In the Vox calendar, the electoral debate this Wednesday is marked as the most important event in the final week of the campaign. Santiago Abascal attends the meeting of three convinced that the absence of Alberto Núñez Feijóo will allow him to take control of the right-wing discourse against Pedro Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz and, as a consequence, stop the transfer of votes to the Popular Party that both Vox as most demoscopic companies are detecting in recent days.

In Vox, the idea of not attending the RTVE debate between the leaders of the four main parties in the country was never on the table and they recognize that the role that Abascal plays in the meeting can “change” the dynamics of the polls. Feijóo, first in the polls and with a favorable wind, rules out participating to avoid the long-awaited photograph with Abascal that the left is looking for to denounce the embrace between the PP and Vox. In Genoa they believe that the popular president did a great face to face last week and that he should now bet on his own agenda. That he does not gain anything by going to a debate, say sources of the apparatus, in which the rest of the participants will charge directly against the one who has the most options to succeed on Sunday.

But this strategy leaves the space to the right of the PSOE completely clear for Abascal, who will lash out during the debate especially against Pedro Sánchez for embodying one by one all the policies that Vox promises to repeal if he reaches La Moncloa. Abascal will postulate himself as the true “alternative” and will harshly confront the President of the Government to establish himself as a leader who is directly opposed to Sanchismo and without half measures with socialism, in contrast to the agreement that Feijóo proposed to the socialist leader face to face to agree that both let the most voted list govern.

This, they believe in Vox, will serve as a push in the final stretch of the campaign. Asked if the debate comes too late -just three days before election day-, in Bambú they answer that it is the opposite, that it comes at the right time to finish off a campaign with its own profile and distance from all the parties. And they use the newspaper library to justify their argument: in November 2019, the last national campaign, Vox managed to mobilize more than half a million votes after the five-party debate. Of those protagonists -Pedro Sánchez, Pablo Casado, Albert Rivera, Pablo Iglesias and Santiago Abascal- only Sánchez and Abascal remain on the political front line.

debate seven

In fact, and despite the fact that the polls indicate a downward trend, the party leadership is confident that in recent days there has been a change in dynamics precisely as a result of another debate: the one held at seven, also on RTVE, in which Iván Espinosa de los Monteros participated and, as they defend in the ranks of the party, “ate” Cuca Gamarra, general secretary of the PP, especially in economic matters.

So Vox plays with the shock of the debate as the last bullet to turn the polls around, in free fall for the party since the campaign began. Feijóo's passage through El Hormiguero -which humanized his figure- and the face to face -in which he dismantled Sánchez's policies and made the president lose his nerves- deepened the open wound against Vox, to which in recent days the popular leader has added the defense of the useful vote against the question of whether Abascal will achieve representation in notable territories for Vox, such as Castilla y León or Extremadura.

The accounts in Vox are very different: the party defends that in a dozen provinces they are the ones who are a few votes away from snatching seats from the PSOE, so the true useful vote in numerous constituencies, the one that ensures an electoral turnaround for the right, resides on the Vox ballot.

The press room of La Moncloa grants an important exhibition window. Of media focus. It is attended by the ministers who carry matters of importance or importance to the Cabinet meeting, in order to give a public account of them.. The Executive is formed, as it is known, by a coalition of the PSOE and United We Can. But the distribution in these appearances is clearly favorable to the Socialists: of 29 press conferences held in 2023, only six times there was a representative of Unidas Podemos, and only twice was a minister of Podemos.

This Tuesday, the Ministry of Social Rights has brought to the Council of Ministers a reform of Royal Decree 1051/2013, which complies with the Government's commitment to improve the economic benefits of the dependency system and that what it intends is to reverse the cuts it suffered the system in 2012.

From the department directed by Ione Belarra, Minister and General Secretary of Podemos, they contacted the Secretary of State for Communication through the usual procedure -which is the one who determines the appearances- to request their presence in the press room. However, again three PSOE ministers will appear before the media this Tuesday: Isabel Rodríguez, who is the spokesperson for the Executive and always has a fixed chair, Pilar Alegría and Diana Morant. These last two, ministers who in recent days have shared an act with Pedro Sánchez.

Of the 29 Councils of Ministers held in 2023, in 23 of them the subsequent press conference was led entirely by socialist ministers. Only on six occasions was there a representative of Unidas Podemos: four appearances by Yolanda Díaz (January 10; February 14; April 11; July 11), and only one by Ione Belarra (January 17) and Irene Montero (February 28).

