Almost every week a new indictment appears related – more directly or indirectly – to the PSOE. The latest name to emerge is Juan Manuel Serrano, who was president of Correos from 2018 to 2023 and director of Pedro Sánchez's cabinet at Ferraz. His name joins a long list of people – with different levels of responsibility – allegedly involved in fourteen open lines of investigation. The first convicted person was the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, but there are a total of 50 officials related to the Spanish government or the PSOE, members of the Civil Guard, and men who were of Sánchez's utmost confidence who have ended up before a judge. That's up to 109 if we also count the 59 businessmen, family members, and lawyers – and other profiles – indicted in the different open cases.

The dish of the day is Spain, finalists of the World Cup, but, before that we cannot lose sight of the fact that Pedro Sánchez's brother has been sentenced to 9 years of disqualification for malfeasance, for having created and awarded him a job at the Badajoz Provincial Council out of hand, which, according to the ruling, was neither urgent nor necessary. But the ruling itself dismisses that there had been influence peddling, that is to say, that no one called to pressure for this job to be created. In other words, it is proven that David Sánchez was nepotized. It is ugly in all cases, but more so in the case of a brother of the president of the government. Another thing is that such a nepotism would reach the courts if we were not talking about the brother of the president of the government and, much less, that the sentence would be 9 years of disqualification. And for this reason, the socialist government, as Minister Puente says, considers that the purpose of the sentence is to overthrow the Spanish government “given the inability to do so at the ballot box”, an assessment with which we can agree, but which means that the executive power considers that the judicial power is malfeasance for political reasons. La Moncloa did not speak of lawfare, but it did speak of a “political cause,” from which, therefore, a political conviction would follow. Sounds like a trial, doesn't it, PSOE? The PSOE continues to live the nightmare of feeling excluded by the system as a state party. At the same time, the system is teaching the PSOE the right way: if you don't make deals with Catalan and Basque independentists, your problems will end. But, as we were saying, the news of the day is that Spain is already in the World Cup final.In all fairness, the championship Spain has played has not been spectacular, but it has been very solid. Consider that they reach the final having conceded one goal in the entire tournament. And yesterday it eliminated the powerful and feared France with solid football, always well positioned on the field, reducing players like Mbappé or Dembélé to impotence. As Martí Molina titles it, yesterday's match was a football lesson from an incredible generation, with special mention to three Catalans: Cubarsí, Olmo, and Lamine Yamal. Tonight, at 9, the other semifinal will be played, England-Argentina (since the Falklands War and Maradona's goals in '86, it's more than just a match), but the strength Spain is showing makes it the favorite, in my opinion, whether the English or Messi's team advance.The World Cup has a major political derivative, because it has become the great machine for feeding identities. At a time when states have shrunk in the face of the disruptive power of billionaire technology companies and can barely ensure the social contract, the World Cup ensures the emotional contract. And the states play it to the fullest. Look at this video, and tell me if you have ever seen the always grumpy Felipe de Borbón so exultant: he and his family, with the shirt with their names printed on it, celebrating yesterday night's 2-0, in a double exercise of showing what behavior is expected of a Spaniard on occasions like this and that his harmony with the joy of his subjects is total. And on Sunday, to the box with Donald Trump.In short, a selection is a flag and a name, a cry. That is why Spain prohibits by law the participation of selections like the Catalan one in international competitions (even though the Catalan Football Federation is older than the Spanish one (1900 the Catalan, 1913 the Spanish) and punishes athletes who refuse to go. By the way, the tweet from the Royal House encourages the selection to win the final with a phrase that will sound familiar to them: "!A por ello!". They don't get out of there.Good morning.

The Badajoz Court has sentenced David Sánchez to nine years of disqualification as a necessary cooperator in a crime of administrative prevarication. The Spanish president's brother avoids prison, however, and is exonerated from the crime of influence peddling. The popular accusers, including – among others – Manos Limpias, Hazte Oír, the PP, and Vox, had requested six years in prison for him. The conviction is not for the creation of the job he obtained at the Badajoz Provincial Council, but for the change of the position's nomenclature with the aim of creating, in reality, a high-level management position with “radically different” functions. Likewise, the Badajoz Court has sentenced Miguel Ángel Gallardo, president of the Provincial Council at the time of the events and leader of the PSOE of Extremadura from 2024 to 2025, to eighteen years of disqualification. The other nine defendants have been sentenced to nine years of disqualification.

David Sánchez's anticipated statement at the trial over his hiring at the Badajoz Provincial Council lasted 10 minutes and 20 seconds. He was only questioned by his lawyer, Emilio Cortés, who asked him 25 questions about his office, the change in his job title, and the hiring of a friend who helped him. Sánchez, however, made no mention of how he obtained the job in 2017. He also did not allude at any time to his brother and the President of the Spanish government. In fact, in the statements of the rest of the accused and witnesses of the day, there was a common element: no one knew - according to what they said - that Pedro Sánchez had a brother.

"It cannot be allowed for any person, whoever they may be, to develop their professional aspirations using public resources, to the detriment of other more qualified individuals or other more pressing needs." After a year of investigation, this was one of the conclusions that led Judge Beatriz Biedma to send David Sánchez, nine officials from the Diputación de Badajoz, and also the then leader of the PSOE in Extremadura to trial for the crimes of prevarication and influence peddling. The popular prosecutions are requesting three years in prison for the brother of the Spanish president. Under scrutiny is the creation of his job at the Diputación de Badajoz, which allegedly was created to be directly awarded to him, and the hiring of a friend who "unofficially" helped him from Moncloa. During the preliminary proceedings, Sánchez's brother's lawyer, Emilio Cortés, alleged that the investigation was "prospective" and had a "political inspiration." "The root is rotten," he lamented. And he reproached the popular prosecutions for wanting to conduct an "scrutiny" or "historical déjà vu" about a hiring from nine years ago: "A procedure that has never been appealed by any administrator, in such a way that we will search to see if we find any flaw," he concluded.

The course of the judicial investigation against David Sánchez, brother of the Spanish Prime Minister, complicates the prospects for both the person under investigation and the Socialist leader, whom the PP has been quick to ask to resign as head of the executive once it has been made public that the judge in Badajoz investigating the case has decided to prosecute David Sánchez for influence peddling. With this decision, to which ARA has had access, the head of the investigating court number three of the Extremadura province, Beatriz Biedma, leaves him on the verge of trial for the case of your hiring as head of the Performing Arts Office at the Badajoz Provincial Council.