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.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso has used an advisor of hers in the Community of Madrid to search for and buy a new apartment in the Spanish capital, according to what Eldiario.es publishes this Thursday. The information from the digital outlet, which the popular leader's team has not denied, indicates that the head of office of the Madrid presidency secretariat, Álvaro Sanz, has been in charge of the arrangements for the search for Ayuso's new home: he has made contacts with representatives of at least one property, arranged visits to the property, and even participated in the negotiation of the purchase price.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso has used an advisor of hers in the Community of Madrid to look for and buy a new apartment in the Spanish capital, according to what Eldiario.es publishes this Thursday. The information from the digital outlet, which the popular leader's team has not denied, indicates that the head of office of the Madrid presidency's secretariat, Álvaro Sanz, has been in charge of the arrangements for Ayuso's new home search: he has handled everything from contacts with representatives of at least one property to arranging visits to the property and even participated in the negotiation of the purchase price.

Although Ayuso is understood when she speaks, this time her new creation –“the culture is universal”– does need translation. What she is saying is that only Madrid is universal and, therefore, the Guernica cannot be lent for nine months to the Basque Country, as requested by the Basque government to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the bombing of civilian populations by Hitler's aviation, an ally of Franco. With the full sentence it becomes clearer: “I think it's provincial, and I think that culture is universal”.

This 2026 one of the most iconic buildings in the center of Madrid celebrates its centenary. It is the headquarters of the Círculo de Bellas Artes (CBA), a private, non-profit cultural institution that claims to be a "reference of freedom and independence" in the capital of the State. In recent years, it has focused on "opening up to citizens" with initiatives such as the climate shelter —they have set up a green and free space that last summer was used by 60,000 people to protect themselves from the heat; the Festival of Ideas, which brings philosophy to the streets, or the City and Science Biennial, organized in collaboration with the Barcelona City Council.

The cultural battle is a concept that in the last decade has been inherent to the rise of the global far-right. In Spain, Vox has been fighting it for years to try to change the debate framework on issues such as feminism, environmentalism or LGTBI rights and to normalize discourses that were not previously acceptable. An example of this is the media coverage that the euthanasia process of Noelia Castillo has had this week and, in this context, the statements of the Madrid Minister of Health, Fátima Matute, talking about the importance of institutions also focusing on "healing the soul" are striking. As the elections in the Community of Madrid, scheduled for 2027, approach, its president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and her executive are increasingly adopting elements of the cultural war against progressivism. Ayuso has recently asked her supporters to exercise extreme vigilance to avoid losing the absolute majority, with an eye on Vox.

When the euthanasia law was approved in June 2021, support for the initiative was very broad in Spanish society, which had experienced emblematic cases such as that of Ramon Sampedro (died in 1998), played by Javier Bardem in Alejandro Amenábar's film Mar adentro, or that of Ángel Hernández, the man who helped his wife, María José Carrasco, to die in 2019 and who was acquitted of the crime of aiding suicide once the law came into force. According to a CIS barometer from January 2021, 72% were in favor of the law and only 15% against.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Santiago Abascal sitting on a powerful motorcycle painted with the Spanish flag. It is not a real image – nor AI – but a Fallas puppet exhibited this week in Valencia. Although there is no alliance between them in real life – rather a dispute over the same electoral space in Madrid – their radical speeches and the sympathies shared by the Madrid president and the Vox leader in the international arena make the vision of this tandem not particularly jarring to the spectators of the Fallas monuments. Abascal's ties with the far-right world leaders are official and organic – through alliances in the Eurochamber or with foundations of this ideological space – while Ayuso has them from a more symbolic perspective. This is what happens with Donald Trump.

King Felipe VI's gesture toward Mexico—in which he acknowledged the "abuses" committed during the conquest of the Americas—has had an initial, palpable effect on thawing relations. According to the Royal Household, the monarch has received an invitation from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to attend the World Cup, which her country will host from July 11 to 19. In a letter, Sheinbaum expresses that this sporting event "provides the perfect opportunity to highlight the depth and unique character of the ties between Mexico and Spain, forged by a historical brotherhood." The invitation was welcomed at the Zarzuela Palace "within the framework of the fraternal relationship of friendship between the two countries." At a press conference this Tuesday, Sheinbaum indicated her willingness to accept the monarch's invitation and welcomed his remarks earlier in the week during a conversation with the Mexican ambassador to Spain while visiting the exhibition.Half the world. Women in indigenous Mexico. The Mexican government had been demanding for years an apology to Spainbecause of its colonial past. Although Felipe VI did not apologize, the Mexican president interpreted his words—in which he admitted that there are behaviors that, viewed through the lens of current values, are not something to be "proud of"—as "a gesture of rapprochement" within the framework of a process that "must continue to be worked on."