The Constitutional Court is more than an arbiter of conflicts over the Magna Carta. In recent years, it has become a political battlefield where governments and parties have tried to settle their disputes. No one is unaware of the leading role it played during the 'Procés', with Mariano Rajoy constantly using it to curb the independence movement's roadmap. However, in recent years its prominence has been shifting: jurisdictional conflicts with Catalonia no longer top its list of priorities. The conflict with the independence movement has given way to a bipartisan dispute.

"I have never had any connection with Plus Ultra, nor did anyone ask me for anything. I did nothing and had no interest in the bailout." José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero testified for four hours before the Senate's Koldo case investigation committee. called by the PP at the start of the election campaign in Castile and León to talk, primarily, about the Plus Ultra bailout. A case that is under investigation for alleged money laundering – it is questioned whether part of the bailout could have been used to launder money from corruption in Venezuela – and which the Popular Party has long considered highly credible.

With more media attention than answers, three days before the elections in Aragon, Paco Salazar appeared for two hours before the Senate's Koldo case investigation committee. the former PSOE leader who had to resign from his positions on the party's executive committee and as institutional coordinator for the Spanish Prime Minister's Office after being internally denounced for alleged cases of sexual harassment and sexist behavior. Following the outbreak of the Santos Cerdán case, he was slated to be part of the new team in the organizational secretariat, but he was never appointed.

Congress and the Senate are experiencing a surge in investigative committees this legislative session. These committees are specifically created to study a matter, aiming to analyze it thoroughly through appearances by officials and experts in order to draw lessons. However, while awaiting their conclusions in the coming months, they are also currently being used as a weapon of political confrontation. Both the People's Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) have summoned prominent leaders from their respective parties on the eve of election campaigns. Are they, then, an electoral weapon? There is a list of witnesses who have been summoned on key dates leading up to the polls.

The day after crashing into the wall of the PP over the financing reform and while José Manuel Albares He was talking about Venezuela in CongressMaría Jesús Montero has had to appear in the Senate – forced by the absolute majority of the Popular Party – to give explanations about the SEPI caseAn investigation by the National Court into the awarding of public contracts. The First Vice President of the Spanish government defended "the honor, responsibility, and prestige" of SEPI, a state-owned company attached to the Ministry of Finance that acts as the State investment armMontero defended the procedures as "correct." Constantly invoking the secrecy of the investigation, she emphasized that, "for now," it cannot be stated that "any irregularities have been committed" or that "any file has been discovered that was processed in a manner different from the law," and she emphatically endorsed SEPI's actions: "There's no bad apple." The PP wanted to start the year by targeting the alleged corruption cases surrounding—and implicating—the Spanish government, but—less than two kilometers away—Moncloa Palace opted to focus on Pedro Sánchez's international policy with the Foreign Minister's appearance before the lower house. The one in the eye of the storm is Vicente Fernández Guerrero, who was president of SEPI during Pedro Sánchez's first year in Moncloa and was arrested a month ago, along with Leire Díez—known as plumber of the PSOE—and Antxon Alonso—owner of Servinabar, under investigation in the Cerdán case. María Jesús Montero stated that the Civil Guard is investigating the period between 2021 and 2023, two years before Vicente Fernández presided over SEPI: he resigned after being summoned as a suspect in the Aznalcóllar mine case, from which he was ultimately acquitted. "It was not during this period that these individuals held political responsibilities in any of the institutions of this government," she emphasized. She defended herself by posing two questions: "Can you tell me what kind of responsibility I could possibly have in this matter? What is the point of holding a hearing on a subject about which we have no information?" "It disgusts us that there are people who might use politics to enrich themselves financially, but we must be able to clearly define who should answer to the justice system and not tarnish the institutions," the Minister of Finance also requested. Having said that, María Jesús Montero demanded that the PP stop "throwing insidious lies" about the "commendable work" done by SEPI employees. Next, it was the turn of the Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, who distanced herself from any "shadow of suspicion" and assured that "never" has "been" benefited "any company or individual" and that she has always acted with "maximum transparency." Her department is linked to the hydrocarbons case being investigated by the National Court. In fact, the former chief of staff of her predecessor, Teresa Ribera, will have to testify as a witness in two weeks. "Either a participant, an accomplice, or negligent"

