It is the only scene that is repeated in all schools in France, every day in an identical way: the students who arrive with their heads covered with a veil, take it off before entering the center and put it in their bags.. Hours later, they leave
All posts by Carmen Gomaro
Why the Canary Islands will not be able to be 'green' until the batteries arrive (and why El Hierro has the solution)
So far this year, around 51.2% of electricity generation has been renewable in Spain, according to data from Red Eléctrica. The percentage can still vary somewhat – in the coming months photovoltaic production should decrease and wind production should increase – but
Rob Cassedy, CEO of Wallapop: "Achieving 'unicorn' status has never been our goal, but rather prioritizing growth and expansion"
Wallapop CEO buys and sells items on the platform. He especially looks for vinyl and gets rid, above all, of things that his children no longer use.. Rob Cassedy's professional career has been closely linked to the second-hand market.
Puigdemont appeals the ruling of the European Court that upheld his loss of immunity
Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí presented an appeal last Friday before the Court of Justice of the EU against the decision of the General Court, of July 5, which endorsed the procedure by which the European Parliament ended up lifting its immunity , at the request of the Spanish Supreme Court. The three MEPs have accelerated the deadline, but according to what the court itself reported this Monday, they have not presented, at least yet, a request for precautionary measures..
This decision is striking and relevant.. In July, the General Court dismissed two lawsuits from the pro-independence leaders. The first against the decision itself of the plenary session of Parliament to respond positively to the request of the Spanish Justice to lift the immunity that has allowed and continues to allow them to avoid surrender by the Belgian authorities. The second, a minor issue in comparison, was against the refusal of the president of the chamber, in 2019, to support a petition on immunity.
The decision of the magistrates in July leaves the Belgian judges almost without arguments, who have shown themselves incredibly capable and willing to look for any loophole to reject the euro orders of magistrate Pablo Llarena. But it does not put an end to the process, because this appeal was still possible before the last instance, the Court of Justice.. After years of victories in courts across the continent, the process is tilting against the interests of the independence supporters. Judge Llarena, with this decision, could reactivate the Euroorder to demand the arrest and surrender of Puigdemont and Comín (Ponsatí already appeared in Spain after the change in legislation approved by the Government of Pedro Sánchez).
But the fact that there is no request for precautionary measures is singular.. Until now, the requested MEPs have constantly requested them and Luxembourg has maintained a changing approach. First he accepted, then he rectified. He considered that there was no danger of them being arrested, but when Spain attempted to capture them during Puigdemont's trip to Italy there was deep anger.. The decision of the CJEU was that everything was still until the final sentence was pronounced, the one in July.. And that was so true for the Belgian judges that they indicated that they will not rule on any case until then.. As for the Spanish authorities, to the annoyance of Llarena, who considered that he had every right to act.
When two months ago the ruling said that the petition procedure had been correct, rejecting the allegations of the pro-independence legal team (that the rapporteur of the case was politically against them, that their rights had not been guaranteed by having hearings by videoconference by first time in history and not in person, etc.), that technically left the three without immunity. Puigdemont and Comín in fact did not attend the July session in Strasbourg for fear of being arrested.. The Euro-orders have not yet been reactivated, but it seemed that there would in any case be a new request for precautionary measures, which if granted would serve to guarantee their rights of parliamentary immunity until this appeal is resolved..
Months to speak out
Times are interesting. Now the CJEU will take a few months to rule, but the legislature is about to end, since in June there will be European elections again. At the same time, the crimes for which Puigdemont and Comín are accused are no longer the same as five years ago, due to changes in the Penal Code.. And everything comes, furthermore, while the PSOE and Sumar negotiate with the independence movement an amnesty that would free the former president from prison..
In any case, there is no deadline to file a request for precautionary measures, and it can be done at any time until the main issues are resolved, in theory already in the first quarter of 2024. Llarena could now request his surrender, even before waiting for the appeal, but the decision would once again remain in the hands of the Belgian national courts..
The CJEU resolved an important case in January to establish a position once and for all. It is the one that affected the other escaped former minister, Lluis Puig, the only one who is still in Belgium but has never been an MEP.. Llarena sent a series of preliminary questions to Luxembourg to definitively clarify whether a Belgian judge can question the body that sends a Euroorder or decide by more than lax criteria that there are no guarantees for those claimed.. The Court said that the executing judicial authority cannot refuse, in principle, to execute a European arrest warrant on the basis of the lack of jurisdiction of the court that will prosecute the wanted person in the issuing Member State.”. But with a sufficiently broad point of ambiguity that, perhaps, the always suspicious Belgians want to cling to.
