Don't get overwhelmed. We aren't going to talk about out-of-body experiences here, but rather about possible economic leaders for the Spanish government after November 29th. And they don't need to be affiliated with the party. In his first terms, Pedro Sánchez turned to Nadia Calviño, an economist with good contacts in Brussels –where she was a director-general, for example–, who had also held senior positions with Pedro Solbes as minister in the executives of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Once appointed president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), in 2023 she was replaced by Carlos Cuerpo, former secretary-general of the Treasury. With a technical and low-key profile, this doctor of economics does not have a PSOE membership card, like Calviño, and projects a solvent image.

“We will not allow the attempt at emotional manipulation of the Spanish people.” These words are Feijóo’s, to justify the PP’s refusal to attend the minutes of silence for the death of Maricarmen Abascal. An exercise in insensitivity that portrays the character and manifests his inability to grasp the moods of the citizenry.

High-voltage pre-campaign in Spain for the November 29th elections. In the middle of 2026, eight years after Pedro Sánchez reached the presidency of the Spanish government, the PP draws an apocalyptic scenario if it does not win hand-in-hand with Vox to push for a "decisive change," while the Spanish government promises, now for real, to solve housing problems with courage and fight against those who "pull the strings" and harm the working classes. In the Andalusian town of Dos Hermanas and in Madrid, socialists and conservatives have contrasted two apparently antagonistic models of the country using language that has long denoted aggression.

A social outburst, two emergency decrees, a snap election in Spain, and a general strike. The magnitude of the consequences of the Maricarmen case explains the shock over the death this Wednesday of the 87-year-old woman, who had become, following her eviction in Madrid, a symbol of the fight for the right to housing. Social movements have been mourning the passing of Maricarmen Abascal since last night and, as expected, her death has fully entered into the pre-campaign for the November 29 elections. Political messages of condolence have turned into crossed attacks between the parties, and the left has erupted against the PP, which has vetoed minutes of silence in memory of the woman in the Senate and in the Assembly and City Council of Madrid.

It didn't even take an hour for Isabel Díaz Ayuso to generate the first controversy of the electoral pre-campaign. Before Alberto Núñez Feijóo could comment on Pedro Sánchez's decision to call early elections, the Madrid president had already set the agenda by stoking the ghost of electoral fraud. "I ask that no one think of voting by mail," she insisted early Monday at an informative breakfast. Since then, this warning, launched without any proof of the supposed risk of rigging, has become one of the most commented-on topics, and has caused the PP to get tangled up trying to balance things. The leader of the Popular Party, in fact, avoided speaking publicly on the issue for two days until this Wednesday, when he joined Ayuso and her thesis.

1. The Maricarmen case has triggered the emergence of the housing issue on the scene, and has generated an impact on public opinion that has highlighted the abuses and limitations of the market. And now the paradoxical situation could arise where it is the right—an active collaborator of those who speculate with this fundamental right—that capitalizes on it. Sánchez has found himself with his back to the wall precisely when a topic breaks out to which the left should be more sensitive than the right, and the government has not been attentive enough to what should have been a priority of its mandate.

When Pedro Sánchez called general elections in 2023, just after the Socialists' heavy defeat in the regional and municipal elections, Alberto Núñez Feijóo already saw himself as the winner. The pools of potential ministers were repeated throughout the campaign, and the speculations were primarily about whether the PP would reach 160 deputies and how far it would be willing to concede to Vox. No one, or very few, predicted that Pedro Sánchez would hold on to Moncloa. For this reason, the results of that July 23rd spread a sense of disappointment within the party towards the person who was supposed to save them from 'Sanchismo'. But they gave him a vote of confidence, taking into account that he had been at the head of the PP for little more than a year. That was the argument: Feijóo still lacked experience. Almost a year has passed and the popular leader now finds himself at the match point of his political career.

Joy on the right over Pedro Sánchez's decision to call early elections. Both the PP and Vox have applauded the announcement for November 29, which they see as the definitive opportunity to end the Sanchista era. "Finally, we can close this chapter," celebrated Alberto Núñez Feijóo in an institutional statement at the Popular Party headquarters shortly after the Spanish Prime Minister's announcement. The PP leader has been waiting for years for a second chance to reach La Moncloa after his failed attempt in 2023, and has positioned these new polls as a transcendental occasion in which much more will be done "than choosing between two parties." "This is about making Spain defeat Sánchez and what he represents," proclaimed Feijóo, who urged citizens to decide "if they want four more years of what we are living through or if they want to give change a chance." However, the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has gone a step further and has once again fueled the ghost of electoral fraud.

Surely you are aware: we will go to vote on November 29th. It was 9 in the morning when, after spending the whole weekend making political and legal consultations, and looking at polls, Pedro Sánchez appeared at Moncloa and announced the calling of snap elections: “After informing, as is appropriate, the Head of State, I have decided to convene an extraordinary Council of Ministers this very morning to dissolve the General Courts and call general elections that will be held on Sunday, November 29th, in accordance with the deadlines established by law.”

