The configuration of the 23-J lists has forced an urgent remodeling of the Galician Government, the first since Alfonso Rueda took over from Alberto Nuñez Feijóo at the helm. The candidacies for the generals include two of the advisers who, along with Rueda, formed the hard core of the PP leader and, with his signing, he ensures that he surrounds himself in Madrid with two people of his utmost confidence and anticipates possible names for a future Government if the polls give a right-wing Presidency.

They leave the Galician Government Francisco Conde, until now first vice president, who heads the list of the PP to Congress for Lugo, and Rosa Quintana, responsible for Mar and now number 2 for Ourense. Both were key pieces of the Government and Rosa Quintana had even had in her portfolio since the first Feijóo Government in 2009, 14 years of experience as a manager that made her, together with Rueda, the oldest in the Xunta de Galicia.

With his jump to the Congress of Deputies, Rueda has been forced to make a change of cards with five movements and the rise of the leader from A Coruña, Diego Calvo, who joined the Government with the march of Feijóo and now rises to first vice president and responsible of the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Sports.

Another change comes with Ángeles Vázquez, until now responsible for the Environment, Territory and Housing and who from now on will add a new competence, second vice presidency. She will be the first woman in the position.

Conde's march distributes its powers between Diego Calvo (the first vice-presidency) and María Jesús Lorenzana, until now responsible for Employment and who is going to assume the area of Economy.

two new faces

When Rueda took over from Feijóo in 2022, he only incorporated Diego Calvo into his Executive and now he adds two new faces to his team, Alfonso Villares, until now mayor of Cervo (Lugo) in Mar and Elena Rivo in Employment Promotion and Equality.

With a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Villares practiced that profession between 1996 and 2007 and since 1995 he has been part of the Cervo Corporation, first as a councilor and since 2007 as mayor. He won by an absolute majority for five consecutive terms and was re-elected on May 28, although he will no longer take office.. He is also First Vice President of the Galician Federation of Municipalities and Provinces.

Graduated in Economic and Business Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid, where she received the extraordinary career award, Elena Rivo has been a professor and researcher in the Department of Business Organization and Marketing at the University of Vigo since 1999 and is currently the vice-rector of the Campus of Ourense from the University of Vigo. In the political sphere, she was deputy mayor, head of the Economy and Finance area in the Ourense City Council between 2003 and 2007.

The Galician Government is completed by Miguel Corgos López-Prado in Finance and Public Administration; Ethel Vázquez in Infrastructures and Mobility; Román Rodríguez in Culture, Education, Vocational Training and Universities; Julio García Comesaña in Health; Fabiola García Martínez in Social Policy and Youth; and José González Vázquez in Rural Environment.

Villahermosa is a neighborhood on the outskirts of Cartagena de Indias that does not respond to its name. Sandy streets that are muddy during the nine months of rain that lasts the wet season in Colombia, houses built with remains of wood and sheet metal roofs. Of course, all distributed in a perfect Spanish grid. In the midst of all this misery, Doris perfectly remembers the day in 2019 when a tap, for the first time, gave water in her house.. Single mother of two teenagers, with half her body paralyzed by heart disease, she still gets emotional and looks at the sky while recounting this miracle.. Before, it was not easy for her: she walked for more than two hours every day carrying 20-liter drums to bring water to her loved ones..

Villahermosa, a neighborhood of 6,400 inhabitants, has the luxury of water in their homes thanks to the Spanish Cooperation. Do you remember the first day you turned on a faucet? The first to fill your bathtub? This is a novelty in much of Colombia. The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation allocated more than 7 million euros in the Expansion program of the El Bosque Water Treatment Plant and Supply in the neighborhoods of the southwestern area of Cartagena de Indias. It has been five years of work to ensure that families obtain the dignity provided by drinking water. Because they survived thanks to a tanker truck and with the water assigned to them they cooked, drank, showered and the remains were used for the toilet cistern. There was no sewage system and the feces were deposited in plastic bags that were thrown at the neighbor, with the consequent health problems and neighborhood conflict that this entails.. Everything forgotten thanks to the taps placed by Spain, one Tuesday morning Queen Doña Letizia got to know their stories and their sandy streets accompanied by Verónica Alcocer, first lady of Colombia.