Trias considers that the PSOE was behind the Tejero coup d'état
The former mayor of Barcelona and current leader of Junts in the City Council, Xavier Trias, maintained this Monday that “the PSOE was behind” the 23-F. “No one can believe that this was a coup d'état by Mr. Tejero.”
“Maybe there are still some innocent people who believe that. I think the socialists were behind. They will say that I am old, but it is evident,” he insisted.
Trias has considered that the failed coup d'état was carried out to “stop autonomous development, by changing the Government and approving the LOAPA”, the (Organic Law of Harmonization of the Autonomous Process).
The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, has refuted that Trias' statements “have no historical or factual basis”. “The socialist deputies were hostages, like all the deputies of Congress, in that coup d'état of February 23,” he added.
The leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has demanded that Trias rectify. “It is a totally unfortunate, meaningless and painful statement for socialists, who have always fought for democracy in this country,” he said.
The assertions of the former nationalist mayor of Barcelona come months after other controversial demonstrations by Trias after losing the Mayor's Office of Barcelona despite having won the elections thanks to the pact between the PP and the PSC. “Fuck them, fuck them, fuck them,” Trias then exploded to show his disagreement with the constitutionalist operation that deprived him of the rod of command.
Monedero raises whether Podemos should go alone to the European elections to demonstrate its weight to Yolanda Díaz
The launch by the national leadership of Podemos of a new strategy to face the coming years has opened an internal debate about the relationship with Yolanda Díaz and the Sumar coalition. And that is going to give much more to talk about than what is currently reflected in the “political document” presented this Saturday by Ione Belarra, since from now on a process of amendments, analysis and voting begins that will culminate on November 4 , when then yes, once the endorsement of the bases has been obtained, the text is officially the new “roadmap” of the party.
In this context of reflection that has been launched, the co-founder of Podemos Juan Carlos Monedero has opened fire with a first question to debate and has thrown a question into the air to analyze: Should Podemos stand alone in the European elections? That is, attend separately from Sumar in the May 2025 appointment.
Monedero has raised this in an article published in Público in which he makes an extensive reflection on the situation of Podemos and the relationship it has with Sumar.. Thus, he indicated that there are “many topics to debate”. “Among others,” he points out, “if we should not go alone to the European elections, as a way of telling Sumar how much real support he has, with the risks that this implies.”
It does not delve further into it, but it leaves in the air whether it is a favorable terrain for a confrontation with Sumar in which both forces measure how much they really weigh.. It is understood, therefore, that to then reach a balance according to that proportion in the distribution of power within the coalition, where he considers that Sumar is not being fair with Podemos and in which he is committing “massive mistakes” such as leaving him without a spokesperson in the parliamentary group of Congress.
Monedero knows well the advantages of the European elections. Not in vain, as one of the five main promoters of Podemos in 2014, he knew how to read that those elections that are held with a single constituency are an opportunity because all votes are equally influential when it comes to obtaining seats.. Well, the distribution is proportional, without the distortion generated by the constituencies of a general election.. This is how Podemos managed to successfully open a gap with five MEPs despite the competition with Izquierda Unida, in its ideological space, and the PSOE.
A division of the alternative left in the European elections of May 2025 would not have a damage comparable to that which would occur in a general election, where the reissue of the coalition government with the PSOE would be seriously jeopardized.. Here, at most one or two seats could be lost in a European Parliament where the logic is very different due to the alliance between the popular and socialists on many issues.
The co-founder of Podemos invites the militancy to participate in this debate and raise others to “amend” the “deficit” with which the document promoted by Belarra and her team has started.. “The original debate document should have been done participatively,” he criticizes. However, he considers it positive that the party is going to assume a “political assembly” to reposition itself.. Also that it be open to internal participation, something that regrets that it is sometimes lacking.
Regarding the Podemos-Sumar relationship, Monedero recognizes the tensions and reviews the number of grievances that the Morados feel with Yolanda Díaz. “Sumar is, today, a shell that has not yet been provided with internal democracy, program or objectives, so it pivots around the figure of Yolanda Díaz. It stands out that it lacks the internal parliamentary balance that Unidas Podemos had.. Improvise and make mistakes. Leaving Izquierda Unida and Podemos without parliamentary spokespersons is, worse than a cacicada, a mistake. A big mistake. Just like denying the sovereignty that the different parties had in the previous legislature,” he writes in his article, where he presents 12 theses.
Monedero warns that Sumar “exists due to the existence of political and union organizations that, sooner or later, will demand respect for them”. Hence, he makes a prediction if the situation does not change: “This tension is quite likely to be resolved with the breakup of Sumar as an electoral coalition.”
