Few suspected the day that Jaume Asens decided to leave the political front line, and not appear on Sumar's electoral lists as headliner in Barcelona, that he was going to become one of the protagonists of the days after 23-J with his role of achiever to attract the vote of Junts to the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. Just a month before the electoral appointment, the former leader of United We Can in the Congress of Deputies had chosen to step aside and not be the main face of En Comú Podem, a reference in Catalonia for the political platform created by Yolanda Diaz. Simply, symbolically, he closed the list as the penultimate candidate between the acting Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, and the former mayoress of Barcelona Ada Colau.

The parliamentary arithmetic that emerged from the polls, however, has returned to the front those who were one of the founding souls of the commons, precisely with Subirats and Colau after 15-M. Not even 24 hours had passed when Sumar's spokesman, Ernest Urtasun, announced that the left-wing coalition had entrusted Asens with dialogue with the Catalan independence parties, especially with the formation led from Belgium by Carles Puigdemont, with whom “he is in contact », according to sources close to the negotiation.

Given the difficulty of articulating a voting proposal in Catalonia that fulfills the aspirations of secessionism, which for now does not accept that the consultation to ratify an agreement of the dialogue table between the Government and the Generalitat that Sumar proposes does not include the option of independence, the Asens negotiation advances through other areas, with the commitment to address this point during the legislature. Percussion in the dejudicialization to resemble its results to an amnesty, a path in which he has always been involved, and a new impulse to the co-official languages by the State, as Díaz herself recognized yesterday on TVE.

The choice of Asens as interlocutor is not free, since he is an unequivocal defender of the most sovereign postulates within his political space and, above all, he is well connected to the command bridge of Waterloo, the Belgian town where Puigdemont has lived since he fled from justice. A lawyer by profession, specialized in cases that affect alternative social movements, his credentials have a prominent role in two episodes of the most recent Spanish politics, even though it seems like an eternity has passed.. Asens was one of the key figures who advised the former president and several of his advisors in their flight after the hectic Catalan October of 2017, with the 1-O referendum and the subsequent unilateral declaration of independence in Parliament.. A personal friend of former Minister Toni Comín, both began to draw up the strategy to not be accountable to the Spanish Justice after the speech that King Felipe VI gave on October 3, in which he warned that the rule of law should act against those who had subverted the constitutional order in Catalonia.

With churches in Lledoners

The other chapter in which he already put into practice his skills as a mediator with the independence movement was in 2018, when he was deputy mayor of Colau. It was he who opened the doors of the Lledoners prison (Barcelona) to the then general secretary of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, to negotiate with the president of Esquerra, Oriol Junqueras, and Jordi Sànchez (who held the general secretary of JxCat), both in provisional prison, the support of secessionism for the General State Budgets, even when the purple formation had no government responsibility in the first Executive chaired by Sánchez after winning the motion of no confidence against Mariano Rajoy. Those negotiations failed and led to the electoral advance of April 2019, but those contacts laid the foundations for the abstention of the Republicans that allowed the inauguration of January 2020.

Amnesty and referendum

Five years later, the company that Sumar's negotiator is facing seems even more complex.. Sources close to the contacts that Asens leads indicate that the starting point is to normalize that Junts naturally raises its maximum proposals. It is about recognizing “the legitimacy” of their aspirations, an attitude different from that maintained by the PSOE, which from the outset raises the dialogue only in terms that do not go beyond the Constitution. “Self-determination and amnesty are on the table because Junts has put them,” acknowledged last week Jéssica Albiach, leader of the commons in Parliament. From there, negotiation and negotiation and not getting up from the table until the last second of the post-election calendar expires.

In Sumar they recognize that the results of 23-J leave the 14 pro-independence deputies (seven from ERC and seven from JxCat) in a very clear position of strength, with the key to the investiture in their hands, but the numbers are also different if viewed from a concave or convex mirror. The PSC achieved 250,000 more votes than the sum of ERC, Junts and the CUP, which was left without representation in Congress. Moreover, the union of the socialist vote and Sumar in Catalonia doubled the support obtained by republicans and post-convergents. Consequently, taking into account the strength of each block, the maximalism of the cover letter cannot be immovable, argue the commoners. In addition, Asens tries to convince Junts that the only alternative scenario, which is electoral repetition, carries the implicit risk of falling into “involution” both in social rights and in “the resolution of the Catalan conflict.”

