Feijóo asks for help to bring down Sánchez and Junts turns it around: “Mr. Feijóo knows that, if he has to explain something to us, this meeting must be held in Waterloo”, and draws a line that further tightens Feijóo's face, who has been unable to contain Vox's progression and now has to adapt to it. The tug-of-war is delicate at a time when neo-fascist temptations go beyond the far-right, with a contagious effect on the entire conservative space.

The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, did not come willing to approach the Spanish government in his speech to the audience of businessmen at the annual meeting of the Cercle d'Economia, which is celebrating its second day. Despite the request from the president of the Cercle, Teresa Garcia-Milà, to reduce disputes while awaiting judicial rulings and to prioritize consensus on essential issues, from housing to the defense of Europe's strategic autonomy, the popular president went his own way. Of course, without painting as bleak a picture as he did a year ago at this same meeting, with a speech that some businessmen have described as "flat".

The PP has found itself trapped in its own logic: if the situation in Spain is so dire, what was the point of patiently waiting for the miracle that Sánchez would call early elections, a miracle they knew wouldn't happen? And they have decided to go on the offensive: Feijóo, who is in Barcelona today at an event organized by the Cercle d'Economia, has offered Junts and PNB a government without Vox to go to the polls. In other words, he is asking the PNB and Junts to vote for him to be president, and immediately, Feijóo calls elections as president of a government in which there would be no Vox minister. The PNB is not interested in the operation. Basque nationalist left-wing parties hinder him, and he cannot openly align with the PP, at least not so explicitly.

The Secretary General of Junts, Jordi Turull, has challenged Alberto Núñez Feijóo to meet with Carles Puigdemont in Waterloo if he wants to convince the party to join an instrumental motion of no confidence to bring down Pedro Sánchez and call elections. "If he has a serious offer, serious things are explained in meetings, and he [Feijóo] knows that meetings with Junts, with the highest leadership [...], must be held in Waterloo," he told El matí de Catalunya Ràdio. The proposal caught Feijóo at the Cercle d'Economia, but he did not want to explicitly respond to Turull's request. The popular leader once again defended the motion of no confidence, but warned: "I am not coming to ask for favors nor to give them away."

The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is trying again. He will not stop taking advantage of the judicial siege of Pedro Sánchez. He will not stop. His objective is to put maximum pressure on those who hold the key to breaking the socialist president's investiture majority, Junts and the PNB. He needs them to tip the scales or, at least, to unbalance them. He is, of course, fully aware that the presence of the far-right Vox is the factor that most prevents the Catalan and Basque nationalist right-wingers from embracing the end of sanchismo. That is why this time he winks at them with a motion of no confidence that would imply, as he has explained, an ephemeral government without Abascal's party with the sole objective of calling elections immediately. What he is telling them, therefore, is this: give me circumstantial support (without Vox) and let the ballot boxes decide what the next stage will be.

The motion of no confidence weighs heavily on the political debate since the indictment of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, almost two weeks ago. Although the PP resists presenting it, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has taken a further step in the strategy of pressuring Pedro Sánchez's investiture allies and this Monday he offered himself, especially to Junts and the PNB, to put an end to the legislature. In an interview on Telecinco, and after the Spanish president vowed this weekend to resist in Moncloa, the PP leader has called for efforts to be united for an instrumental motion of no confidence. The objective would be to bring down the PSOE government, besieged by cases of alleged corruption, and call for immediate elections. "Decency and elections," he summarized.

The current malaise of democracy admits no euphemisms. The institutions that uphold it have lost the trust of the majority of citizens they are supposed to represent. The data, accumulated survey after survey, depict an erosion that is not conjunctural but structural, and which connects with the crisis of the liberal democratic model throughout the West, but which in Spain adopts its own and particularly worrying forms.

Faced with the crisis that looms heavily over the PSOE due to the Zapatero case, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has reiterated his support for the socialist ex-president, who is being investigated for alleged crimes of criminal organization, influence peddling, and document forgery. On the day that the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard entered the party headquarters on Ferraz Street in Madrid, Sánchez assured from Rome that he has read the judge's order and has been informed of the summary through the media and that he "reaffirms" his opinion: "Full cooperation with justice, full respect for the presumption of innocence, and all my support for President Zapatero. There is no reason to change this position.

