Why does Zapatero take the stage to play the sad role he played, with few concrete statements, half-truths, and the intriguing nuisance of the gifted jewelry? From a judicial point of view, he insisted on recognizing the judges' final say in valuing each thing, as could not be otherwise. And in fact, he was only emphatic regarding his actions for the benefit of Plus Ultra: "It's not that I didn't influence, it's that I didn't speak to anyone." A sentence that will pass the test of validation in the courts.

The “national majority” for which José María Aznar demonstrated a few days ago has a fairly exact precedent during the Republic period in the CEDA, the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights, which was led by José María Gil-Robles – a character whom we would now unhesitatingly label as far-right – and which bore great responsibility in the construction of a suffocating climate, extreme polarization and social fracture, in the Spain of the thirties. Does this sound familiar? The CEDA was a conglomerate of right-wing parties, with a larger force that set the pace (Acción Popular, with presence throughout Spain) and then a multitude of small forces that were of regional scope, focused on the domination of the rural areas (most of them had the word "agrario" in their name: Acción Agraria y Ciudadana de Cuenca, Acción Agraria Riojana, Acción Agraria de León, etc.). Afterwards, to obtain electoral benefits above all, an amalgam or mishmash of reactionary forces with others of a more liberal or center-right profile were added. Gil-Robles and his obscure clique formally accepted democracy, but in reality what they wanted was to overthrow it or turn it into a regime tailored to their interests and based on lifelong bossism. They were convinced that the state was theirs (or rather: that the state was them), they felt a profound allergy to any form of diversity – especially linguistic and cultural diversity – and they had a slogan that was a complete inventory of their priorities: "Religion, family, homeland, order, work, and property". When the Popular Front of the left won the elections of February 1936, the CEDA actively pressured the outgoing government to declare a state of war and prevent the left from coming to power. They maintained that a left-wing government would open the door to class struggle and Catalan and Basque separatism, and that all of this was "anti-Spain". The most direct electoral and ideological competitor that the CEDA eventually had, and where a large part of its electorate ended up, was the fascist party Falange Española y de las JONS.Does all this remind you of anything? LA CEDA got along well with a far-right party like Acción Española (led by José Calvo Sotelo, who was Minister of Finance under the dictator Primo de Rivera and uncle of the former President of the Spanish government, Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo) because they shared ultranationalism and national Catholicism (“For God and for Spain!”) and because they considered their political adversaries enemies of Spain who were leading it to perdition and ruin. This is precisely the doctrine that underpins Aznar's "national majority", in which, as a great novelty, elements from the "left" (they mean the PSOE) can find a place, provided they are like Emiliano García-Page. Aznar's (and Ayuso's and her dog Miguel Ángel Rodríguez's) message is that Feijóo is not on the right path, or does not have the necessary leadership, to build this national majority. As is often said, we will see what happens.

José María Aznar gave Alberto Núñez Feijóo an order yesterday in front of everyone: to get rid of Sánchez, you must only count on Spaniards. And to govern, in the future, also, only Spaniards, not the PNB, nor Junts. He said it like this:

In Madrid, Galician ambiguity doesn't pay, and that's why when Alberto Núñez Feijóo sends messages that can be interpreted as a gesture towards Junts or towards Catalonia (whether or not that is the Galician leader's intention), someone quickly reminds him that this path leads nowhere. This Wednesday, the great mastermind of the Madrid right and its spiritual guide, José María Aznar, has set Feijóo on the course he should follow. Aznar has called for a "national majority" that includes the left and the right to oust Pedro Sánchez. "This majority will be national or it will not be," he reiterated. Translated into political terms, Aznar tells Feijóo that he must forget about Junts and the PNB and, instead, look towards people like Emiliano García-Page and Jordi Sevilla, that is, the Felipe González-era PSOE. Lest there be any doubt, Isabel Díaz Ayuso has cried out against "the constant independence threat".

José María Aznar must always be listened to. Beyond the occasional strident declaration or the catchy soundbite that makes headlines, what he says usually reflects in depth the thinking of the dominant right-wing in Madrid. Not always coincident with what, by intuition, the Galician Alberto Nuñez Feijóo might think.