That the investiture of Sánchez could depend on the votes of JxCat was something that had already been on the table for months both in Madrid and in Barcelona. Or, in other words, both in the capital of Spain and in Belgium. The hypothesis that the 23-J did not give a wide victory to the PP and that even with the votes of Vox it did not add an absolute majority or touched it, it opened the possibility that the current acting president would resist in La Moncloa. And that only happened to have the support or abstention of the post-convergent deputies, inhibited in almost all negotiations during the last legislature, but who now focus all eyes.

Spain's relationship with Morocco since the arrival of Pedro Sánchez at La Moncloa via a motion of no confidence, in June 2018, has become an element of permanent conflict between fluctuations. Because from a convulsive beginning, with the President of the Government breaking the tradition of his predecessors of choosing Rabat as the first international destination, he has gone on to a “private vacation” in Alawite territory, which began this Monday and days before aspiring to a new mandate. .

Five years of a tug of war, already common in other stages between the two countries, but in this case dotted with up to 15 milestones that are difficult to explain. In fact, the constant has been Moncloa's lack of transparency in each of these initiatives, which have their turning point, from rigidity towards Rabat to bowing to its interests, in the Ghali and Pegasus cases.

France, first destination

What is known is the beginning, which was not rosy at all, when the Prime Minister's first trip was not to Rabat but to Paris, in search of a rapprochement with one of the main European leaders, Emmanuel Macron.. Sánchez made it very clear in his speech at Elíseo on June 23, 2018: “I wanted to convey the firm commitment of the Government of Spain to the European cause, the firm commitment of the Government of Spain with many of the policies that the President Macron”.

Pedro Sánchez, on his first international trip in 2018 to Paris EFE

But that trip to our neighbors to the north had its reverse in our neighbors to the south, because the election of the socialist leader, breaking the tradition of his predecessors, was taken by Mohamed VI as a slight. In Moncloa, this change was justified in that the Monarch was not in the country during those dates and that the agenda of the President of the Government was not going to be changed. Finally, the first meeting took place in November.

First images of Pedro Sánchez on vacation in Morocco with his wife and daughters RUE20 (Video) The reception of Brahim Ghali

After three years of some calm between countries, the reception of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, in a hospital in Logroño to be treated for Covid in April 2021, with false documentation, ended up breaking relations between territories with the conflict of the Sahara as a backdrop.

The migratory tide in Ceuta

The consequences of this act did not take more than a month to be felt when on May 17 around 5,000 immigrants swam across the Strait, without opposition from the Moroccan security forces, until they reached Ceuta from the neighboring city of Fnideq.. A day later, on the 18th, Rabat executed the withdrawal of its ambassador in Madrid, Karima Benyaich. “There are acts that have consequences and they have to be assumed,” the diplomat stated at the time in a clear notice to Moncloa.

Forcefulness in the president's trip

Just a few hours later, the President of the Government arrived in Ceuta to try to send a message of calm and forcefulness against the migratory pressure, suspending, precisely, a trip to Paris. During his trip, Sánchez stressed that Spain will act “firmly” to “guarantee security in the face of any challenge, any eventuality and any circumstance.”

Visit of the President of the Government to Ceuta after the migratory wave EFE The espionage of Pegasus

Although the case came to public light on the morning of May 2, 2022, minutes before the events of Dos de Mayo began in the Community of Madrid, espionage up to five times with the Pegasus software on cell phones Pedro Sánchez and his Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, took place between May and June 2021 with the Ghali affair still fluttering. At that time there was also espionage on the Ministers of the Interior and Foreign Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Arancha González Laya, according to Moncloa.. Beyond the announcement, no further information has been provided by Moncloa afterwards.

The dismissal of the minister

Precisely the head of Foreign Affairs, fundamental in the Ghali case, would be removed from her position in July 2021 in the government crisis that the president undertook. A historical turn of the foreign policy of the last 46 years in our country that is known for the leak of our neighbor of a letter between countries, which has never been published in its entirety. It also supposed the degradation of the relationship with Algeria as a commercial partner. Repeatedly, from the independence forces to the opposition of the PP, passing through the partner in the coalition, he has been requesting explanations. Unsuccessfully.