In his analysis, Monedero focuses on the “disagreement” and the “bad conditions” in which Podemos had to join Sumar and expresses the distance that “purple voters and militants” have felt since then.. ” Podemos was much more responsible than Sumar, which gave the impression that it was pushing Podemos towards the solitary path,” he says.
“It would be necessary for Sumar to also correct his starting mistakes. A Broad Front must have a democratic functioning, and the importance of the different forces must correspond to what each party really has.. The primaries are a democratic reference, and Sumar's refusal to hold primaries takes him more towards old politics than new places. In the same way, in a Broad Front the different parties are sovereign. It is evident that the main parties of Sumar, that is, Podemos and Izquierda Unida, must have female ministers – Podemos was born with the will to govern – and it is up to the parties to choose who should occupy that place,” he points out.. “The opposite would be a fraud on internal democracy and would continue to widen the gap.”
For Monedero, broad fronts require “generosity and breadth of vision”, since “unity is not achieved by swallowing things”. The co-founder of Podemos also leaves this reflection: “Anyone who is weighed down excessively by personal phobias should go home.”. “It does not have enough entity to carry out high-level politics.”
Monedero leaves the Podemos think tank
Juan Carlos Monedero announced last Thursday that he was no longer the president of the Republic & Democracy Foundation, Podemos' think tank, “in agreement” with the general secretary, Ione Belarra.. In a publication on the social network
“For my part, many personal academic, intellectual, communicative and study tasks await me, always in the field of political analysis, which is my profession (no one expects me on any island other than the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands or the Margarita),” he wrote.
His replacement at the head of the foundation will be Julio Rodríguez, former Jemad, who premiered with that title last Saturday at a Podemos event in Madrid, where Monedero attended and was acclaimed by the supporters who filled the theater of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid.
Everyone against Guardiola: "This year will be easier"
Seven seasons later, with the long-awaited Champions League already in Manchester City's trophy room, Pep Guardiola yesterday offered a prediction about the tournament that did not ring hollow. “This year it will be easier. The most difficult thing is to win the first time,” ventured the Spanish coach in advance of today's debut against Red Star.. Unlike other years, when he stubbornly shied away from his favorite role, Guardiola seems satisfied this time: “It is important that the players do not relax. For our club to win this title was incredible, but in perspective, how many have won a Champions League? Many”. Now we have to know how to achieve it.. Or, rather, who can prevent it.
City's challenge, which also aspires to become the first club to win the Premier League four times in a row, fits the size of Guardiola, considered for more than a decade as the reference on the bench. It is up to him to persist in the conservative turn that led him to lift the cup in Istanbul or to develop a new model more in line with his new squad, considered a step below that of last year.
After the usual summer spending, translated into 242 million for Josko Gvardiol, Matheus Nunes, Jérémy Doku and Mateo Kovacic, City has tried to alleviate the departures of Riyad Mahrez, Ilkay Gündogan, Aymeric Laporte and Cole Palmer. The one who raises the most expectations, of course, is Gvardiol, a left-footed center back as expeditious in the cut as he is lucid when it comes to starting the play.. At 21 years old, he seems called to a dominant role in Europe. Especially if Guardiola keeps his Box System on the board, with two centre-backs and two midfielders, closing corridors and incorporating a defender like John Stones into the midfield.
The plans without De Bruyne
Who is not discussed in that area is Rodri, a world figure in the '5' position. Since Kalvin Phillips – whom he accused of being overweight in December – did not seem to convince him, Pep has thought about Nunes to offer minutes of refreshment. In very close matches, Kovacic's leadership and Doku's freshness as a winger should be differential.
Also those less common in the eleven, such as Phil Foden or Julián Álvarez, have to take a step forward. Especially after the injury of Kevin de Bruyne, out until 2024, a player whom Guardiola classified as “irreplaceable”. Pep has come to try the Argentine as a substitute, but there is no one like the Belgian, author of 28 assists last year, to supply Erling Haaland at the far post.. Despite his very high loss ratio, De Bruyne always had carte blanche to take risks on the last pass. Because only Bernardo Silva's left foot, which continues despite his summer ravings, can contribute so much on a creative level.
With these variants, City will aim to impose its infernal competitive rhythm starting in February. The one that last year led them to the treble after letting only five draws and one defeat escape in their last 28 official matches.. If Bayern or Real Madrid aspire to something, they better hurry up.