Although José María Aznar proclaimed the famous "whoever can, let them do it" against Pedro Sánchez, the former Spanish president is not pressuring Alberto Núñez Feijóo to register a motion of no confidence, unlike Vox. The former PP leader has warned his party that Junts cannot be counted on to bring down the head of the executive, no matter how much Carles Puigdemont's party gives their occasional supportto parliamentary initiatives, of a symbolic nature, against Sánchez's continuity. "Congress cannot manage a constructive no-confidence motion", lamented Aznar, who attributed it to the fact that the allies of the socialist leader's investiture want "to be able to consummate their plundering of the State". The former Spanish president and leader of the PP criticized that Moncloa has ended up being "a Madrid delegation of secessionism".

After two weeks of upheaval, the Pope's visit offers the possibility of a parenthesis of peace and a certain truce. Leo XIV arrives with a very full agenda with which the Spanish government hopes to have the opportunity to temporarily change the scenario. It is a historic visit and attention must be focused on the pontiff's words, especially regarding his intervention in Congress, this coming Monday.

Madrid is, increasingly, a continuous and terrible spectacle, starring a wide collection of actors from all imaginable professions who always move around a single concept: power. In its full dimension and with all the elements that have characterized the work for centuries: ambition, corruption, exploitation, manipulation... institutional violence if necessary. Pasqual Maragall already anticipated it in detail in articles in El País 25 years ago ("Madrid se va") and 23 years ago ("Madrid se ha ido"). Today we note that these are not only very relevant reflections, but that it is possible and necessary to update them.

The Zapatero case has opened a parallel debate: what do former presidents do? Do they have any limits in the private sector? One of the arguments used by those around the PSOE to respond to the ruling of Judge José Luis Calama is that Zapatero – president from 2004 to 2011 – has used his contact list to carry out consulting or lobbying tasks, as other former Spanish presidents have done. This, they emphasize, is legal, although the experts consulted warn that there is a legal vacuum regarding the activities that former heads of state can undertake and that there is also no specific regulation for lobbying because it is stalled in Congress.

Far from being ashamed of having convened all the powers of the State and shadowy affiliates to bring down Sánchez's government when he was invested by Catalan separatists in exchange for amnesty, Aznar boasts about it. It is understandable. The first time he tried to go down in history, it ended in tragedy.

When Pedro Sánchez dusted off the slogan “No to war”, he knew perfectly well what he was doing. The confusion it has caused in the PP is such that the best response Feijóo's spin doctors could come up with in Wednesday's session was: “No to war and no to you”.

This morning something very interesting happened, a new strategic move by Pedro Sánchez in his long and well-known struggle to resist, to resist everything: his collaborators in prison, the indictment of his wife and brother, his party defeated in every election in Extremadura, Aragon, and Castile and León. This morning Sánchez went to Congress to explain the social measures to alleviate the cost of the war in Iran. And he went on the attack. Seeing that Europe is no longer leaving him alone with the "No to war" movement, he said that the 2026 war in Iran is like the 2003 Iraq War, which had disastrous consequences in Iraq, in the world, and on our streets with Islamist terrorism. That if that war was illegal, this one is too. And that the People's Party (PP) was complicit. But to say that Iran is like Iraq, to ​​once again use the trump card of the "No to war" movement of 2003, is déjà vu. And then, Sánchez personalized it with a tremendous attack against José María Aznar. He said that Aznar, in 2003, wanted to feel important, that he supported a war in exchange for ego, for the power to influence George Bush. He recalled that the Madrid bombings were the fault of that war. And he recalled that Aznar shows no remorse. He even went so far as to question his morality.

Twenty-two years after the 11-M attacks, the People's Party (PP) of José María Aznar's era remains obsessed with ETA. Coinciding with the anniversary of that terrible event, the former Spanish Prime Minister presented the new book by Jaime Mayor Oreja, Minister of the Interior from 1996 to 2000 and currently president of the ultraconservative Catholic foundation NEOS. An Inconvenient Truth (Espasa, 2026), Mayor Oreja reviews the "years of lead" and defends the theory that for more than twenty years Spain has been experiencing a "process" that could culminate in ETA's victory thanks to the left's "concession" to its "totalitarian plan." "ETA will win and will have a Lehendakari (President of the Basque Government). [...] We will see ETA govern in the Basque Country and Navarre," Mayor Oreja stated Wednesday night, despite the terrorist group's dissolution years ago.

