Vox faces decisive weeks for the future of the party and its internal control. The formation celebrates its General Assembly this Saturday, in which the leadership proposes to reform the statutes to strengthen the power of the leadership against those who “damage the public image” of the party or who, in the case of municipal or regional groups, do not comply with the “instructions” marked as the road map by Bambú.

But in the Vox calendar, not only is Saturday highlighted. There is practically a month left for the party to look at the most crucial elections in which it has participated to date, and in which it hopes, as is happening in numerous territories and municipalities, to have the key to governance for the right.

Earlier, just this week, the deadline for the presentation of lists to Congress and the Senate closed, and both the absences and the presences evidenced the direction that Vox is taking, or at least the one that its leaders are taking a year after the symbolic ones. elections in Andalusia and at the gates of the elections in which Santiago Abascal and his people are risking the work of a decade, while they pressure the Popular Party to access as many regional and local governments as possible.

At this point, who is in charge at Vox? How many currents does the party have? How much do its historical leaders weigh in the organization chart today? Who advises Abascal in his hard core? Who and why disappears from the future plans of the training? What figures should you pay attention to next July 23? The following 15 faces will not be, perhaps, the best known or most decisive, nor the most popular in the Vox, but they will be the fundamental ones to know what has happened, what is happening and what 23-J will bring in the party that keeps the most silence on its doors inside our country.

SANTIAGO ABASCAL: THE LEADER WHO RECOVERS FOCUS

Less than 10 years ago, he broke with the PP by letter after two decades of militancy, founded Vox and managed to go from 40,000 votes to four million in four years. Santiago Abascal stands as the undisputed leader of the party and complies with the hyper-leadership traits that characterize the formations of the new politics. Anyone who knows him highlights his balance and middle ground between the various families that make up Vox's organic scheme, hence no one doubts his continuity. In recent times, it has significantly verticalized the structure of Vox and, in the short term, it has recovered a significant media presence to try to stop the rise of Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

IGNACIO GARRIGA: THE WINNER OF THE 28-M

Within the euphoria that shook Vox on the election night of May 28, there was a smile that stood out above the rest.. Ignacio Garriga, from Barcelona, premiered his management as general secretary of Vox in style after the change in November by Javier Ortega Smith after the Olona case. His arrival at the top of the party reinforced the hard wing of Vox and shielded the Catalan current with a man, a spokesman in Parliament but trained in Congress, who is now, in addition to Abascal's trusted person, the spearhead of the party in a territory as crucial as Catalonia.

JORGE BUXADÉ: THE CONTROL OF VOX IN THE SHADOW

His presence in Mérida this week destabilized to the point of breaking the negotiation with the PP of María Guardiola. Vox Vice President of Political Action and leader of the delegation in Brussels, Jorge Buxadé has become the man who controls the party in the shadows and who, indirectly, has gained organic power in recent times.. First with the rise of Ignacio Garriga and the weakening of Iván Espinosa de los Monteros and Rocío Monasterio; later with the departure of the most liberal profiles from the lists to 23-J. From a Falangist past, it was rumored with his candidacy for Congress. For the moment, he will remain as an MEP and as a spokesman for the formation, of whose hard core he is a part.

JAVIER ORTEGA SMITH: IN THE BACKGROUND AFTER THE 'OLONA CASE'

He was already the most pointed out for many charges, but the hurricane in which the departure of Macarena Olona led ended up knocking him down. Javier Ortega Smith, once one of Santiago Abascal's most trusted, was removed from party control last November and sent to a vice-presidency. He will continue as a councilor in the Madrid City Council and as a deputy, although he has also given up several positions on the list: he goes from two to four for Madrid, proof of the loss of power of one of the first great leaders of Vox.

IVÁN ESPINOSA DE LOS MONTEROS: GIVES POWER IN CONGRESS

The preparation of the lists, more due to absences than presences, denotes the important transfer of Iván Espinosa de los Monteros to other more conservative sectors of the party. The departure of various liberal deputies weakens the parliamentary group project led by Espinosa de los Monteros this legislature and strengthens the toughest sector of the party, which until now played a more testimonial role in the Lower House. Without great organic weight, the land controlled by Iván Espinosa de los Monteros runs the risk of shrinking. The polls also predict that the parliamentary group will lose some muscle on July 23.