Upside down flag at reunion

The rapprochement is consummated with a visit from Pedro Sánchez to Mohamed VI, on April 7, 2022. The Alaouite monarch has the detail of inviting the Spanish president to the Ramadan break dinner, a moment of special significance, but the protocol leaves out another detail: in the background you can see the Spanish flag upside down.

Sánchez's dinner in Rabat with the Moncloa Pegasus flag upside down, finally public

On May 2, 2022, one year after the events, the Government made public the spying on the mobile phone of the president and part of his Cabinet in a press conference prior to the Madrid Community Day Acts, turning the reception at Puerta del Sol in a national monograph, opening a new crack with Ayuso and thus reducing the complaints of the independentistas who had denounced that same espionage during the 2017 referendum before the UN and the European Union. This is how a conflict with the Community of Madrid also larvae that will break out a year later with those responsible for Protocol, preventing Minister Félix Bolaños from going up to the authorities' platform during the parade.

judicial investigation

Three days later, on May 5, the National Court begins the investigation of the case in search of the author of the espionage. The investigations have been archived three weeks ago, alluding to Israel's “absolute lack of cooperation” to determine how the mobile phone infection occurred and pointing to “diplomatic channels” as an option to resolve the facts.. But Spain has not taken any measure in that direction before a country, Israel, which together with the United States -in the last days of Trump- and Spain have become the great legitimizers of the autonomist path for the Sahara.

The jump to the fence of Melilla

A new migratory conflict, now on the fence of Melilla, on June 24, leaves at least 23 immigrants dead and doubts about the work of the Spanish and Moroccan security forces. The President of the Government, the same one who in his first decisions in Moncloa decided to host the Aquarius, that ship with immigrants rejected by Italy, assumes a tough speech. “Look at the images, in which the gendarmerie has worked hard to try to prevent the violent assault,” he advanced, before justifying: “It is important to recognize the extraordinary work of the Armed Forces and security forces in Melilla and Ceuta, and the fight against irregular migration in general, and also by the Moroccan government in coordination with us to try to stop a violent assault, which has been well organized, perpetrated, and well resolved by the two security forces”. He avoided focusing, for days, on the victims.

Bodies of the deceased after the jump to the fence of Melilla E. M. The rectification with the UN

On September 9, Morocco sent a letter to the UN with statements such as “Melilla continues to be an occupied prison” or “Morocco does not have land borders with Spain”, which a spokesperson later clarified to Agencia EFE.. The Spanish Foreign Ministry, through its Secretary of State, Ángeles Moreno, responds that both sovereignty is “indisputable”

The meeting without Podemos… and without Mohamed VI

February 1, 2023 was the date set for the first high-level summit since 2015 between Morocco and Spain, an appointment that Moncloa strove to highlight as proof of the “new relationship”. But that meeting was overshadowed by two absences: that of the ministers of United We Can and that of King Mohamed VI. In the case of the purple ones, due to their position against the shift with the Sahara, they were not included in the delegation. In the case of the Monarch, because he was outside the country, without giving further explanations.

Sánchez, on his last visit to Rabat in February EFE

Agreements emerged from this meeting, such as the opening of customs in Ceuta and Melilla, which has not yet taken place, and Moncloa ratifies its position with the Sahara. In fact, the president himself declares that both countries will try to “avoid what offends the other party, especially what affects sovereignty”. From that trip there remains a telephone conversation with Mohamed VI in which he summons the socialist leader to a future meeting on Moroccan soil. Six months later, that appointment doesn't even have a date set yet.

European research

On May 8, the European Parliament's commission of inquiry transferred to Spain the need to undertake a “complete, fair and exhaustive” investigation into espionage with the Pegasus program against members of the Government and Catalan pro-independence leaders.. The community body indicated that there were “clear indications” that it was promoted by Morocco.

The holidays

The closing of the circle occurred last night when Moroccan media, affiliated with Mohamed VI's regime, revealed that Pedro Sánchez had just landed in Rabat to spend a few days off with his family. From Moncloa silence is kept and it is only indicated that it is a “strictly personal” trip and financed “with the president's own resources”. But with the precedents, the geopolitical gesture is evident.

The Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) reaches out to Pedro Sánchez to support his investiture as Prime Minister, but it will not be for nothing. The only elected deputy from the Galician nationalists, Néstor Rego, confirmed this Wednesday that they are “willing to talk” and, straight away, already issued a warning: “We will not give anyone a blank check”. Thus, they will facilitate the investiture in exchange for “place Galicia and the interests of Galicians in the debate.”

