Spanish politics is the scene of a total confrontation between the government and its detractors, but history shows that promises of total rupture by the opposition often end up diluted when entering the Moncloa Palace. Alberto Núñez Feijóo's People's Party has a whole series of laws that it has promised to repeal when it governs, as Mariano Rajoy had previously done, for example. What was the result after becoming president?

It is clear – as Oriol Junqueras likes to say – that the proposed new financing model does not give Catalonia the key to its coffers: there will be no special economic agreement nor a unique model separate from the other autonomous communities. But it is also clear that it will bring more resources to the Generalitat's coffers: according to the Ministry of Finance's calculations, almost 4.7 billion euros in 2027. From these two facts, we enter the realm of opinions, where politicians choose sides to try to dismantle their rival's arguments.

Pedro Sánchez faced the most difficult year-end review since arriving at La Moncloa seven years ago this Monday. In his usual pre-Christmas address, the Spanish Prime Minister began to break down the report. Fulfilling He outlined what his government has accomplished in the last six months, but first he spoke frankly about the crisis that is cornering the PSOE and, consequently, the Spanish government, a result of the alleged cases of corruption and workplace and sexual harassment within the Socialist ranks.

Pedro Sánchez has seen two former PSOE organizational secretaries imprisoned in less than six months: Santos Cerdán, who has already been released, and José Luis Ábalos, also a former Minister of Transport, who was imprisoned this Thursday for alleged irregularities in the purchase of face masks during the pandemic. He has also seen the blog that investigated him for the Spanish presidency in 2023 weaken by the minute, to the point that it no longer exists, or at least, according to Junts, which has decided to break with the Socialists. "The seams of the State are being stretched and even torn apart," reflected Aitor Esteban this Friday afternoon, who, since becoming president of the PNV, observes everything that happens in Madrid from afar. However, Sánchez is seeking to regroup to fulfill the commitment he has repeated week after week: to serve out his full term. That the situation is, at the very least, delicate is undeniable. "The image is painful [...], it's very unpleasant," admitted the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz (PSOE), This Friday, in reference to the imprisonment of ÁbalosFrom Moncloa Palace, it is acknowledged that it has not been an easy week, although they do not consider it to be on the same level as the week Cerdán entered prison. "That was a much more complicated time," government sources assert. Regarding the balance of power in Congress, things are further complicated because with the absence of the former minister, when he is suspended as a deputy –The board will not be able to make the decisionUntil the high court resolves the former minister's final appeal, Junts' abstention will not be enough for the Spanish government to secure a majority.

Yesterday, something unprecedented occurred: the Catalan government publicly stated that it disagreed with the Spanish government. This is no small feat, given that we're talking about two socialist governments, with a president of the Generalitat who had previously been a Spanish minister and whose PSOE spokesperson is from the PSC. In other words, when two such similar groups disagree publicly, it's news.

In 1994 and 1995, the plumbers working at the Moncloa Palace, including a young Miquel Iceta, would go to the center of Madrid every morning to wait for the day's press. There, at 4 a.m., they would check on the plumbers. in situ if they would have to face any new corruption scandal that day. The night raid gave them a few hours to prepare a response, before the radio stations went live. These were the final days of Felipe's administration.

The Spanish government has denounced that President Pedro Sánchez's and Defence Minister Margarita Robles's phones were hacked into last year using Israeli spyware Pegasus. Minister for the Presidency Félix Bolaños made the announcement at a press conference on Monday, where he explained that it is "an external and illicit intrusion"; that is to say, it has not been authorised by the courts. It took place in the months of May and June 2021, according to Bolaños, who added that all other cabinet members' phones are being checked to see whether the use of the Pegasus programme went beyond Sánchez and Robles.

Parts of the independence movement felt discomfort at the very least after Catalan president Pere Aragonès's conference yesterday, which aimed to recover the movement's unity of action. JxCat agreed with the call for unity launched by the president, but reproached him for not sharing the content of the speech previously –which the president's office denies–, that he did not make specifics about his roadmap towards independence and that he made no references to the 2017 Independence Referendum. The party also interprets that Aragonès linked exile and pardons to negotiation with the State. Neither the pro-independence organisation ANC nor anticapitalists CUP were any more satisfied, but rather the opposite. In addition, the Spanish government has reacted coldly and still has not announced the date of the next meeting of the dialogue table, despite repeated requests from the president.

On 22 June, Pedro Sánchez reached the end of a path that he had been paving for months: he pardoned political prisoners after they had spent almost four years in prison. He was laying the first stone to address the political conflict outside the courts. The next step was to resume the negotiating table that had been interrupted by the pandemic, and on 15 September the Spanish and Catalan governments' teams were photographed at the Palau de la Generalitat. But months have gone by and the Spanish government has been showing signs that, after pardoning political prisoners, the Catalan conflict is no longer a priority. And this became clear this Wednesday after the Spanish president closed the year defending the idea that right now the management of the pandemic is incompatible with immediately resuming dialogue with the Generalitat.

ARTUR MAS

From the initial harmony with Rajoy to the total rupture due to 9-N

President Artur Mas's first meeting at the Moncloa was the least important. In February 2011, with a José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero besieged by the crisis and with whom he had a deteriorated relationship since the negotiation of the Statute, everything remained a formality. Things would get interesting just a year later, when he went to visit the new tenant of the presidential palace, Mariano Rajoy who was trying to prevent Spain from being intervened. "I live in the mess", the PP President told him on the main staircase, in a fit of candor intercepted by all the cameras present. "Me too, me too", Mas replied. Presidential solidarity in a time of turbulence. Of all the meetings between presidents in the last decade, this is the one that had the best harmony. Mas governed Catalonia with the help of PP and was open to supporting the reforms that the Popular Party was preparing in the State -the labour reform and the stability law-, which would end up having CiU's vote in Congress. He also presented the fiscal pact that he wanted for Catalonia, but without much haste to obtain it.

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It's been three weeks since Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez surprised everyone by paving the way for pardons for pro-independence leaders from Brussels. Since then, the rain of criticism that the Moncloa has received has not changed the message that there is no possible backtracking on the pardons. The government has charged ahead for the approval of the Council of Ministers -the Minister of Territorial Policy, Miquel Iceta, insisted on RAC1 that they are "very close" - and Sanchez is pushing back much better than many had imagined: the demonstration of the triple right was not as massive as expected and has appeased - at least publicly - the criticism from socialist ranks.

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