In the departments of Podemos they made the decision to record videos on social networks to try to gain prominence, even if it was by satellite to the Council of Ministers. They did so with the approval in the second round, definitively by the Government, of the Family Law -which has been stranded due to the electoral call-; with the approval of the State Strategy for the Rights of Children and Adolescents; care permits; or aid to those affected by thalidomide.

From the beginning, the bet in the presidential complex was for Sumar, urging Podemos to integrate into the space of Yolanda Díaz. Sánchez considers that the relationship with his current second vice president will be better now that she is the leader than until now when Podemos was the reference party. Hence, in recent days the socialist candidate has recovered the idea that he will do a tandem with Díaz and the purples have long since been amortized.

Despite the fact that on Saturday he invoked the possibility of an “Andalusian” majority of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo now warns that if there is no concentration of the vote, the right is in danger of not adding the majority. And if the right does not add up, Pedro Sánchez will not let him govern, even if he wins, says Feijóo.

“That is why we need to unite the vote, and the only ballot that guarantees a change in Spain is that of the PP, there is no other,” he insisted.. “My main problem at the moment is not the PSOE, it is that in the provinces where we are playing 3-1 we can really get three seats for the PP and one for the PSOE,” he stressed.

In other words, “concentrate the vote of all those who do not want Sánchez to continue on a PP ballot. That is a useful vote, that is change”, has finished off the argument.

For Feijóo, anything reaching 150 seats is “extraordinary”, and he does not resign himself to achieving even more.

On the other hand, Feijóo has recognized his “inaccuracy” about the revaluation of pensions: “There were years in which they were not updated according to the CPI and others in which they were updated above the CPI”.

“That's all: there was a party that froze pensions, the PSOE, and another that always revalued them, the Popular Party,” he added.. If he says “something that is not correct is not the result of a lie but of inaccuracy”

At this point, he added that he does not want “the lie” to be installed in Spanish politics and believes that when politicians make mistakes they must rectify. Which, in his opinion, Pedro Sánchez does not do. Not even José Félix Tezanos, has added. In fact, it has announced that it will audit the CIS.

After that, he has promised the revaluation according to the CPI “and guarantee the sustainability of pensions”, which is currently threatened by “many tensions” in the medium term. And the only solution, he said, is for the economy to grow and the number of Social Security contributors to increase.

Guillermo Fernández Vara is not leaving politics. If there is a total collapse of Pedro Sánchez, some voices within the PSOE place him as the new Javier Fernández, that is, in the person of consensus in the ranks of the party to temporarily lead the organization until an extraordinary congress is called. The intention is that, from his experience and being a person who does not arouse misgivings in any of the sectors of the PSOE, he tries to sew up the wounds that, if they occur, would arrive between sanchismo and post-sanchismo.

The first step towards this has already been taken. The next legislature will be in Madrid. The Socialist Parliamentary Group has confirmed this Tuesday that it will propose the current secretary general of the Extremadura PSOE and former president of the Board for 12 years as a senator by autonomous designation in plenary session to be held this Thursday in the Assembly of Extremadura.

In this way, the baron from Extremadura will not return to his forensic position as announced the day after the regional elections, when in full mourning he declared the elections lost, considering that the agreement between PP and Vox for governability would be much easier of what then happened until the definitive agreement, weeks later and in the midst of a strong controversy, between María Guardiola and the formation of Santiago Abascal. A telephone call from Pedro Sánchez to Vara himself, after the president of the government brought forward the general elections that same Monday, made him back down.. Days later, when Guardiola even bet – after losing the presidency of the Assembly Table – for a probable electoral repetition, Fernández Vara himself presented his candidacy for the investiture of the Board, although the sum with United We Can did not give him for it .

What was clear to him, even before the elections, is that if he did not repeat his political cycle in his autonomous community as president of Extremadura, it would have ended. He was not going to lead the opposition, as he did, not without internal problems, when he was defeated by José Antonio Monago in 2011 and then reversed the situation and won again in 2015.

Vara, who has announced that he will go to live in Badajoz after leaving the official residence of the Presidency in Mérida on Monday, will also have to manage his succession within his party in Extremadura, which is expected to be a complicated replacement after 15 years to the front of it. With several candidates on the exit ramp, he has already stated that he would not like his successor to be chosen by a primary system, which is why he advocates a single consensus candidacy for a regional congress that is expected to take place next fall.. He even launched the following notice last week: “If someone tries to boss it, it is clear.”