ROCÍO MONASTERIO: IN THE AIR FOR A LONG TIME

The figure of Rocío Monasterio is key to understanding the history of Vox and its success to date, but the different internal struggles and the recent electoral results lead the party leader in the Madrid Assembly to an uncomfortable scenario.. After the absolute majority of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, with whom she staged a loud break after not supporting her budgets, the continuity of Monasterio was left up in the air. It was speculated that a jump to Congress has not arrived and, like Ortega Smith, has been overshadowed and in no man's land.

ENRIQUE CABANAS: THE DISCREET RIGHT HAND OF ABASCAL

The very small hard core of Santiago Abascal has familiar faces, such as Jorge Buxadé, and other unrecognizable but deeply influential ones, such as Enrique Cabanas. He has accompanied Abascal since the founding of Vox and is his right hand in making organic decisions. It was he, for example, who recently transferred by telephone several deputies who would not continue the next legislature in Vox.

KIKO MÉNDEZ-MONASTERIO: THE STRONG BAMBOO NEGOTIATOR

In Bambú, the headquarters of Vox, everyone points to the same person when the negotiations arrive: Kiko Méndez-Monasterio (in the image, on the right).. It is the other shadow of Abascal in his cabinet. He was in charge of personally negotiating with the Mazón PP the only pact that Vox has managed to forge with the popular after 28-M, and he coordinates the talks with other territories. He opted for Juan-García Gallardo and created the party model that Vox is today.

MARÍA RUIZ: THE NEW 'NUMBER TWO' FOR MADRID

The more than symbolic second place for Madrid on the lists has gone to the current party organization secretary, María Ruiz, who came to this position after the organic crisis that separated Tomás Fernández, Javier Ortega Smith's right-hand man, who also passed from secretary general to vice president. Ruiz electorally replaces, by the way, Ortega Smith, who falls to number four on the list for Madrid.

IGNACIO HOCES: The incipient adviser to the vox leadership

Extremadura has had an unexpected protagonist in recent days: Ignacio Hoces has not only closely supervised the failed negotiations between the PP and Vox to reach the Junta, but has also become the head of the list for Badajoz to Congress, replacing the historic Victor Sanchez del Real. Hoces, very close to Abascal, whom he regularly advises, occupies the vice-secretary for Institutions of the party.

RUBÉN MANSO: The liberal who created the economic plan

Vox's economic discourse, especially from its beginnings until 2020, had the seal of Rubén Manso, inspector of the Bank of Spain and deputy for Malaga this past legislature. Of a liberal nature, he became Abascal's economic spokesman during the takeoff years of the formation, and passed to a second row after the conservative turn of the party. “Committing an injustice is worse than suffering it,” he said after failing to appear on the lists.

AGUSTÍN ROSETY: Destined for the foundation of Vox

He was one of Vox's most veteran parliamentarians and one of the first to announce that he would not repeat 23-J on the lists. Agustín Rosety, a retired Marine Infantry general, is no longer the head of the list for Cádiz, although the party has found a place for him in the Vox foundation, Disenso, of which he will be an honorary patron. Another former Vox soldier, Manuel Mestre, until now a deputy for Alicante, will not repeat his candidacy either.

VÍCTOR SÁNCHEZ DEL REAL: THE IDEOLOGIST WHO LOST TRUST

The absence of Víctor Sánchez del Real, deputy for Badajoz, on the lists has been the most striking. Ideologue of the Andalusian campaign that in 2018 raised Vox to national success and an expert in political communication, he was one of the most trusted people in the leadership but in recent times he lost the support of the leadership. He is part of the group of parliamentarians from the most liberal side of Vox who will not repeat in these elections.

MIREIA BORRÁS: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ONE OF THE BETS

The departure of Macarena Olona from Congress opened the way for other deputies to gain weight in Congress. One of them was Mireia Borrás, who was in seventh place on the Madrid list and ended up being one of the most media-ready parliamentarians. Of the highest confidence of Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, he was spokesman for energy matters in the Lower House. Vox relegates her to eleventh place on the list for the capital, which significantly complicates her getting a seat.