Queen Letizia and the first lady of Colombia, Verónica Alcocer. V. Lopez EFE

Spain agreed on a Country Association Framework with Colombia for the period 2021-2024 with an initial budget of 120 million euros, the highest for cooperation in Latin America, for the 57 projects that are underway.

In addition to expanding the purification plant, raw and potable water storage tanks, pumping stations, electrical substations and a sludge treatment plant were built.. 2,100 linear meters of pipes were installed to interconnect the new system with the existing one, 15.6 kilometers of networks and 1,910 home connections. Lastly, 20.4 kilometers of sewage system networks, 171 inspection cameras and 2,291 house searches..

The water has allowed things that in Spain seem so banal such as having bathrooms in schools and that girls, on menstruation days, can continue their education. For this reason, a group of schoolchildren from the Metropolitan College of Villahermosa rehearsed in chorus a “thank you to the Queen of Spain” before Doña Letizia arrived. There were also nerves in the houses, whose hygiene and quality of life has radically changed. Milady told it, mother of four children, with a five-month-old in her arms, who was entertaining herself at the doors of her house with the security transfer. Also Heidi, mother of two daughters who proudly opened the shower in her bathroom, because bathrooms and kitchens have also been built. The wife of Felipe VI, who during these days lives with the aid worker's vest on, was interested in the improvements that the water has brought to the neighborhood.

Training center

In addition to the Water and Sanitation initiative, the Queen had an intense day this Tuesday that began early in the morning at the Cooperation Training Center, a clear example of a circular project. Because the AECID rented to the archdiocese what was the old convent of Santo Domingo. In the Workshop School they trained the students to restore it. From there, Latin American countries are helped to modernize their democracies, with training courses for elites and senior local officials.. Thus, members of the General Council of the Judiciary and the Ministry of the Interior travel from Spain.. who meet with their counterparts to teach them. In 2022, 3 million euros were allocated to this training center and 1,200 officials took courses.

At the close of this edition, Doña Letizia had lunch with the first lady, before facing the afternoon session. The Queen visited the Escuela Taller, created in 1992 with the support of the Spanish Cooperation with the aim of contributing to training for work and generating opportunities for young people at risk of social exclusion. It is a clear example of how the National Cooperation works, since once supervised, with a budget of five million euros, the Colombian Government has continued the project, which has trained more than 7,500 young people.

Doña Letizia has seen how they teach trades, from carpentry to cooking, and how they apply it in their lives. The day, in fact, continued in the afternoon with a visit to the tourist bastion of Santa Catalina, part of the Cartagena fortification built by the Italian Cristóbal de Roda in 1625 and restored by Juan de Herrera a century later. Now, in 2023, it is the boys who are trained in the workshop school who preserve this heritage from the colonial era so photographed by tourists.

Agents of the Judicial Police have been searching throughout this Tuesday the town hall of the Sant Josep City Council, on the island of Ibiza. They have done so within the framework of an operation that remains secret and of which hardly any details have been released so far.

The Civil Guard agents posted to the City Council, governed by the PSOE until next weekend the command staff changes hands, have focused especially on the Urban Planning area. From there they have requisitioned documentation that they have been transferring to a van parked in the vicinity of the building.

The acting mayor of the town, the socialist Ángel Luis Guerrero, has been held in the building during the search. As the Ibizan press has advanced, the mayor has been arrested along with other municipal officials, although official sources from the Civil Guard consulted by this newspaper have not confirmed this point so far as the case remains under summary secrecy.

Upon arrival, first thing in the morning, the judicial procession has evacuated the building, ordering the officials of the Urban Planning area to remain in their posts and collaborate with the search ordered by the Investigating Court number 3 of Ibiza.

In parallel, the Civil Guard has carried out searches in some offices on Calle Pere Francés, in the capital of Ibiza, and in various private homes. Among those addresses would be the home of one of the lawyers who works for the city council.

“Delicate Operation”

The first information indicates that it is an open investigation after complaints from a neighbor about allegedly illegal urban maneuvers and that possible crimes of prevarication and bribery are being investigated.

The Civil Guard has not confirmed in which other places the searches are being carried out since the operation is carried out under forced judicial secrecy. “This is a delicate and large operation,” they have limited themselves to pointing out to the Europa Press news agency.