The PP has taken the opportunity to attack María Jesús Montero and to make a totum revolutumIn her remarks, she included references to Plus Ultra, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and Paco Salazar. "Pedro Sánchez surrounded himself with people useful for committing crimes and looting, a government prepared to steal," declared the leader of the People's Party in the Senate, Alicia García. She dubbed Montero the "vice president of bribes" and the "minister of the SEPI black hole," reproaching her for presenting herself as a "mere spectator" of what was happening at SEPI: "She is either a participant, an accomplice, or negligent. Or all three." "Spain cannot afford a state captured by its corruption," she concluded.

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Under investigation for alleged corruption in the Supreme Court, Santos Cerdán presented his defense strategy in the Senate on Wednesday. This comes amid a crisis within the Spanish government. cases piling up in the courtsand a month later to be released on bail from prisonThe former number three of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) appeared before the Koldo case committee in the Senate to once again assert his innocence. Although he invoked his right to remain silent regarding the specific charges against him, he claimed to be the victim of a "persecution worthy of the Inquisition" and linked the investigation to his role in the amnesty law agreement. "I will defend myself; let it be clear, I am innocent, I am not corrupt, and sooner or later you will be able to verify this," he said in an initial statement read from a laptop. The former socialist leader, who spoke with his lawyer, Jacobo Teijelo, before entering the courtroom, denounced the "unfair trial" he has been subjected to, claiming that "no specific crime is being investigated." And in a subsequent response to the senator from the Junts per Catalunya party, Eduard Pujol, he stated that the case against him "would not have exploded" as it did if he hadn't led the negotiations with Junts for Pedro Sánchez's investiture, which culminated in the Brussels agreement. "There is a before and after the photo with Puigdemont [...] Everything changed after that photo," he said.

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At this point in his political career, and especially given how the current legislature is unfolding, there's no doubt that Pedro Sánchez is a lucky man. It's not just his resilience, but also how he knows how to seize the opportunities that chance presents him. In his appearance before the Senate on Thursday, the Socialist leader was fortunate to have a representative from the People's Party (PP) who could hardly have been less competent. Sánchez had been summoned to explain himself to the commission of inquiry into the Koldo case, which the PP launched as part of its strategy to undermine the PSOE-Sumar coalition government. The PP had given this a lot of thought, for over a year and a half. This initiative was approved in March 2024. But until now, they hadn't summoned the person they consider the main political figure responsible for the matter, which is no longer just the Koldo case—a mere advisor to a former minister, José Luis Ábalos—but also involves the former Minister of Public Works and Santos Cerdán, the latter two being former secretaries of organization for the PSOE. Sánchez's summons represented a significant qualitative leap: moving from preliminary proceedings to a full-blown raid.

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The People's Party (PP) long ago decided to sacrifice the Senate's value as a chamber of territorial representation and a second reading body, turning it into a sounding board for their opposition to Pedro Sánchez. That's why they thought it was a good idea to summon the Spanish Prime Minister to testify before a commission on the Koldo case in a room they completely control. But once again, and this has happened several times now, the PP has failed, and Pedro Sánchez has emerged unscathed from the lamentable spectacle that unfolded in the Senate.

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The People's Party (PP) wanted to subject Pedro Sánchez to questioning in the Senate's Koldo/Ábalos case committee, but on occasions like these, it knows how to frustrate the conservative party until chaos reigns. The Spanish president donned his PSOE leadership hat to confront the right-wing corruption accusations, and the discussion devolved into another chapter of the "you too" rivalry between the two major parties in the country. "I think this is a circus," Sánchez declared from the outset. The spectacle reached its peak at the end, during the tense questioning by PP Senator Alejo Miranda de Larra, who was powerless in the face of the Spanish president's responses, some evasive and others direct. "There was a black money circuit on Génova Street, not on Ferraz Street," said Sánchez, who left the committee "very satisfied."