MACARENA OLONA: THE SHADOW THAT CHASES VOX

Just one year has passed since the Andalusian elections that led, a month later, to the departure of Macarena Olona from Vox and her subsequent confrontation with the party leadership. His goodbye is today the most traumatic crisis that the formation has experienced, and the current structure of the Vox executive responds to the changes that were made after his accusations of lack of internal democracy and even alleged irregularities.. Now he plans to appear in Granada with his new political formation, Caminando Juntos. He hopes to steal votes from Vox, although in the party they are calm although sorry, they tell in private, due to the drift of what was one day one of the main faces of Vox. His successor on the lists for Granada, coincidentally, will be one of the ideologues of his campaign in Andalusia, Coco Robatto.

Mónica García de Yzaguirre is one of the six members of the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association that in 2021 led the “partisan” blockade of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), an instance that this Thursday sided with the appellants. This magistrate, assigned to the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, shows her satisfaction in an interview with EL MUNDO.

How do you assess the ruling of the Strasbourg Court? Very positively because it is not an individual claim even though we are six colleagues who have formulated the claim, but rather it is a claim by a group, by the entire Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association (AJFV) , where we have tried to have a pronouncement from a European institution on the violation of a right to Spanish judges by our own constitutional institutions, after the tremendous situation that we have been experiencing for almost five years with the blockade of the Council. What does this condemnation of Spain mean for the rule of law? It is very important because we have forgotten the enormous enthusiasm with which the Constitution was created in our country after 40 years of dictatorship and we are no longer defending the constitutional bodies. In this case, there has been an absolute failure on the part of the Constitutional Court to carry out this task of contrasting with the Constitution and preserving those constitutional values. What do you think that throughout this Legislature the political forces have not reached an agreement to renew the CGPJ? It is very serious. The rights that are conquered must be defended day by day. We cannot think that Spain has a democracy because in 1978 a Constitution was approved. We are seeing how there is a democratic involution in many countries, including European. What this situation of blockade of the Council is reflecting is that our parliamentarians and political parties are capable of breaking the Constitution year after year without there being a reaction of rejection from society in general and without the Constitutional Court having reacted in this regard.. We are facing an anomalous and extraordinary situation of a flagrant constitutional breach. The separation of powers seeks to ensure that there is no political manipulation in a State power, the Judiciary, which must enjoy sufficient independence to be able to protect the rights of citizens.

We are seeing how there is a democratic involution in many countries

After almost five years of blockade, where does the solution go to renew the Council? From the AJFV we think that the Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ) should be reformed and return to the original constitutional idea that they be active judges and magistrates those who can choose from among this group the members of judicial extraction of the Council. It is important that this reform takes place and that the election of the governing body of the judges is made in accordance with the modification of the LOPJ. As a member of the Judiciary, tell me what consequences this political blockade on the CGPJ has for the Administration of Justice. There is a stoppage of the project for Justice and there has been a legal modification in 2021 that has deprived the Council of a series of powers that it has been constitutionally assigned, including the appointment of discretionary positions. People may not know it but all those appointments that are left to be made are of people who put many sentences in the Supreme Court or in the High Courts of Justice to resolve the claims of the defendant. The Strasbourg ruling is merely declarative. With this sentence in hand, do you have room to take any legal action in Spain? It is something that we will meditate on within the association. In my opinion, I believe that once it is so clearly stated that the Constitutional Court has ruled unreasonably, by rejecting our amparo appeal, perhaps with this ruling we can now get the guarantee body to accept an admission from our demand.

The controversy and doubts surrounding the tragedy of the Melilla fence have not faded but have grown a year after 23 migrants -according to the official figure and 37, according to NGOs- died at the border crossing while trying to reach Europe. The jump to the fence early in the morning of June 24, 2022 was dynamite for the Ministry of Fernando Grande-Marlaska. What happened there attracted the attention of Europe, the world media and inflamed the NGOs and all the opposition parties.

Five months later, the BBC added insult to injury in the worst possible way: a documentary placed some deceased migrants in an area under Spanish control.. To this day, the number of people who lost their lives remains unknown.. During this time, Grande-Marlaska has always tried to distance the tragedy from his Ministry and tear down any alternative construction to his story – shared by the Civil Guard – that there were no deaths on the Spanish side and that the police action took place based on the legality.