Simeone: "Some can start better, but the important thing is how it ends"
Diego Pablo Simeone is more about happy endings than exciting beginnings. And that in the Champions League, precisely, he has suffered until now the greatest disappointments that one can imagine.. The 93rd minute is a funeral for any Atlético player, but even more so for the coach who had to experience it from the bench.. The defeat against the eternal rival in the 2013/14 Champions League is an unforgettable memory, which is why Cholo insists that the important thing is May-June: “The season is starting, some can start better, but the important thing is how it ends” .
Simeone refers to the 'rush' at the end of last season of the teams that face each other tomorrow at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, a streak that allowed them to enter the Champions League, when before the World Cup, things looked ugly. However, this season has started differently for both teams.. While Atlético went from scaring the “worst game” (against Valencia) of the Simeone era in the mouth of its coach, Mauricio Sarri's Lazio has three defeats in four games. The victory, yes, was against the champion of the last Scudetto, Naples.
The teams arrive at the Champions League with the need to erase their last European season, disappointing for Lazio and to forget about Atlético, who not only was unable to pass their Champions group but also did not manage to enter the Europa League. “The Champions League is a competition that has cost us a lot lately, but I think we will play well,” explained Cholo.
“Not even against Rayo were we the best…”
His pupil Álvaro Morata, the player in charge of accompanying the coach at the press conference for the match between Lazio and Atlético de Madrid, expressed himself in the same sense. He said that “the Champions League is the Champions League, you cannot have a single moment of low and that's what we learned last season. “We have to start on the right foot and we have a great opportunity tomorrow.”
The curious thing is that last year they did it by beating Porto in the last breath, but winning, which is the important thing.. Now the team will try to enter into a victorious dynamic, so important for the group. “We were not the best in Europe against Rayo, nor are we a disaster now,” Morata expressed and stressed that “when you win you have a positive dynamic and that is why tomorrow we must return to it.”
Opposite will be a team that Simeone knows well, in which he played for four seasons, and with which he won the last Scudetto of the Lazial squad.. “I have goosebumps remembering the years in which the fans loved me so much and always gave me a lot of warmth.”. “They were years of well-played football, we won a lot together.”
Duel of styles
Football, or rather style, has been a point of friction between the coaches of both teams.. Sarri, opposed to Simeone's defensive football, tried to bury a hatchet that he himself raised when he said that “he would be bored if his team played like Atlético”: “My way of seeing football is different from yours, but I I appreciate and I reiterate. He has his own way of playing and with this he did great in Spain and in Europe,” the Italian said.
For his part, Simeone has not only ignored Sarri's previous criticism, but has expressed that “he has always liked (Sarri)” and that “they have taken many things from his game to improve the team.”. A compliment that tomorrow he hopes to take to the field.
However, Atlético arrives with significant losses against Lazio. Reinildo, Memphis, Söyüncü and Koke will not be able to play against Sarri's team. Neither does Lemar who has recently undergone successful surgery for the ruptured Achilles tendon he suffered in the match against Valencia.. Tomorrow the Champions League begins, tomorrow Atlético del Cholo will begin its eleventh consecutive participation.
Van Bommel, the villain bitter about Iniesta who now intends to torment Xavi
Mark van Bommel's dream of playing for Barça lasted just over a year. The great emergence of an absolutely key figure for the Blaugrana, emerging from the ins and outs of La Masia, Andrés Iniesta, condemned him to leave the club in the summer of 2006, just after the official start of what was going to be his second season in the club. entity that, at the time, was also chaired by Joan Laporta. After the 0-3 defeat against Sevilla in the European Super Cup, he had to pack his bags to go to Bayern Munich, fearing that his presence in the team could jeopardize the continuity of the Fuentealbilla player, who was already He then predicted a more than splendid future for him.
This Tuesday, Van Bommel, Antwerp coach, will remember an experience that soured his attitude towards everything that smacked of Barça and, especially, towards Andrés Iniesta, whom he turned into his nemesis.. To such an extent that in the 2010 World Cup final, the same one that would promote the shy midfielder to Olympus with that goal that gave La Roja the title, he was kicked to death.. Such was his harassment that the young Barça player did not hesitate to trip him that could well have changed his glorious destiny.
Last season, Van Bommel ensured that Antwerp, 66 years later, reconquered the Belgian league. He has, in the technical office, the help of another former Barça player, Marc Overmars. Both now face a Barça driven by the latest great batch of La Masia, led by the very young Lamine Yamal. The team also has the overflow capacity of Alejandro Balde and the drive of Gavi, a player whom Xavi cannot leave out of the team.. This is what he confessed after the win over Betis last Saturday: “I find it difficult to take him off the field.”. It gives us a lot of character, a lot of soul. “He is the heart of the team and for me he is a fundamental footballer.”
