a compilation of the insults that her political adversaries had dedicated to her in recent days: "I am going to tell you what they have said about you: they have called you out of touch, ridiculous, grotesque, provocative, a persistent liar, and a recalcitrant victim". Meanwhile, she lowered her gaze afflicted, lamenting the aggressiveness of politics. Ayuso answered all the questions in a subdued tone and a childish attitude, as if repeating a lesson learned by heart to display her virtues. Nacho Abad kept serving her the topics on a platter for her to finish off with clarity: "Are we going to regularize criminals?", "Is there money for everyone?", "What is the national priority?". Questions that served her to launch into a political rally with the greatest hits of the most staunch right-wing, focusing on Spanish identity and the dangers of immigration. It is no coincidence. Emphasizing the security problems that immigration entails is one of Abad's obsessions in crime news. The presenter also pointed out that they were investigating Zapatero for collecting illegal commissions. ““Zapatero or laundromat?”, the program captioned on screen to provide context for the answer. They also showed him the Spanish government's criticisms for having neglected the hantavirus crisis, and Ayuso allowed herself the liberty of ridiculously imitating minister Ángel Víctor Torres for the messages he had sent her. She did the same with minister Mónica García, who will be her adversary in the next elections in Madrid. Faced with criticism for her trip to Mexico and the activities she had carried out there, Ayuso lashed out at president Claudia Sheinbaum for having boycotted her events and for putting her in danger during the trip. She described Mexico as a "narco-state" and warned that, with Pedro Sánchez in government, “Spain could become Mexico.”The television show catches the attention from the Catalan perspective. In Catalonia, we have become accustomed to the president of the Generalitat, whoever it may be, appearing in institutional interviews, formally very careful and prepared from the journalistic demand. It is a service to the citizen. What we saw on Cuatro was the complete opposite: a show for Ayuso to use for her own benefit, as a platform for propaganda and image laundering.

The most serene Isabel Díaz Ayuso has said some words that painfully challenge us. She said them after the Mexican government –incomprehensibly– failed to understand her fervent praise for Hernán Cortés. "We had to disappear. We were in danger," she murmured, on her return to the capital of the motherland.

The controversy is associated with the name of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. In fact, for years she has made this her particular political strategy, but surely her latest trip to Mexico has exceeded all expectations. An official trip that, on the one hand, has called into question the reconciliation process between Spain and the country presided over by Claudia Sheinbaum after years of frozen relations; and on the other hand, has ignited Mexican politics and society to the point where Díaz Ayuso's team decided to leave the official trip ahead of time. This Monday, the president of the Community of Madrid has opted to blame the Spanish and Mexican governments: "We had to disappear. We were in danger".

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.

The first rule of authoritarian leaders is to delegitimize institutions and never recognize an electoral defeat. We are seeing this in the United States with Donald Trump, who six years later still has not recognized Joe Biden's victory in 2020. In Spain, it is Vox who applies the trumpism instruction manual to the letter, and it has been weeks since Santiago Abascal and his followers have been propagating on social media and through every means possible the idea that Pedro Sánchez's government is preparing a rigged election for the elections scheduled for next year. This breeding ground is fueled by fake news about Indra's power, about the manipulation of mail-in voting, or about the effects that the regularization of immigrants will have on the census, which is nil. The objective, however, is to create an unbreathable climate, close to insurrection, and to prepare the ground to challenge the results if they do not match their expectations. The risk, however, of provoking a social explosion with violence is very high, as already happened on January 6, 2021, in the Capitol or also in Brasília on January 8, 2023.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso does not seem overly concerned by the diplomatic headaches between Spain and Mexico. Beyond what the progressive meeting in Barcelona meant for the left, that summit was also relevant for another reason: the visit of Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, to the State. Her presence signified a resumption of diplomatic relations after years of clashes due to the Spanish refusal to apologize for the Conquest. The Spanish government recognized for the first time the "injustice" of the colonial past with Mexico, and then King Felipe VI acknowledged "abuses" with a gesture that was very well received by the Mexican authorities. However, amid this climate of reconciliation, the president of the Community of Madrid has intervened.

Of the 179 municipalities in the Community of Madrid, 114, almost 64% of the total, are governed by the PP. The percentage increases if we focus on the 37 with the largest populations. 70% of the municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants are tinged blue. The Isabel Díaz Ayuso effect caused the left to even lose some of its strongholds in southern Madrid, traditionally called the red belt, in the last local elections of 2023, as is the case with Móstoles and Leganés –second and fourth most populated cities–. The popular party also snatched Alcalá de Henares and Alcobendas from the PSOE –third and tenth, located to the east and north, respectively.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has opened a rift in his own party with the adoption of the principle of "national priority", an emblem of the far-right Le Penist movement that has been spreading across the rest of Europe, but which the PP had never embraced. What's more, it had vehemently rejected it.

A poorly informed passerby wondered at five in the afternoon if the hundreds of Venezuelans gathered in Madrid's Puerta del Sol were celebrating a football triumph. Seeing children with Venezuela's colors painted on their faces, the sea of flags that flooded the square, and the festive atmosphere that hovered over the event could have suggested it. But no. "It's living what we always wanted there, freedom," summarizes Francisco, who has been living in Madrid for eight years and introduces María Corina Machado as a "bulwark of the fight for freedom." For Clara, who has also been in Spain for eight years, it is "the great hope for achieving a democratic country forever." They are two of the thousands of Venezuelans waiting for the leader of the Venezuelan opposition on the day she has been distinguished by Isabel Díaz Ayuso with the Gold Medal of the Community of Madrid. "She is our future president, the one who has liberated us and the one who has taken away the dictator," thanks Mariel, who left Venezuela 26 years ago and now lives in Seville. "Donald Trump is not the ideal president, but he has given us the encouragement and hope that we can indeed get out of this," acknowledges Frai, who has been living in Valencia for three years.