Sant Josep is a municipality located in the southwest of the Ibizan island and has 28,800 inhabitants. Guerrero, 56, became mayor in the middle of the legislature that is now coming to an end, taking over from Josep Maria Ribas, known as 'Agustinet', who was signed by Armengol for his Government, where he has been Minister of Housing.

The acting mayor is responsible for the Urban Planning area.

One of the priorities of the government team in the event of reissuing the mandate was the processing of the new municipal urban plan, as declared by the acting mayor himself last May in an electoral interview with the Ibizan digital media 'Nou Diari'.

However, in the last elections there was an electoral turnaround, and the municipality will be governed by the PP starting next Saturday.

The Basque Government presided over by Lehendakari Urkullu has not invited the King of Spain Felipe VI, nor President Sánchez nor his Sports Minister Miquel Iceta to the official acts that will be held in the Basque Country on the 29th in the “great start” of the Tour de France. “There are no reasons to invite them, nor not to invite them,” the Minister of Culture and Sports Bingen Zupiria responded laconicly about this decision that leaves the highest authorities of Spain out of the official protocol through which the cycling race will circulate throughout more than 500 kilometers in three stages.

The Basque Government – made up of the PNV and the Basque PSOE – has limited itself to inviting the Government delegate in Euskadi Denis Itxaso, the president of the Basque Parliament and the spokespersons of the parliamentary groups to the events that will take place from the 29th July when the presentation of the teams that will compete in this edition of the Tour de France will take place.

For three days, the Basque Government intends to use the media coverage of the race to highlight the “uniqueness” of the Basque Country under the slogan 'Euskadi Basque Country'. The Basque administrations have already deployed hundreds of ikurriñas along the route and the pro-independence platform Gure Esku Dago has called on its supporters to support this initiative to fill the entire route with ikurriñas. In addition, and to defend the independence of 'Euskal Herria', the pro-sovereignty group will prepare the “biggest ikurriñas ever made”.

After the presentation of the teams, which will be televised through the signal broadcast by EiTB and which, as has been announced, will be held in Basque, the peloton will depart from Bilbao on July 1 with a circular route through all of Vizcaya. The publicity caravan and the cyclists will travel the roads of Álava and Guipúzcoa on Sunday, July 2 and the last stage in Spanish territory will start from Amorebieta (Vizcaya) to finish in the south of France.

The 'Gran Depart' (great exit in French) will allow, as announced by Lehendakari Urkullu, to show “a profoundly European and Europeanist country” referring to the Basque Country. A strategy shared with the PSE-EE that assumes without pronouncing that neither King Felipe VI, nor Sánchez nor Minister Iceta have been invited.

The departure of the Tour will also make it easier for groups such as the Basque police to show their rejection of the management carried out by the Basque Government. Four police unions and a new platform of agents called Ertzainas in struggle put pressure on vice hendakari Josu Erkoreka to accept their requests in the negotiation of a new agreement. Demonstrations and massive concentrations -with up to 4,000 participants in a group of 9,000 agents- have multiplied the political tension.

The pact announced by Vox with the PP to govern the Valencian Community was expected in the Government, in the PSOE, but the speed with which it has been sealed has surprised La Moncloa. However, the agreement supposes political ammunition for the Socialists, who see in it an opportunity to consolidate the message of the arrival of the ultra-right to power, establish a link between PP and Vox. And the presence in the equation of Carlos Flores, leader of the formation of Santiago Abascal in this community and convicted of mistreatment of his ex-wife, allows stirring up the discourse of fear.

“Gender violence is serious enough not to frivolize, so that it is not laundered and serious enough so that it does not form part of a bargaining chip for any agreement,” said Isabel Rodríguez, spokesperson for the Executive, after the celebration of the Council of Ministers. “It would be consuming a shame.”

The pact between the PP and Vox means that Flores, convicted of mistreating his ex-wife, let us remember, will go number one on the Vox list for the general elections on 23-J, so that if he is elected, he will be a deputy for the next legislature in Congress. The day before, the PP had warned, through the mouth of its spokesman, Borja Sémper, that the conviction for “macho violence” 20 years ago against Carlos Flores was “a red line” that made it impossible for him to enter the regional Executive.

“It is a shame to agree,” state government sources, once they have had public knowledge of the pact. “The PP has moved the red line. From Valencia they pass it to Madrid. What is not valid for there is valid for here. It is using the victims of gender violence as a bargaining chip for power,” they insist from the presidential complex. “It is a very serious issue, they have marketed with it and it seems good that it can come here [to Congress].”