Van Bommel knows very well the negative consequences of facing Barcelona in the Champions League. In 2009, he saw how a team in which Pep Guardiola made his debut on the bench only had half a half enough to give Bayern a resounding 4-0 victory. Curiously, the same result would fit a PSV in which the Dutchman made his debut as first coach during his visit to the Camp Nou in the group stage of the 2018-19 season. Leo Messi, with a hat trick, was his great scourge. Iniesta, a few months earlier, had already decided to leave Barcelona to embark on his adventure at Vissel Kobe.
Sandra Sánchez, on the women's soccer team: "It's good to talk about something that is there, that exists"
When Sandra Sánchez (Talavera de la Reina, September 16, 1981) began in the world of karate, she did not imagine that she would end up becoming the best karate fighter in history, that she would achieve a Guinness Record and the triple crown (European, world and Olympic Games). Already retired, and days after releasing her documentary: Karate-do: The Path of Sandra Sánchez on Rakuten TV in which she shows her most complicated moments, she speaks to EL MUNDO, to tell how she has lived her entire professional career.
On Thursday the world will be able to get to know her a little more through her documentary, what will be seen? I think people only know Sandra's part of the competition, the training and the medals, but they will be able to see everything there is behind. Another part of Sandra, when things didn't go so well, when family and personally there were problems, and how Sandra had to reinvent herself to become the person I am. How was that reinvention? We have all gone through difficult times. When making this documentary I have had to remove many feelings that were kept in a box. There are very difficult moments in life, that I wish no one had to live through, that accumulated. However, now that I can look back and see who I have become, I see that everything passes and I feel proud that all of this did not make me a more apathetic or closed-in person.. I decided to see the beautiful and not give so much importance to what is not worth it. He left everything to be with his mother in a dedicated moment of health. I did not think he was abandoning the sport. I had had the opportunity to enter the High Performance Center in Madrid, but my family lives in Talavera.. I was going to return to Talavera because an illness like my mother's is very long, but what had made me get to the CAR, which was training with my teacher in Talavera, I was going to continue doing. In the end life has to go on. I didn't give it as much importance as it had, because I thought I was going to continue training and competing, but that I was going to be close to my mother. When he comes back, he does it with a great coach like Jesús del Moral. When I go back to the competition and I propose to Jesus that he train me, he tells me no many times and it took me a lot to convince him. He lived in Alcalá de Henares and I went there with my car every day to convince him. When I got it it was especially hard. I think he wanted to test myself to see that I wasn't going to fail him, but I always put up with his training with a smile. He has managed to be world number 1, a Guinness Record, gold at the Olympics, how has all this success come together? I had been losing for more than 20 years, I was very used to trying but staying there. And suddenly, with a lot of work, everything starts to work out, and to work out well.. You begin to have that recognition that was not just from that moment, but from the previous 20 years.. You feel proud to know that you didn't give up and I like to have the feeling that when I won a medal, it wasn't just for me, but for those who were believing in me. And when he starts to get on the podiums, he doesn't get off. It was so difficult for me to get there that I said: “No one will kick me out of here” (laughs). Despite winning, I always had the feeling that there were things to improve. You continually bring out details and, although I no longer compete, I continue trying to improve my karate. Is there anything left to do? Reality surpassed the dream. I remember that when I set my sights on the triple crown I thought that if I achieved it I would retire, because I believed that it was impossible and that I was going to fail in one of the championships.. But suddenly it becomes reality and you don't believe it. Sportingly I feel super fulfilled, but on a personal level I still want to improve and transmit karate. The time has come to retire. Was it difficult for you to make the decision? I had proposed it in 2021, if I won the triple crown, because I thought it was impossible and that I would be able to extend it, but when it happened I said that I still didn't want to retire. I extended it for another year, although I risked a setback, but I decided to do it, and I was able to mentally accept that withdrawal little by little. If in Paris 2024 karate were an Olympic discipline, would you have liked to compete in other Olympic Games? Yeah. If there had been Paris, I almost confirm that I would not have retired. Because it was also very close. It was a three-year Olympic cycle, which by the time of the world games was already only two. Two years at the sporting level go by very quickly. I am very sad that we are not here because it means that other generations will not experience something as incredible as what I have been able to experience. How have you seen something as great as winning a World Cup be overshadowed by something extra-sports? First of all, congratulations, What should be said and what should be read. Regarding the debate that has been opened, I think it is positive that there is talk about something that exists. Talking and debating makes us improve, and that is what we should get out of all this.