“If it depends on us, the right and the extreme right will not govern,” insisted Rego, who appeared with Senator Carme da Silva, recently elected to the Senate by regional designation, and also advanced that his intention is to prevent the PP from having ” control of the Table” of Congress in the constitutive session of August 17.

In his appearance, Da Silva explained that they will request “concrete commitments” and “with verifiable deadlines” from Sánchez during the negotiation that will be opened to facilitate the investiture, since they recalled that they facilitated the investiture of the PSOE leader in the last legislature and, once Once the mandate is over, there is a long list of non-compliances.

Facing this new negotiation, they will be “very demanding” when it comes to defending Galician interests. The main commitment that the PSOE wants to make involves “activating the Galician agenda” through four lines of work.

Its four axes will be: “compensate the historical deficit in investments”; promote social policies, especially in terms of equality and dependency; an emergency action to stop and alleviate the industrial crisis; and activate an environmental policy that avoids “energy looting”, to put an end to the current situation in which “Galicia is being used to extract resources but bearing high environmental costs and without compensation”.

Rego considers that the elections of July 23 have left a context of “increased weight and importance of the pro-sovereignty forces”, which will help “the national question to appear more clearly” and for the Government to move forward in the “real recognition of the plurinational character of the Spanish State”.

Thus, they ask for progress in the “practical recognition” that in the Spanish State there are nations such as Galicia that “must have recognized collective rights that should result in their capacity for self-government”, with which the development of all their potentialities will be possible.

The Galician nationalist deputy considers that Galicia “cannot be a stone guest, you cannot talk about lace as nations of Euskal Herria and Catalonia and that Galicia is not present” and advances that the BNG is not going to allow that to happen, this community “cannot miss, once again, that train.

regional financing

For the BNG, the question of financing will be fundamental, which already motivated initiatives and political action of the nationalist organization in the last legislature, since Rego defended the need to change the current financing system that “seriously harms” Galicia and represents a ” underfinancing” which has a negative impact on many aspects, especially public services such as health or education.

The deputy also made reference to the possibility of writing off or canceling the public debt with the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) that recently came to the fore, and stressed that the Galician government of the PP refused to resort to this fund “for preferring that the public debt was with private banks, tripling it to almost 12,000 million euros”.

Now that the possibility of removing the debt with the FLA is open, Rego recalls that Galicia will be harmed by the political choice of borrowing from private entities that the PP adopted and that he will have to explain to the citizenry as a whole.

The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, spoke yesterday through a tweet about the sexist murder that took place in the Seville town of Utrera last Monday, in which he conveyed his affection to the relatives of the victim and in the one who also called for “recovering the spirit of large agreements to face this scourge”, in reference to Vox, “with unity and the continued improvement of the protection of victims”. The victim, a 22-year-old Nicaraguan woman, died after receiving several blows to the head with a heavy tool.. The attacker, who had fled, has already been arrested.

Moreno already referred to this issue in an interview with this newspaper last week, in which he explained that, among the reasons why Santiago Abascal's party causes more fear in the electorate than formations such as EH Bildu or ERC, find the statements that are made from Vox in the field of sexist violence, “which are very difficult to digest in the middle of 2023,” he pointed out. In Andalusia, since this type of murder began to be counted in 2003, 248 women have been murdered. This year, throughout Spain, between January and July, 32 have lost their lives. In 2023, eight women have lost their lives at the hands of their partners or ex-partners. Eight other minors, four girls and four boys, have been orphaned after the death of their mothers.

Given the high number of homicides, the Ministry of Equality met yesterday its Crisis Committee for the fourth time since its creation was approved in July 2022. The meetings are called when, within the same month, there are five or more sexist murders, or femicides. The person in charge of appearing after the meeting was Victoria Rosell, a government delegate against Gender Violence, who, among other issues, affected the young age of three of the victims, who had not reached 30 years of age, and also, without citing Vox nor point it out as one of the reasons why these high numbers of murders have occurred in July, Rosell did stress the need to insist to the youth that sexist violence cannot be the object of either relativization or denial. He revealed that only one of the eight had filed a previous complaint and stressed the need to be especially alert in the remainder of the summer, a period of the year in which more crimes of this type are committed.