The Minister of the Interior has also had to face the Ombudsman – who accused him of illegal and massive deportations -, the insistence of the European Parliament for him to appear and explain what happened and the contempt of humanitarian organizations. In the middle, the civil guards in charge of guarding the border. Twelve months later, they reflect on a drama that, they warn, will repeat itself “when Morocco wants”. Their years of experience lead them to that conclusion.. They know how the Alaouite kingdom works and also the determination of the migrants to reach Europe.

“They are going to keep coming, they are going to keep trying to cross the fence because they are desperate.. They have not traveled 3,000 kilometers in Africa to return home at the gates of Europe”, reasons one of them.. At this time, says another of the agents consulted, they have evidence that there are 1,500 migrants in Mount Gurugú, the redoubt in which they take refuge before trying to violate the fence. They regret that what happened on June 24, 2022 has not served the Interior to take note. «We continue exactly the same as a year ago. Without the means, neither material nor human, to face another avalanche of these characteristics”, they complain.

They denounce that the broken shields that day have not been repaired and that the riot helmets announced by the minister after the events did not arrive either. “We continue with the same teams as 30 years ago,” they lament. “We feel abandoned by the hand of God,” they conclude.

“Nothing has changed”

Among the agents of the staff of border agents there is resentment. “At first it was all shows of support. The minister comes a lot but at the moment of truth nothing has changed. Things continue exactly at the same point and here, we all know from our own experience, that Morocco rules. When he wants to punish Spain, he will return to allowing a massive jump ». At the time of the avalanche, they specify, there were only five guards to contain the more than 2,000 people who were trying to reach Spain. The border crossing experienced an episode of extreme violence.

The assault showed that nothing has changed in the structure of border control. The agents had to contain the crowd with the same riot gear as 30 years ago, despite the Ministry's announcement after the border debacle that had occurred in March. At that time, there were 16 civil guards watching the fence and, as happened in March 2022 – when the most massive assault in history on the Melilla fence was recorded with 2,500 people in an avalanche in what was the fourth massive attempt that the Civil Guard had to repel in six days. A total of 800 migrants made it (4,300 tried) and practically all of them have already applied for asylum – that turned into a pitched battle between those who wanted to enter Spain and the agents in charge of guarding the border.. There were 50 Civil Guard and National Police officers injured and 23 migrants dead, according to official data.. Shortly after, the Ministry of the Interior caused a monumental storm in the Civil Guard -especially among the agents who monitor the fence of Melilla- with the sudden dismissal of the head of the city Command. Jesús Vicente Torresano was removed from the Melilla Command after staging his differences with the General Directorate of the Armed Institute weeks after being appointed.

According to Corps sources, Torresano wanted to implement specific instructions so that the agents could act under the law against the migrants who attacked them in successive jumps over the fence and refused to open an information file on the civil guards who threw stones at the sub-Saharans who wanted to reach Spain on June 24.

Jucil's communication secretary, Agustín Leal, describes a chronic situation. “This Administration and the Ministry continue to neglect security and the consequences are paid in the first instance by the civil guards and then by the population.. We ask that national and EU legislation on immigration matters be applied because that will mitigate the so-called effect. It is not acceptable that any person who accesses our territory illegally and through unauthorized points is authorized to process asylum.” .

One month before the general elections on July 23, there is still no debate schedule. Pedro Sánchez's proposal to celebrate six face to face with Alberto Núñez Feijóo never had any sign of materializing. The PP's reply, which raised a debate against “the government coalition”, did not. Yolanda Díaz will not give up her space to Pedro Sánchez to speak on behalf of Moncloa and the PSOE does not accept the three-way format that would also include the vice president. Vox, in addition, would resort to this type of debate before the Central Electoral Board which, in view of the precedents, would have to agree with the party of Santiago Abascal.