“Rule at any cost”

At the same time that the press conference after the Council of Ministers was being held in La Moncloa, the PSOE leadership has summoned the media so that Pilar Alegría, socialist spokesperson and Minister of Education, would present a message that was also harsh, but evidencing that this pact allows the socialists to try to open a flank of attack to the popular. “The coherence of the PP is non-existent. Its cynicism is absolutely embarrassing. Since 2003 in this country there have been more than 1,000 women murdered due to sexist violence – the official figure is 1,206 fatalities due to Gender Violence from January 1, 2003 to the today-. The PP has agreed with a force that rejects the existence of this violence. Their faces should fall with shame.”

The change of position of Flores does not suppose any attenuation neither for the Government nor for the PSOE. “This man is convicted of sexist violence. They have agreed on a government with a man convicted of sexist violence. What else has to happen? They will sit down with Vox and occupy the governments that are necessary. What they want is to govern at any cost” , Alegría has sentenced in reference to the PP.

The PP and the PRC have reached an agreement in principle on Tuesday to invest the popular candidate María José Saénz de Buruaga as president of Cantabria at the head of a government alone, without Vox in the Executive.

The negotiating commissions of the two parties have agreed on a document in which they will continue working to close “some fringes”, with the aim of reaching an agreement in the coming days.

This progress in the negotiations has occurred after the PRC has eliminated a block of conditions included in the draft document approved by the party executive last Thursday.

Specifically, it is the sixth block included in the regionalist proposal that had to do with a series of specific policies “to guarantee growth, employment, social benefits and quality basic services” and that the PP rejected because it understood that they were “Government” issues and not for an investiture.

This has been commented to the journalists after this second meeting in Parliament, which lasted about 45 minutes, the regional secretary of the PP, María José González Revuelta, and the secretary of Organization of the PRC, Paula Fernández.

According to the PP, the meeting returned to the initial approach of the two party leaders, the regionalist Miguel Ángel Revilla and María José Saénz de Buruaga, after the electoral victory of the popular, who won 15 seats in the regional Chamber, three fewer than those needed for an absolute majority. That approach, recalled González Revuelta, was “an investiture agreement and not a legislature”, as he believes could be understood from the document that the PRC sent last week and that his party rejected.

As Paula Fernández has highlighted, the first premise for the PRC to abstain from Buruaga's investiture continues to be to leave Vox out of the regional government

With 40 days to go before the polling stations open, the leadership of the Popular Party does not doubt: “We have sought the best”. Alberto Núñez Feijóo boasted this Tuesday of the freedom he has had when preparing the electoral lists for 23-J in the face of the “cabalas, puzzles and exchanges” that have marked the design of the socialist candidacies and that have unleashed the war between Ferraz and territories such as Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha or Asturias.

“I have felt with my hands free to make the proposal,” acknowledged Feijóo, who brought together fifty popular list heads to Congress in Aranjuez to present them as the best prepared to fulfill the “desire of a majority of Spaniards who demand a new stage” in national politics.

The lists are not yet known, although the leaders of each province are.. Feijóo has undertaken a profound renewal -75% of new faces-, with important signings from other brands, such as Sergio Sayas, formerly of UPN, in Navarra, or Nacho Martín Blanco, formerly of Ciudadanos, for a constituency as important as Barcelona. As part of the deep renewal, the popular president has included the hard core of Genoa as leaders of their respective provinces.

A team with a “greater responsibility”, specified Feijóo, more if possible after comparing himself with how the rest of the parties are dealing with the design of the lists. “The candidacies speak”, he admitted: “bunkerized” parties, formations that “go out to lose” and place their like-minded, “acronym soups” and “purges”. The continuous internal battle that Podemos is experiencing, now with Sumar, has infected the PSOE, which lives, considered the leader of the PP, a “final implosion”.

The “end of sanchismo”, which the PP considers to have less than a month and a half left, is marked by “division, confrontation and deterioration”, something that has been verified in the significant anger of the barons Socialists, who last weekend confronted Sánchez in the Federal Committee of the party, accusing the president of maneuvering to include his like-minded on the lists and purge trusted people from the territorial leadership.