The elections in Galicia are becoming increasingly tight and the PP sees its absolute majority fully in danger even before the Puigdemont effect was triggered by the proposal for a conditional pardon of the former president by Alberto Núñez Feijóo. This is revealed by the latest poll from the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) prior to this Sunday's regional elections, in which the popular party led by Alfonso Rueda has stalled at 42.2% of the votes and between 34 and 38 seats –the same as in the previous survey–, while the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) is soaring. The sovereignists reach 33.4% of the votes, with growth that would allow them to reach between 24 and 31 deputies, a historic record for the formation. If the CIS is correct, this double scenario makes the conservative absolute majority in Parliament hang by a thread. In parallel, the PSdeG-PSOE plummets to 18% of support, placing it between 9 and 14 deputies, in a particularly negative result for the socialist candidacy.

Our day will come, could be read on Saturday in the animation stand of the Balaídos stadium in the match between Celta and Barça. With dozens of flags  

The PP has been living in a Groundhog Day for a long time. Every time a judicial scandal from the political circle closest to Pedro Sánchez breaks out, the idea of forcing a motion of no confidence arises. This is what has happened these days with the indictment of former socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for influence peddling at the National Court. Just as happened with the investigations against José Luis Ábalos, first, and Santos Cerdán, months later, in cases of alleged corruption. Should Alberto Núñez Feijóo push for a motion of no confidence to try to shorten the legislature? The conclusion reached by Génova for now is the same as in previous cases. The PP will not take any step without having guaranteed support.

Calm, serene, and placid are three adjectives used within the Catalan PP to refer to the regional congress that will be held on June 27. Who would have thought, when not long ago Alejandro Fernández seemed doomed by Alberto Núñez Feijóo's inner circle. But there is still uncertainty in some of the moves to shape the new leadership. Especially in a triple change that is being strongly rumored within the PP, with the bet made by Fernández himself, according to multiple sources consulted by ARA: to remove the historic Santi Rodríguez from the general secretariat – so that he ceases to be number two, as he has been until now – and to have the position pass to the current parliamentary spokesperson, Juan Fernández. The consequence would be that the spokesperson position in the Catalan chamber would go to Lorena Roldán, currently deputy, the most questioned piece of the puzzle.

After four years frozen, the Catalan PP will have its congress. Finally, the state leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced this Monday in a closed-door intervention that the party will hold its regional congress on June 27. The forecast is to ratify the leadership of Alejandro Fernández, who, after strong tug-of-war with the Galician leader, has established a peaceful relationship with the state leadership, especially thanks to the role of the general secretary, Miguel Tellado.

After four years on hold, the Catalan PP will hold its congress. Finally, the national leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced this Monday in a closed-door intervention that the party will hold its regional congress on June 27. The forecast is to ratify the leadership of Alejandro Fernández, who, after strong disagreements with the Galician leader, has achieved a peaceful relationship with the national leadership, especially thanks to the role of the Secretary General, Miguel Tellado.

Sometimes victory tastes like defeat. This is the case for Juanma Moreno Bonilla's PP in Andalusia. From a historical perspective, the result of these elections does nothing more than consolidate conservative hegemony in a territory that had been a stronghold of socialist votes. But politically, for Moreno Bonilla and his Andalusian and moderate path, having to make a deal with Vox is a tragedy because it affects the core of his political discourse. We will have to see how he manages it after having said that the dilemma of these elections was "either an absolute majority or chaos".

The Spanish government has prepared to welcome a ship with people infected with hantavirus to the Canary Islands, and the baser passions of the right-wing parties have been unleashed. Without any contribution or information about a case that is in the hands of the health authorities, they have focused on the crude speculation with the memory of the incomparable and painful episode of covid. Anything goes to take advantage of the situation. But one thing is to play politics and another is to play politics by seeking to instill fear in citizens without any justification, only to weaken the adversary. A formula that demonstrates the poor awareness of politics and the scant consideration for people. A move that could backfire on them.