The example of the year 2019 closes the door to a confrontation between the leaders of PSOE, PP and Sumar, with Vox out of contention. In the general elections of April of that year, Antena 3 raised a five-way debate between PSOE, PP, Ciudadanos, Unidas Podemos and Vox, despite the fact that the latter party still did not have any representation in the Congress of Deputies. The presence of Vox, to whom the polls already predicted a strong irruption, tried to justify itself by claiming its status as a “significant political group” that applies to parties that, having not presented themselves in the previous general elections, or not having obtained sufficient results , if they have exceeded 5% of the votes in subsequent regional elections. Vox had achieved 10.96% in the Andalusian elections of 2018, but the electoral legislation emphasizes that this criterion is only valid for debates “in the territorial scope of the broadcast medium”. That is to say, it would have been accepted if the debate had only been broadcast in Andalusia, and not in all of Spain as was intended.

The Central Electoral Board then addressed the appeals against the debate of formations such as the PNV, Junts or the Canary Islands Coalition, which demanded their presence at the meeting for having had a better result than Vox in the 2016 general elections.. “It is appropriate to estimate the resources and declare that the debate to five proposed by Atresmedia is contrary to the principle of proportionality that must be respected by private television stations during electoral periods,” the JEC decided then, in a ruling confirmed two years later by the Court Supreme.

The decision of the Central Electoral Board forced Antena 3 to modify its debate proposal, which ended up being held on April 23, 2019 only with Pedro Sánchez, Pablo Casado, Albert Rivera and Pablo Iglesias. The day before, the candidates had already seen each other on RTVE, although public television had previously maneuvered to make their debate coincide with that of Atresmedia. The proposal was endorsed by Pedro Sánchez, who was attacked by his rivals for trying to reduce the campaign to a single debate.

The Electoral Board based its decision on an Instruction from 2011, which is still in force, and which recognizes the right of private television stations to “decide freely on the opportunity to organize or broadcast interviews or debates”. But, he qualifies, if they do so, “they must take into account in particular the results obtained by each political formation in the last equivalent elections.”

other formats

In this way, no debate could include Yolanda Díaz as a representative of the Sumar coalition without also including Abascal.. Face-to-face debates, four-way debates or debates with more political formations could be held, but never excluding Vox, the third political force in the country, to favor other formations that were below their 2019 result.

Currently there is consensus between the parties in holding a four-way debate with PSOE, PP, Vox and Sumar. And most agree to celebrate another seven, proposed by RTVE, which also includes ERC, the PNV and EH Bildu. The PP has already affirmed that it accepts at least one face to face with Pedro Sánchez, who this Thursday again urged to close a definitive date, but the popular ones will have to predictably rethink the proposed format. Vox has denounced the JEC the intention to hold these debates face to face, although the electoral body has rejected its claim as none have been officially announced.

Friday, June 24, 2022. It's been six in the morning when a jump to the fence is taking place at the border crossing in Barrio Chino, in Melilla, closed since March 2020 due to Covid. In the jump, according to Amnesty International and the Spanish Commission

The union organizations CSIF, ACAIP-UGT and TAMPM-Daroca, have denounced irregularities in the vote by mail of the union elections held on June 20 in the General administration of the state in the province of Zaragoza and specifically in the polling station of the center Daroca penitentiary.

When carrying out the scrutiny, according to these unions, a duplication in voting by mail and other alleged irregularities has been detected, which leads to the suspicion that an alleged “fixing” could have been produced in the processing of these votes by the CCOO.

“Some voters may have been supplanted and therefore violated their right to vote,” they warn. The signatory organizations consider that “it makes no sense” for the Administration to admit these votes when there are obvious irregularities.

“The Government Delegation of Zaragoza has summoned the union organizations without reaction time for the meeting in which the challenge of these votes must be resolved. Less than 16 hours in advance It cannot be admitted that an electoral process is adulterated by an allegedly fraudulent processing of the vote by an organization like the CCOO”, they have insisted.

These union organizations refuse to allow the coordinating table to admit these allegedly fraudulent votes and, if applicable, clarify that they will act legally before arbitration and the social jurisdiction

The Investigating Court number 8 of Vilanova i la Geltrú close to the mayoress of Sitges, Aurora Carbonell (ERC), and other members of the City Council of this town for alleged corruption in the award of services and subsidies to entities of the same family. According to court documents, to which this medium has had access, the investigators point out that the 13 defendants, among whom would be the 11 arrested this Wednesday and who were released with charges, had allegedly committed the crimes of prevarication and embezzlement between 2017 and 2021 by authorizing “multiple minor contracts absent from the secretary's legal report, when according to the applicable legislation it would be mandatory.”