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The Spanish government's oversight sessions in the Senate serve as an opportunity for the People's Party (PP) to continue its particular siege, highlighting the alleged corruption of the Spanish executive from a chamber where the Popular Party (PP) holds an absolute majority. But what is unusual is for Pedro Sánchez's administration to warn that years of corruption from the left-wing coalition lie ahead. "There will be a government of corruption for a while. Of corruption for a while. Continue like this and you will never govern," asserted Yolanda Díaz, Spain's second vice president and Minister of Labor, in the upper house of parliament this Tuesday. The minister's lapse left the chamber speechless and provoked massive applause from the entire PP bench, in an ironic outburst amid stupefied laughter and the sudden assimilation of what the Galician leader had just said.

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The fires continue in the northwest of the peninsula, as well as the appearances of ministers in the Senate, like the one this Thursday from the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, explicit when describing the attitude of the PP. "I cannot agree with the partisan use of a catastrophe by the Senate to serve the interests of a party and its strategy of harassment in the Spanish government, based on manipulation and noise. We saw it with the DANA and we see it now with the fires: the attempt by the PP, and it's hard to say, but it has to be said, but it has to be said, but it has to be said, but it has to be said, but it has to be said, but it has to be said, and it masks the errors of its management," he said just as he began his intervention.

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The second episode of the clash between the Spanish government and the PP in the Senate over the management of the fires had as its protagonist this Wednesday the Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, after the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, on Tuesday, provoked by the PP with the exhibition of UME videos for fifty minutes intervening in the extinction. The third vice president has a less combative profile, although she has not been boasting that the autonomous communities have jurisdiction over the environment and forest management. "Any pact must have a budget allocation and must be a joint effort with measures and actions that can bring about change and are implemented within our existing framework of powers," Aagesen argued, after hearing how political groups demanded resources if she wanted them to comply with the state pact against the climate emergency proposed by Pedro S.

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The PP has long been entrenched in a trench, firing at (almost) anything that doesn't come from its ranks. So much so that in the Madrid Assembly, the Popular Party (PP) harshly criticized and voted against a text identical to the one they themselves had presented in the Senate.

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In a strange protocol, Albert Serra is practically cornered in the photograph of authorities and winners prior to the presentation ceremony of the 2024 Bullfighting Award, which the PP has recovered through the Senate and the autonomous communities where they govern, after the Ministry of Culture led by Ernest Urtasun will eliminate it. It is clear that the conservatives want to oppose the Spanish government through this tradition, which is as controversial and divisive as politics in the State itself. And they have found in Serra their main ally, to whom they give great praise for the film, despite downplaying the role. Afternoons of solitude, which genuinely reflects how the bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey faces his bullfights. A film that was The big prize at the 2024 San Sebastian Film Festival and will be released in theaters on March 7.

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Antoni Bassas explains from outside the Capitol how the elections that will take place tomorrow in the United States will work, where it will be decided who will occupy the White House from January 20 and who will be the next representatives in the Capitol, since one third of the Senate and the entire House of Representatives must be renewed.

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The Senate is the chamber of territorial representation, but the chamber's rules allow for a limited use of co-official languages. Catalan, Basque and Galician can be used to defend motions in the plenary, in the autonomous communities commission or to submit written documents. Together for Catalonia (JxCat) believes this is insufficient and the group proposed a reform of the regulations of the upper house so that co-official languages can be used in "all the parliamentary activity" without exceptions, whether in plenary sessions (in all debates, not only those related to motions), in commissions and other activities. The Socialists, the plural left (which includes Unidas Podemos) and the Catalan and Basque pro-independence groups have voted in favour, allowing the initiative to begin to be processed in the chamber, in the face of opposition from PP, Ciudadanos and Vox.

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