It was only a matter of time before the management of the hantavirus crisis spilled over into the political arena. This happened on Thursday, two days after the debate began on whether the Canary Islands should be a stop or not for the ship MV Hondius where the outbreak of the disease has been detected. The PP has already criticized the role of Pedro Sánchez's government, and Vox has insinuated that if the Minister of Health, Mónica García, has finally accepted the cruise ship's passage, it is because she expects a future position in the World Health Organization (WHO).

That the Popular Party has a patrimonial conception of justice (of institutions in general, but of justice in particular: let's remember Ignacio Cosidó in his stage as a senator, boasting that the party controlled —it's just an example— the second chamber of the Supreme Court “through the back door”) is a well-known fact. This week, however, the PP has taken, in its capacity as a popular accuser, a step on this hitherto unprecedented path: dictating what the prison sentence should be for an accused person in an ongoing trial. And accusing the Prosecutor's Office of being “subject to the government” when it refuses to comply with its dictate.This is what happened with the businessman (we accept businessman as a euphemism) Victor de Aldama. The PP made it known to the public that it considers the appropriate sentence for this character to be five years in prison, a sentence that would precisely allow him to avoid entering a penitentiary institution by resorting to a couple of technicalities (technicalities, and pardon the joke). The Prosecutor's Office immediately replied no, that it requests seven years, as it had already established in its brief. The PP's response, in the words of Feijóo himself, is that the Prosecutor's Office has thus dashed the right of any person who collaborates with justice to obtain penal benefits in exchange for this collaboration.The “collaboration” of this Aldama with justice has so far consisted of appearing before judges and operating a fan for seven hours that spread lies, fabrications, half-truths, and some true facts, all mixed in any way, with a whiff of a biased and prefabricated narrative that is astonishing, and verbalized with an unacceptable and barroom language. That Feijóo (and not someone of lower rank within the party) comes out in his defense means that Aldama is a VIP, a piece considered key within the strategy that the PP has designed to harass and bring down the hated Pedro Sánchez, and with him his government. Aldama, let's remember, is an accused person in an ongoing trial: that a political party goes to the extreme of indicating what sentence can be imposed on him is a serious attempt to interfere with justice.We must assume that it does not come from here: in the case for which Aldama is accused, the former minister and former organization secretary of the PSOE, José Luis Ábalos, faces a request for 24 years in prison for crimes very similar to those committed by Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner, who not only did not go to prison but also caused the dismissal of the State Prosecutor General Álvaro García Ortiz and received compensation of ten thousand euros for damages to his honor. The conclusions are self-evident, and the socialists have no right to complain much, because the practice of judicial dirty warfare dates back a long way and the PSOE did very little to prevent it.Be that as it may, for a party to dare to say what sentences should be handed down in a judicial process that is still open, even as a popular accuser, is more than worrying. If this is a party that claims to be fit to govern (and it is), the ways of its future government can only be authoritarian.

Ten months ago, Borja Sémper announced that he had just been diagnosed with cancer. During this time, the illness has kept him away from political activity. This Tuesday, the popular spokesperson has officially returned. Sémper starred in a packed press breakfast in Madrid, where, amidst expressions of affection, he wanted to "bid farewell to this difficult stage" during which his "vital compass coordinates" have changed. The PP leader had already reappeared in some media outlets and this Monday rejoined the party's steering committee. Next week, he will be the one to appear at the weekly press conference in Génova. However, Sémper wanted to hold this event with the specific objective of speaking openly about his pancreatic cancer in order to stop talking about it.

The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will attend the annual meeting of the Cercle d'Economia to be held from June 1 to 3 in Barcelona, the first meeting with Teresa Garcia-Milà as president of the institution. This year the central theme will be Europe's strategic autonomy in the context of the war in the Middle East, which adds to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the difficult relations of the Old Continent with the administration of Donald Trump in the United States.