In this way, the court indicates that “throughout the investigation, it has been verified that the Sitges City Council continuously awards minor contracts, presumably without due motivation or merely concise and lacking the minimum argumentation to appreciate said need for contracting “. These awards “have gone to favor the same entities and suppliers, all of them related to each other”, according to the court, since they make up a married couple and their two children who appear as managers or employees of associations such as Taula del Tercer Sector de Sitges, which between 2018 and 2021 he received close to 330,000 euros for gardening work and beach cleaning by the Consistory.

In addition, they also created other cooperative societies in which they received subsidies and awards.. The investigators point out that these contracts were below the legal limit, 15,000 euros, “although for this they would have opted for a fractionation to avoid exceeding the legally established threshold and that, taking into account the object and nature of the contract, it had been mandatory to be subject to of the timely tender”. The court indicates that these providers allegedly “presented invoices with periods of provision of services prior to the effective formalization of the corresponding contracts, in such a way that once the service was provided, months later the contract would be signed without being informed of its nature as emergency”.

Thus, the investigators indicate that the suspects divided the amount of the contract that is adjusted to the quantitative limit of the minor contract, the principles of publicity and free competition that must be present in administrative contracting were dispensed with, the services were granted to the same entities and they provided as justification for the subsidies “false documentation” or that corresponds to “personal uses” such as “invoices for private household appliances or purchases of products for domestic use” that was accepted “by those responsible for the managing bodies and the city council of Sitges”.

The court indicates that one of the members of the investigated family allegedly received “donations for 'food, hygiene and to emancipate oneself' and for his work as a volunteer”, in addition to being hired by the Taula Tercer Sector. In addition, the City Council gave them land to make “emotional orchards” the entity invoiced the maintenance of the land or improvements such as the electrical installation “. “As far as the Sitges City Council is concerned, and from where the annual subsidies that are granted by the direct concession agreement proceed, during the investigated period there are numerous minor contracts in favor of the entities” investigated that “with identical concepts , usual and predictable should have been tendered”.

Intervention Alert

On the other hand, in the open judicial procedure there are reports from the Sitges City Council Controller for the years 2018 to 2021 in which she warned of a possible irregular division of the contracts awarded to the Taula association of the Sitges Third Sector. This is stated in a document on minor contracting and possible divisions of that period that was delivered to the plenary session of the City Council in April 2022 by a municipal auditor who left office a few days later.

The report, to which Efe had access, monitors the years 2018 to 2021 and warns that in the four years there was a possible division of the contracts awarded to the cooperative, which charged 45,000 a year under an agreement signed with the City Council of Sitges and, on the other hand, between 20,000 and 40,000 for different garden maintenance tasks or beach cleaning and the toilets installed on them.

Due to the amount of the contracts and because they are “recurring benefits”, the Comptroller considers that these services should have been the subject of a bidding process through an open procedure. In addition, it recommends “analyzing whether the required expense actually corresponds to a subsidy or if it is a provision of services that may be subject to bidding” and urges “financial control of the agreement to be able to conclude to that effect”.

The document indicates that in 2018 the Sitges Third Sector Taula received 98,996 euros, 48,950 of them for the agreement and the rest for various contracts of a maximum of 18,000 euros, the limit established by law to consider them minor. In 2019, it received 60,736 euros, of which 45,000 corresponded to the agreement and the rest to minor contracts, in 2020 a total of 80,480 (45,000 from the agreement and minor contracts) and in 2021 a total of 88,347 (45,000 from the agreement plus minor contracts ).

The Intervention also identifies contracts with the association in which “the benefits, of a recurring nature and for the same services”, are carried out by natural persons, with the risk that the relationship with them “could end up being classified as an employment relationship”.. The Intervention also warns that in the minor contracts awarded by the consistory in the period analyzed “the legal report of the municipal secretary does not appear”, despite the fact that the Generalitat establishes that this document or at least a note of conformity is mandatory.

Operative “correct”

The court must receive the report from the Police on these awards based on the documentation obtained in the entries and records of this Thursday. Later, he will begin to summon the mayoress and the rest of the charged charges and municipal officials, who after their arrest did not want to testify before the police, to testify as investigated.. At the moment, only the couple who received the minor subsidies and contracts remain under arrest and will go to court this Friday.