After eight years, Pedro Sánchez, in the midst of a housing and legislative crisis – partly due to the rejection by the Congress of Deputies of the two housing decrees approved by the Spanish government – and with rumors of an early election, returns to the annual event that brings together the major family businesses. After avoiding it since the last time he participated, in October 2018, in Valencia, a few months after winning the motion of no confidence that toppled Mariano Rajoy (PP), the head of the executive committed to opening this Monday the 29th edition of the national congress organized in Madrid by the Family Business Institute (IEF). This organization brings together a hundred of the main family businesses, from Mercadona to Fluidra, Puig, Hotusa, Mango, Occident, Pikolín, Banca March or Banco Santander, among others.

If Pedro Sánchez stands out for anything, it is for his political instinct. With the polls on the ground and the conversation framework dominated by Ceuta and the PSOE corruption cases, the Moncloa had designed a plan that consisted of presenting a very expansive budget project this autumn that would allow him to generate many headlines and culminate in a vote at the end of the year in which the treacherous triple right (the PP, Vox, and Junts) would defeat them. This was the ideal framework to call them for February or March, since the elections could turn into a referendum on those social budgets, that is to say, on the country's model.

José María Aznar is clear that the coming months will be turbulent and that the road to the next Spanish elections will be "turbulent". Hence, the former Spanish Prime Minister has issued a warning to Alberto Núñez Feijóo to prevent a repeat of 2023, where he was left at the gates of Moncloa. "A cool head and a firm hand are needed," Aznar stated this Friday at the closing of the FAES Campus, where he was accompanied by the current leader of the PP, who picked up the gauntlet after his predecessor expressed his conviction that Feijóo "is one of the few public men" who can act with the necessary "calm". "That Aznar says he trusts me is not a compliment, it is a challenge," the Galician politician replied.

President Puigdemont has broken his silence to the media this weekend and has spoken about his return to Catalonia. It has been more than a year since he granted an interview to any Catalan media outlet and it remains the same, because he has granted the interview to the English newspaper The Sunday Times. The headline they have given it already explains that, for the international public, the Procés and its leaders seem so far away that it does not even put his name in the headline: “An exiled Catalan separatist has no regrets and considers returning to Spain”. And as a subtitle: “Carles Puigdemont has spent nine turbulent years away from home, during which he has suffered an arrest and lost his parents without having the opportunity to see them. Now he wants to «breathe reality» again”. The president in exile explained it this way, in this interview granted at his home, in Waterloo, a few kilometers from Brussels:Puigdemont: “The current Catalonia is not the same as it was when I left the country. During all this time I have tried to be in contact with my team and with the people, to understand exactly what is happening in Catalonia. But I know that it is not the same as smelling, touching, feeling, being among the people. This is my first intention when I arrive: to immerse myself in reality. To touch again. To feel, to smell the country”. When Puigdemont speaks publicly in this tone, it is clear that he now sees it closer than ever. And following the thread of his response, it is by feeling, touching, and smelling the country that he must decide if he wants to act as leader of the opposition to Illa and, above all, if he wants to run for the presidency again, or if Catalonia and the memory he has left behind have changed so much that he will not be able to turn the polls around.Meanwhile, this weekend Sánchez, Feijóo and Abascal have been through Catalonia. Sánchez to say that now everything is going much better thanks to Salvador Illa, Abascal to tell us that the problem is Islam and Feijóo to consider that we are material for a psychiatrist. Feijóo: “And I do not want a Catalonia trapped in a permanent loop, sitting on a psychiatrist's couch asking itself what it is. No, I do want to turn the page. I want you Catalans not to be the ones who pay the most taxes in Spain and the ones who receive the worst services. You cannot have a Rodalies that is sometimes scary and other times shameful. You cannot have the worst education in Spain, along with Ceuta and Melilla. You cannot have the highest crime rates. And you cannot accept that your industry is dismantled, whether it be called Seat, Ascó or Valdebeos. We will maintain the Catalan industry above all else”.Look, Mr. Feijóo, part of our financial problems come from the premeditated asphyxiation of which your party is one of the historic co-responsible parties. Asphyxiation that extends to the trains, for example: 34 years after the first AVE (Madrid-Seville), the Mediterranean corridor is still unfinished. And for you to suggest that we have a mental disorder that needs a psychiatrist is a very crude way of belittling the history of Catalonia and Spain. It’s a good thing you came to ask for our vote.Good morning.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has returned to Ceuta for the fourth time. This time, however, he has done so accompanied by the president of the European People's Party, Manfred Weber, to reinforce the message of the Spanish conservatives regarding this migration crisis and to illustrate the calls to "Europeanize" this Spanish enclave in North Africa. The message from the two conservative leaders has gone in the same direction as that of the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas: that the migrant minors who entered the autonomous city on July 30 and 31 must be returned to Morocco.