The First Vice President and Minister of Culture of the Generalitat Valenciana, Vicente Barrera, attended this Wednesday what is his first official act in two weeks: the inauguration of the Festival of Ancient and Baroque Music of Peñíscola (Castellón). The name of the former bullfighter was the first that Vox opted for for a coalition government with the PP, unprecedented in the Valencian Community. However, despite the commotion over the express pact between the two formations that shook the national political scene after 28-M, Santiago Abascal's party has remained to date in a very discreet background, unable even to complete its organization chart..

Together with Barrera, the person in charge of Justice and the Interior, Elisa Núñez, and that of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, José Luis Aguirre, sit in the Carlos Mazón Council. Now, the three representatives of the Vox quota in the Valencian Government have ceded all the prominence to the PP in the first two weeks of the new Executive. With hardly any public agenda, they have not starred in a single appearance before the media beyond the first act of inauguration on July 19.

The three directors have limited themselves to holding meetings with some representatives and groups of their respective sectors, although without reporting all the appointments. No statement and no outburst from the representatives of a party that already had to call attention to its number two in Valencia, José María Llanos, when after the signing of the government pact he got off the hook saying that “gender violence does not exist”. Pointed out in his day as a possible Justice adviser, the Vox deputy has not spoken again since that controversy, which even forced Alberto Núñez Feijóo to intervene.

That put the PP of Mazón on maximum alert, where authorized voices came to express their fear that Vox could overshadow the president of the Generalitat himself and the management of the entire Consell with its incendiary statements.. In reality, it has been quite the opposite, since the three directors have opted for the moment for a low profile.

In this sense, the election of Barrera by Vox was experienced with relief in the circles of the PP. The former Valencian bullfighter, who in the past was a member of this party and surprised everyone by sitting at the negotiating table where the PP-Vox pact was cooked, “does not really have a political profile”, according to the popular sources consulted.. This is interpreted as hardly wanting to dispute the spotlight with Mazón.

The Valencian president already warned his government partners that he did not want any “show” like the one that the PSOE, Compromís and Unidas Podemos staged in the previous legislature with their public disputes. In fact, Mazón and the PP have been in charge of leaving their mark on the meetings of the Consell. If the first served to approve the elimination of the Inheritance and Donations tax as promised by the popular campaigners, the other meetings have allowed the organization chart of the new Valencian Government to be shaped.

Unlike Mazón, who has practically closed his Presidency team, Barrera has the main positions in his department vacant. The same happens in the case of Núñez and Aguirre, who still have the appointments of almost all the high positions of their ministries pending.. There is a paradox that Emergencies, under the control of Vox, maintains those responsible for the previous left-wing government. Mazón, Barrera and Núñez recently visited the Emergency Coordination Center to call for “caution” in the face of possible fires.

Although more appointments are expected to be approved this week, Consell sources attribute this power vacuum to the fact that “the best profiles” are being sought. From Vox they admitted, however, that the party is having difficulties to make signings that can be incorporated into their departments. To this is added, according to these sources, the intervention by the party leadership from Madrid.

21 detainees, three drug clans dismantled, more than 60 kilos of drugs seized, 23 structures demolished, five firearms and nine high-end vehicles seized. This is the balance of the Pastor operation, carried out yesterday in Cañada Real. The culmination of an investigation by the Civil Guard that has lasted eight months and has dealt a new blow to drug trafficking in this area of illegal settlements to the southeast of the capital, in which electricity, poverty and narcotics form the three variables of a complicated equation that has not been solved for years.

The area is a complicated corridor outside of urban regulations that extends for 15 kilometers -from the district of Villa de Vallecas to Coslada-, where substandard housing for people without resources, important points of sale and distribution of narcotics and large-scale chalets coexist. dimensions equipped with all kinds of comforts.

In addition to the news of events, the Cañada Real is the protagonist of the social pages due to the lack of electricity -preventing the installation of heating or cooling devices during the months of extreme temperatures-, which its inhabitants have been experiencing for months before of the storm Filomena. An anomaly for which neighborhood associations blame electricity companies. His position is supported by forces such as Más Madrid, Podemos or Sumar, who during the last two electoral calls raised the banner of this neighborhood struggle and used it as a political weapon against Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

«The reestablishment of the electricity supply in Cañada Real is urgent and a matter of Human Rights. We are committed to the Cívica por la Luz de la Cañada Real platform so that they once again have access to this basic right”, assured the Sumar formation in a pact signed three days before the General. A situation that even reached the Council of Europe. which ruled that Spain should “take measures” to restore electricity in the area.