The operation, which focuses on alleged irregularities in the awarding of subsidies granted to the Sitges cooperative and possible splitting of contracts, derives from a report from the National Police that, in part, is based on a report from the Intervention on the accounts of the consistory. The court indicated that for the moment no police report has been presented derived from the proceedings carried out on Wednesday.

The arrest of the mayoress generated a lot of controversy since ERC, her party, described that she suffered “the pain of the news” when she was arrested before the media. However, the senior judge of Barcelona, Cristina Ferrando, without knowing the case and appealing to her more than 20 years of judicial experience, indicated that the police operation was “absolutely correct from a technical point of view.”. The judge indicated that “all police forces are subject to constitutional measures” and that after an arrest those investigated can go to court or leave the police station on provisional release, as was the case with those arrested in Sitges.. “A priori it is not something strange, it is something absolutely common,” he said.

The Popular Party and Vox have reached an agreement for the election this Friday of the Table of the Cortes for the XI legislature. The agreement reached adheres to the constitution of the Table. Both parties “will continue without pause, but with discretion, in the search for an agreement on those issues that allow drawing up a governance agreement,” points out the formation of Santiago Abascal in a note released late Thursday on an agreement that they also confirm PP sources.

The PP negotiates against the clock and several gangs to be able to govern Aragon alone. The constitution, this Friday, of the Cortes and the election of the members of its Board is a key piece in the chess game that since last 28-M the popular disputed to ensure the investiture of Jorge Azcón and the formation of an Executive in which there is no Vox presence.

On Thursday, at the last minute, the PP and Vox reached an agreement that will allow the constitution of the Aragonese Parliament Board that will be chaired by the elected deputy of Vox, Marta Fernández. However, from Vox they were quick to point out that this pact does not presuppose for the moment that Santiago Abascal's party is going to facilitate the formation of a lone PP Executive chaired by Jorge Azcón.

The last offer that the candidate of the popular and winner of the elections without an absolute majority, Jorge Azcón, had raised, was to give Vox the first vice-presidency of the Aragonese Parliament. In exchange, those of Santiago Abascal should guarantee at least the abstention of their seven deputies in the investiture for which there is still no date and accept not to be part of the future government.

For Vox, this proposal was insufficient and it has kept up the pressure until the end, even leaving its support for the investiture of the PP candidate up in the air. Finally, the popular accepted last night to raise their offer offering Vox the presidency of the autonomous Parliament. That yes, reaching an agreement but without signing any document of joint points, as it did happen in the Balearic Islands. The popular sources consulted confirm that both parties are still negotiating a hypothetical external support from Vox to Azcón, but that the step taken on Thursday night is relevant for the progress of the talks.

Despite everything, the negotiations on the formation of the Government will continue. The popular candidate remains firm in his intention to form a government alone and, for now, Vox has not dropped its claim to be part of it. After the agreement reached, the sources consulted in the PP venture to predict a scenario similar to that of the Balearic Islands in which the popular Marga Prohens will be able to govern alone after ceding the presidency of Parliament to Vox

Azcón has negotiated in recent days with the PAR (one deputy) and with Teruel Existe (three representatives). The popular ones have the support of the former and the more than likely abstention of the latter, but to have the investiture fully guaranteed they also need at least the abstention of Vox.

two possible pathways

Azcón has before him two possible ways to carry out the investiture: agree with Vox and exceed the absolute majority with 35 seats, which would ensure that he will be sworn in in the first round or obtain the support of the PAR and the abstention of Teruel Existe and Vox ; In this way, he could be sworn in in the second round with 29 votes in favor, compared to 28 against the left bloc, and ten abstentions.

In both cases Vox stands as the inescapable protagonist. As its leader, Santiago Abascal, announced during the campaign, the party has so far claimed a presence in governments that need their votes to invest the PP candidate. In the case of Aragon, the example of what happened in Extremadura, where the elections will foreseeably have to be repeated, has loomed over the entire negotiation. After last night's pact, doubts are beginning to be cleared up in the popular ranks and they are betting on a lone Executive.