More than eight years after being indicted in the corruption plot of the Mercurio case, the former mayor of Sabadell Manuel Bustos will know in the coming weeks if he enters prison to serve a three-year sentence. The former socialist leader has two convictions for influence peddling, the last one confirmed by the Supreme Court a month ago which found him guilty of ordering police to lift three €200 driving fines against his wife and children. The Court has now asked the accusations whether they want the sentence to be served. The PSC, again at the head of the mayor's office, has prevented the consistory from taking a position in favor or against the imprisonment of the former mayor.

Bartomeu Muñoz avoids setting foot in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, where he was mayor until he left the City Council in handcuffs 11 and a half years ago. He also avoids anyone who might remind him of the events that will land him in jail. "He decided he didn't want to talk to anyone linked to Santa Coloma shortly after the sentence," explains a person who dealt with him until the former socialist mayor stopped picking up the phone. Muñoz restricted his circle when Spain's National Court found him guilty in 2018 over the Pretoria case, a plot of urban corruption involving around seven million euros between bribes and illicit gains. Despite the court's ruling nearly three years ago against a network that was born in 2002, no one involved has yet been jailed.