The president of the Badajoz Provincial Council, Miguel Ángel Gallardo; the former Minister of Health, José María Vergeles; the president of the Assembly, Blanca Martín; the mayor of Mérida, Antonio Rodríguez Osuna; or Lara Garlito, deputy secretary general of the PSOE of Extremadura, are the main names that are being considered, to this day, for the succession.

PELAYO GORDILLO, FROM VOX, WILL ALSO BE AN AUTONOMOUS SENATOR

On the other hand, and as they had agreed in the investiture pact between PP and Vox for María Guardiola to become president of Extremadura, this Thursday it will also become official that Ángel Pelayo Gordillo, who was the candidate of Abascal's party in Extremadura, and who is a deputy in the Assembly, is the member of Vox who in turn holds the position of senator by autonomous designation, a position that the PP ceded to Vox so that the investiture agreement could be formalized.

Watch thieves have also reached the most touristic areas of the Sierra. A 70-year-old woman was the victim of the theft of a Rolex valued at around 13,000 euros when she was walking last Sunday at noon near the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. A young woman violently snatched her wig while she was walking around noon along the famous Paseo de Carlos III. Then, she ran out and got into a car that was waiting for her a few meters away..

The events occurred around 11:50 a.m. on Sunday, July 16.. The victim was walking towards the Monastery of El Escorial and a woman approached him from behind.. “He overtook me and in a friendly tone he walked towards me asking me if I had clothes for the parish. I replied that I had a lot of clothes and, at that moment, he came even closer and asked if I could give him my phone number,” the victim said.

Next, the thief grabbed the septuagenarian's arm with both hands.. “He began to struggle, I yelled at him to let go of me. He unfastened my watch, took it from me and ran off,” continued the assaulted woman.. The thief fled and went to a car that was parked very close.. He got into the vehicle and they left the place.. The complainant was not able to see the driver of that car.

The woman, who did not suffer any type of injury, denounced the events at the Civil Guard barracks. The Rolex that was taken from him is an Oyster Perpetual model with a pink dial and a white gold crown.. According to the agents, it is valued at about 13,000 euros.

The Civil Guard investigates the assault and tries to identify the thug, a well-dressed woman with an accent from an Eastern European country and who spoke to the complainant in a polite manner until she committed the robbery. He is about 25 years old, 1.60 meters tall and was wearing green pants and a yellow shirt. It also inquires if there are security cameras on the site to be able to locate those involved.

Last week the Civil Guard and the National Police arrested in Madrid a gang dedicated to the violent robbery of watches that used the key of the mataleón for their blows, a very different method from that used by this woman who tried to gain the trust of the victim before the assault. The detainees assaulted businessmen who left their jobs or homes, stealing their watches and cash. The Police searches were carried out in the Madrid towns of Parla and Ciempozuelos.

The Asian seaweed, the rise in fuel prices, the decline in species due to climate change and, now also, the closure of Moroccan fishing grounds have placed the Andalusian fishing fleet in a critical situation. The sum of adverse circumstances prevents many boats from going out to fish and supporting the families that live in the sector.

However, the aid authorized by the Government after the end of the agreement with Morocco, published in the BOE this Monday, barely reaches four vessels, which has led the Andalusian Government to point out an alleged comparative grievance.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has enabled aid, co-financed between the European Commission and the Government, for the ships and crew members affected by the end of the protocol, through the “temporary stop” line of the European Maritime Fund and the Fisheries (FEMP), with the aim of expediting the receipt of funds.

But not all the vessels that have fished in Moroccan waters in recent years have access to these subsidies, since many of them have already exhausted their right to receive funds from the European Union during the biological stops made.

The FEMP establishes that no vessel may receive co-financed aid for a period of more than 6 months within the framework of the plan's validity.. And most of the Andalusian ships have already exhausted them due to the temporary stops in the Gulf of Cádiz, which take place in December and January, as stated in the Management Plan for the Seine in the Gulf of Cádiz and approved every year in the sectoral conference, which brings together the Ministry and the autonomous communities.

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Carmen Crespo, lamented this Monday the “uncertainty and defenselessness” experienced by fishermen in the Gulf of Cádiz. “We have had up to 47 boats working in these waters in the past”, since it is one of the “traditional” fishing grounds for the Andalusian fleet.