Although José María Aznar says he doesn't like Donald Trump, he does agree with some of his most controversial decisions. The attack on Iran, for example. The former Spanish president, who 23 years ago involved Spain in the Iraq War, has defended the new military action in the Middle East, even though he doesn't have the same rapport with the current US president as he did with George W. Bush back then. "I don't like populists on the right or on the left," he stated this Wednesday at a geostrategy conference in Valencia, referring to both Trump and Pedro Sánchez, whom he lumped together. However, while the former leader of the People's Party criticized the position of the head of the Socialist government, in the case of the US president he considered it "more than justified to try to change a regime [the Iranian one] that completely alters international rules" and that "constitutes a threat to stability, peace, and global security." Now, unlike in 2003, he doesn't need the excuse of weapons of mass destruction.

Pedro Sánchez usually plays on the attack when he sees a clear opportunity to advance. And the diplomatic clash with Donald Trump's United States represents an unbeatable window of opportunity for him to set the debate on terms that suit him best. There are two major blocs in the world: the militarists/authoritarians (Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, etc.), and the democrats and supporters of the diplomatic path (which he currently leads, at least within the EU). In a country like Spain, with a very significant anti-militarist and anti-American sentiment (a direct legacy of Francoism), and which in 2003 and 2004 mobilized against the Iraq War in a process that would end with the PP's eviction from power, it is playing a winning card.

Julio Iglesias, besides being a renowned international artist, is not an ideologically neutral figure. On February 29, 1996, four days before the general elections, the singer appeared alongside José María Aznar in a packed bullring in Zaragoza, where he was greeted with euphoria. There, Iglesias explained that he had decided to take the step of becoming politically involved for the first time because "a country never grows without change," he said, referring to the thirteen years that Spain had been governed by Felipe González. "There will be no better president for Spain than José María Aznar!" he proclaimed after explaining that he had had long conversations with the leader of the People's Party (PP) before taking this step.

With José María Aznar's absolute majority in 2000, a process of ideological rearmament of the Spanish right began, reconnecting it with its nationalist or ultranationalist tradition. This tradition has its most immediate antecedent in Francoism, but also has roots in the Falange, the CEDA, and Lerrouxism. Regarding Francoism, the People's Party (PP) is aware of its umbilical connection, which began with the founding of the People's Alliance (AP) under the leadership of Fraga Iribarne and five other former ministers of the Francoist dictatorship. In 2002, Aznar issued a condemnation of the 1936 coup attempt and the Francoist dictatorship (a condemnation echoed by Pablo Casado in 2021), albeit ambiguous, accompanied by opportune nods to the hard right, referring to "concord" and "the victims."

Without notes or reading glasses. In a friendly auditorium, far from the tense atmosphere. José María Aznar has taken the baton from Pedro Sánchez, who was the focus of attention in the Senate that morning, and this Thursday evening he was the main event on Madrid's news agenda. However, the presentation of his new book Order and freedom (La Esfera de los Libros, 2025) had nothing to do with the appearance of the Socialist leader before the Koldo/Ábalos commission. Right from the start, the journalist fromThe World And on COPE radio, Jorge Bustos, who introduced the former Spanish president and leader of the People's Party, made clear the difference between Aznar and Sánchez as writers.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo and José María Aznar had to appear together at an event for the Faes Foundation, which the latter chairs, to try to unify their messages regarding the Gaza massacre and the malevolent strategy of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, to disguise his preferred discourse of solidarity as social discourse. What Pedro Sánchez would like more than to be able to eliminate the judicial investigations that plague him and their social repercussions. It's not that easy. However, the truth is that he has managed to open a front of public debate that could give it oxygen.

How far gone are those days when Alberto Núñez Feijóo landed in Madrid and promised that he would not contribute to the tension or use insults in politics. And also that Feijóo who, before the Catalan business community, displayed pro-autonomist sensitivity and respect for the Catalan language. If anything has become clear at the start of this political year, it is that the Galician leader is a complete hostage to the party's hard line, which is the same as saying the Madrid PP, led by José María Aznar and Isabel Díaz Ayuso.