Sánchez says that “the Catalonia of 2026 resembles much more the one that the Catalans have always wanted.” Is there a single Catalan who wants a Rodalies service that makes their life impossible, courtesy of the disastrous state duo Renfe-Adif? Not to mention the AP-7 and, in general, the shameless percentage of non-compliance with the State investments budgeted for our country. It is one thing to come and hold rallies with rose-tinted arguments, and quite another to ignore the reality that tears down the speeches.The same thing happens to Feijóo. When he states that he wants Catalonia to lead “the reconstruction of Spain”, I wonder if he knows that 34 years after the first Madrid-Seville high-speed train, the Mediterranean corridor is still unfinished, or if he has ever heard of the fiscal deficit.Of course Feijóo doesn't care, because with the mentality of the little lords and owners of Spain that characterizes the PP, he doesn't even realize how insulting it is to hear him say, "I don't want a Catalonia in a permanent loop, sitting on a psychiatrist's couch, wondering what it is or what it is not."Treating Catalonia as if it had a mental disorder is not exactly a display of finesse. Every time it votes, Catalonia expresses that this supervised and underfunded autonomy falls short. Reducing the history of Spain and Catalonia to a transient mental alienation is of a very thick caliber, only suitable for colonial mentalities. If Feijóo is bothered by the question of what Catalonia is or is not, he has it very simple: let him ask directly and commit to respecting the result.

The leaders of the two main Spanish parties are in Catalan lands this Sunday. While the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, is at the PSC's Festa de la Rosa in Gavà, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has visited the largest mayoralty they have in Catalonia, Badalona. As if he were in the middle of a campaign, aware of Catalonia's electoral weight, the leader of the Popular Party has called for gathering the support of a majority of Spaniards so that Catalonia can “unleash its strength again” and be a key territory in the “reconstruction of Spain”. “Catalonia is pushing for change,” predicted Feijóo during his speech this Sunday at the Festa de las Migas in Badalona, where all 6,000 tickets were sold out. From the third-largest city in Catalonia, he has defended the management of the mayor, Xavier García Albiol, and promised that, if he leads the Spanish government, Spain “will recover the protection of its borders and will recover the prestige of its passport”.

A month and a half after the massive arrival of immigrants in Ceuta, the crisis in the autonomous city continues to shape the agenda and the attacks in Spanish politics. However, as has happened in previous major catastrophes that Pedro Sánchez's executive has had to manage in coordination with PP-led regions, such as the DANA in the Valencian Community or the summer fires in Madrid and Castile and León, the debate is turning into a clash of competencies. A clear example is the situation of the immigrant minors who are still in Ceuta, of whom there are currently 2,084 registered and between 700 and 1,000 wandering the streets. Regarding the delicate situation a month and a half later, Sánchez was blunt: "Ask [Juan Jesús] Vivas about it," he said in statements upon leaving the Congress hemicycle. In other words, the Spanish president is pointing directly at the government of Ceuta.

"Giving away Spanish passports? [...] That is over" and "The passport must be earned". The phrases were spoken this July by Alberto Núñez Feijóo during his assessment of the year as leader of the opposition. Amid the controversy over the amnesty lawof the Spanish government, and immersed in a competition with Vox over the toughness of the rhetoric on immigration, the president of the PP was already proposing a tightening of the conditions for accessing Spanish nationality. Just two months later, and in the midst of a crisis in Ceuta, the Popular Party goes a step further: they are now proposing to withdraw nationality from Spaniards of foreign origin who commit serious crimes.

The entire PP leadership and the vast majority of the barons of the party had an appointment in Madrid this Monday: an informative breakfast by Juan Jesús Vivas at the Nueva Economía Fórum. The president of Ceuta traveled to the Spanish capital 39 days after the massive entry of migrants into the autonomous city that still marks the day-to-day of political news, and in the midst of multiplying political tension and crossed reproaches with the Spanish government. The person in charge of introducing him was Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who praised him for having “embodied like no one else the dignity of the State” and for acting as an “ideal president” to defend Ceuta in “times of unrest”. “You have a place in the hearts of millions of Spaniards”, he said.

The migration crisis in Ceuta represents yet another serious complication for a weary government, now without permanent allies, but led by a president determined to continue and finish the legislative term. The hypothesis of a miracle that would allow the socialists to rebuild alliances and projects for a new stage in power next year seems increasingly implausible. Thursday's debate in Congress highlighted the solitude of Pedro Sánchez, criticized by all the parliamentary forces. Yet once again he managed to remain standing, without falling exhausted onto the canvas. Feijóo tries to strike the socialist leader with ever more force and knock him down for good. There is no longer any kind of respect or consideration between the two. And despite this, the feeling always remains in the air that the president of the PP will have to keep waiting, because his blows—which would be quite forceful against other opponents—do not have much effect on Sánchez, who shows no signs of looking for any other way out than to stake everything on one card whenever he decides to call the next general elections.