Crespo recalls that the EU negotiation with Morocco could be delayed indefinitely, pending a ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union that clarifies whether the agreements signed in the past affect (in part) waters over which Morocco would not have jurisdiction, since they would depend on the Sahara.

The counselor insisted that many of the affected vessels already exhausted their rights in February. “Yes, they can receive this aid, on the contrary, the affected fishermen from Galicia and the Canary Islands, which means, according to the counselor, “putting our fishermen at a clear disadvantage.”

Crespo also demanded that the Government of Spain press both the European Union and Morocco, so that they work on a new fishing agreement so that, when the Court of Justice of the EU pronounces, the negotiation is already advanced.

The Government, for its part, recalls that Spain obtained 92 of the 128 licenses to fish in Moroccan waters, but only 21 boats (11 from Andalusia and 10 from the Canary Islands) requested a license in 2021 and 2022 or in 2023. In addition, only 11 fished for at least 20 days in the 2021 to 2023 triennium and meet the requirement set by the European Commission of not having received more than 180 days of aid for temporary stoppage in the FEMP period (2014 to 2023).. Therefore, the boats that can make use of this aid due to the end of the fishing protocol are only 7 from the Canary Islands and 4 from Andalusia.

The Government is studying, however, other State aid to compensate more vessels affected by the end of the protocol, including 6 from Andalusia, which have fished for more than 20 days between 2021 and 2023, but have already received the aid cap per stop, charged to European funds, of 180 days.

According to the representatives of the sector, the lack of fish in the fishing ground and the high price of fuel, among other circumstances, have meant that the fishing agreement between the EU and Morocco has not been profitable in this last cycle for the fishing boats in the Cadiz towns. from Barbate and Conil de la Frontera. Hence, the number of vessels that fish in Moroccan waters has been declining in recent years, as the Ministry has verified.

«In 2019, 3,700,000 euros of Moroccan fish were sold at the Barbate market. In 2022 the figure dropped to 240,000 and in 2023 only 20,000 euros have been sold”, explains Inés Foncubierta, manager of the organization that brings together fishing boats from the Cadiz town of Barbate, in statements to EFE.

In fact, none of the boats that had even paid the license for this last quarter has come to fish in Moroccan waters in recent weeks. “If before, diesel cost 3,000 euros to go to fish in Morocco, now it is 50% more expensive and the price of fish is the same,” adds Foncubierta. Added to the rise in costs is the scarcity of fish due to the overpopulation of tuna, which are tough competition for fishing boats, since measures were taken to recover them in the area.

In addition, “the Moroccan fleet has been growing”, explains Nicolás Fernández, secretary of the Federation of Fishermen's Associations of Cádiz and manager of the Organization of Artisanal Fisheries Producers of Conil, who also points out that the Moroccan fleet is not obliged to do the two months of biological shutdown that European ships do have to respect.

The court of the National Court that has judged the murder of the president of the PP of Aragon Manuel Giménez Abad has agreed on Tuesday the release of the accused ETA member Miren Itxaso Zaldua, who has been in provisional prison since May 2020.

The court explains that it adopts the decision “in view of what was agreed in relation to said defendant”, which means that the First Section magistrates consider that there is insufficient evidence to convict Sahatsa.

In its final report submitted to the court on Monday, the Prosecutor's Office stated that it had “no doubt” that the two defendants were responsible for the murder of the popular leader.

The prosecutor in the case claimed for herself and Asier Carrera Sarobe, Ata, 30 years in prison for terrorist murder. After serving a sentence in France, the now released prisoner was in prison only for this cause. This same Tuesday he will be released.

The Chamber has not made any decision regarding the other accused and his situation does not allow deducing what the sentence will be for him. Ata is in prison serving firm sentences, so, unlike the ETA member, the court does not need to order his release if he has opted for acquittal.

In view of the development of the trial, the evidence of Ata's alleged participation in the murder presented by the Prosecutor's Office was more solid than those referred to his partner in a terrorist band. Mainly because of the recognition of eyewitnesses, among them the son of the assassin, who accompanied him to soccer when in May 2001 he was shot in the back.

There were also recognitions against Sahatsa, questioned by the defense, as well as a handwritten note that according to the Public Ministry directly linked her to the attack.

The sentence that the Chamber notifies in the coming days will not be final, since both defenses and accusations – the family and Dignity and Justice also intervened – may appeal to the Supreme Court.

That of Giménez Abad was one of the almost 400 unsolved ETA attacks. If Ata is not finally convicted either, it is very likely that he will never leave that list.