Meanwhile, energy distributors claim that the lack of electricity is due to illegal power hookups to feed indoor marijuana crops, a plant that requires large amounts of energy for optimal flowering.

Indoor cultivation of marijuana, discovered by the Civil Guard. EFE

Crops such as those that the Civil Guard found yesterday morning, during the execution of 18 simultaneous entry and search warrants in the shanty town. The highlight: two indoor crops with more than 1,000 plants, as well as 62 kilos of marijuana in buds, ready for consumption. “They had marijuana plantations and buds scattered around the interior of different homes,” sources from the Benemérita tell EL MUNDO.

However, the detainees, who belong to three family clans, had heroin trafficking as their main business.. A criminal triad at the top of which was a married couple and their two older children, who were in charge of supplying other traffickers. Those arrested are charged with the crimes of drug trafficking, belonging to a criminal group, illegal possession of weapons, production and cultivation of marijuana and fraud of electricity. In addition, in the rooms dedicated to the storage and production of narcotics in the warehouses and substandard housing, there were “bunkerized” spaces set up for the sale and consumption of heroin on site.

“The cuts and the follow-ups during the investigation were quite complicated,” they say from the body. The criminals took counter-surveillance measures, such as “using cars as decoy, regularly changing mobile phones and even going so far as to use women and small children to give water when they made any movement,” they highlighted.

The Seville City Council has decided to postpone the Seville European Film Festival, which was to be held in November, to avoid it coinciding with the Latin Grammys, an event in the world of music that, as explained by this Wednesday the delegate of Culture, Minerva Salas, will monopolize all the municipal attention.

The postponement means, in practice, the cancellation of the 2023 edition, a decision that has surprised the sector, taking into account how difficult it is to find a place in the international festival calendar. In addition, if it is held in the first half of the year, as the Seville City Council has promised, it will have to compete with other events with similar characteristics such as the Malaga Festival (dedicated to Spanish cinema) and will have to find a fit into the complicated program of spring, when the two great Sevillian festivals take place, Holy Week and the April Fair.

Municipal government sources have explained to EL MUNDO that the postponement does not imply a breach of any contract with the film industry or its professionals because, simply, at this time of the year “there was nothing signed”. “The 2023 edition does not exist on paper,” explains the team led by José Luis Sanz (PP), who has taken the reins of the institution after achieving an absolute majority in the municipal elections on May 28, wresting the Mayor's office from the Socialist Antonio Munoz.

The director of the Seville Film Festival is currently Ildefonso 'Tito' Rodríguez, who was appointed at the beginning of May to replace José Luis Cienfuegos. His stage at the helm of the Sevillian contest therefore begins with a controversial decision by the government team that calls into question the future of the festival. However, from the Seville City Council it is insisted that what is sought is precisely that an event with the international impact of the Grammy Awards does not overshadow and tarnish the appointment with European cinema. These same sources emphasize that Tito Rodríguez, who was appointed by the previous municipal government, has agreed with the postponement.

As explained this Wednesday through a press release by the Culture delegate, holding the festival in November “is incompatible with the development of the numerous and extensive activities that are being prepared” for the Grammy Awards, whose ceremony leaves the US for the first time.

Salas defends that the celebration of the Grammy Awards in Seville “is going to be quite an event for the city”. The XXIV Latin Grammy Awards gala will take place on November 16, as announced last April by the executive director of the Latin Recording Academy, Manuel Abud. But there are other events that will be held around this event, starting the official program on the 12th and taking place in different locations in Andalusia..

Resignation of the director of ICAS

The change of date of the Seville Film Festival is known only one day after the resignation of José Lucas Chaves Maza was announced as manager of the Institute of Culture and the Arts of Seville (ICAS), who had been in the position just one month. Chaves Maza alleged “personal reasons” to explain his departure and the mayor of Seville expressed his regret for that decision hours later.

It is the first resignation in the new government team. And the PSOE, through its councilor Myriam Díaz, took the opportunity to reproach the “improvisation and lack of projects” of the José Luis Sanz team, for a city that is a “cultural benchmark for the entire country”. The socialist mayor stressed how the City Council has not yet presented the city's cultural program for autumn.