It was in May 2017. The deputy of the Canary Islands Coalition, Ana Oramas, attended the vote on the partial amendments to the General State Budgets despite the death of her father. When it became known that the parliamentarian had taken that blow, familiar, huge, it was up in the air whether or not she would be in the vote, given the circumstance that there was no option to request the telematic vote.

The need to count her presence in the Lower House evidenced the fragility of the government's parliamentary majority, feeding headlines and analysis, baptizing Oramas as the one hundred and seventy-six deputy, a status she shared with another parliamentarian, also from the archipelago, Pedro Quevedo, of New Canaries. The year after the chapter starring the deputy, it was Quevedo himself who came to the rescue of Mariano Rajoy's Budgets. Once again the nationalists of the Islands asserting the figure of deputy 176, now Coalition, now NC. Again, a few years later, Canarian nationalism exploring formulas that allow them to maintain their presence in the Cortes and, with fingers crossed, also praying that the majorities that determine the polls will renew their status as one hundred and seventy-six deputies.

It is the dream most pursued by the NC, and especially by those who, in the Canary Islands Coalition, return to the autonomous government after four years debuting in the opposition, consequently needing a good position in the next negotiations of the General State Budget. ; by hook, flowing properly with those who sit in the ministries (being the Coalition-PP pact in the Islands, the desirable scenario for the next regional Executive is for Feijóo to enter Moncloa), or by crook, having the deputy's pan 176 for the mango with the indifference of those who occupy the blue seats in Congress. they don't have it easy. The one hundred and seventy-six lottery is a train that does not usually pass twice, but the Coalition continues to believe in its lucky stars and does not want to miss it, hence from the very moment that Sánchez precipitated the call for elections, they have gotten down to business. the work to put together a puzzle that has been taking shape —adding acronyms that reinforce an alliance led by CC— without one piece, that of Nueva Canarias, finishing fitting.

It tried. The head negotiators of CC and NC sought a way to compete, leading a broad platform that has once again highlighted that the desired reunification of Canarian nationalism (Nueva Canarias was founded and split from CC in 2005) will have to wait, who knows if for another time, by other leaderships or both. It is not being possible. Far from getting closer to the reunion of the two formations that call themselves Canarian obedience, on this occasion they are further away than when in the previous general elections -in 2019- they reached an agreement that materialized in a part-time seat, which they occupied the same Quevedo (NC) and María Fernández (CC), both from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

What does the platform promoted by the Coalición translate into? As was the case in a good part of the country, on May 28 a notice to navigators materialized in the Islands. The appearance on the scene of Vox, entering the Canary Islands Parliament and some major corporations with force, announced what should be interpreted as a sign of what can happen at the end of July. Vox did not campaign in the archipelago. Weeks after election night, in the Islands few or no one put a face, name or surname to their candidates. All in all, in the regional Chamber they have gone from zero to four without ruffling, from anonymity, solely driven by the shock wave of the primaries that the PP and Vox needed and were interested in, primaries that Pedro Sánchez, making a mistake that is difficult to understand ( especially in the eyes of their regional leaders or municipal candidates) gave away to the right and to the right of the right.

With this background, and knowing the inevitable weakness of facing a general election with the left-right axis removing the center-periphery pulse from the scene, the Coalition and NC know that only by adding from one side to the other can they survive the script, the narrative and the campaign story that this electoral call brings under his arm. They want to present themselves at street level as a third way, a third option that makes a place for them in the film that socialists and popular people are going to shoot (they are already shooting), with Sumar and Vox accompanying the piano.

What better than to revive the figure of the one hundred and seventy-six deputy who gave them so much joy —with the consequent repercussions in the Islands— to propose himself as an alternative to electoral bipartisanship. The Coalition has managed to get United for Gran Canaria, Agrupación Herreña Independiente (AHI) and, above all, Agrupación Socialista Gomera, a notable contribution courtesy of those who have established themselves as the master key of the autonomous governments in their different versions, on board the ship. Casimiro Curbelo. It has been possible with everyone, except with Nueva Canarias, a group led with an iron hand by Román Rodríguez, acting vice president who was left without a seat at the polls in May.

It was possible in 2019, but they have not managed to go hand in hand, CC and NC, years later. There have been three obstacles that both formations have encountered on the way. On the one hand, the disagreement over who should head the list to the Congress in Gran Canaria. On the other, the lack of agreement on the direction of the NC vote in the imminent investiture of Fernando Clavijo (CC). And, thirdly, the disagreement about the need —raised by the Coalition— to vote, in the case of having more than one parliamentarian, in the same sense the investiture of Sánchez or Feijóo. And, one more. There are no three without four. To the three more or less recognized reasons we must add the manifest and enduring enmity between Román Rodríguez and Fernando Clavijo, water and oil, a confrontation that could only be explained with minimal precision by referring to the polarity of the liquids. In the discount minutes, already under the acronym CC, they try to find an independent, valid and with an electoral pull —so they have announced— to achieve a consensus plan. They want to be They dream of being the disputed vote of the one hundred and seventy-six deputy again.

The veto that Genoa has placed on the Vox candidate in the Valencian Community, sentenced 11 years ago for psychological abuse of his ex-wife, has further tensed, if possible, the first official meeting that will sit Carlos Mazón and the leader at the same table pointed out by the leadership of the PP, Carlos Flores Juberías. Vox does not give in to pressure and will go to the negotiation with a list of requests that, in his opinion, reflects the result of the polls. The most urgent thing is the search for an agreement for the distribution of the posts of the Board of the Valencian Parliament, which must be compulsorily constituted on June 26. In Abascal's team, they advance that their intention is to replicate the model of Castilla y León, and they will ask the popular delegation for the presidency of Les Corts.

Sources from the Vox leadership, which coordinates the negotiations of its territorial candidates, stress that the party's intention is to go to the negotiating table “without red lines” and willing to “give in” on some issues to close a coalition agreement in a key square for the PP and for Feijóo. But they consider it “logical” to demand the same seats as in Castilla y León. The PP needs 10 Vox votes to sign an absolute majority, the same number that Alfonso Fernández Mañueco lacked in 2022. That negotiation was not only saved by ceding the presidency of the Cortes to the ultra-conservatives, but also a vice-presidency for Juan García-Gallardo and three other councils for his team. And that will be the roadmap in the Valencian Community. Vox does not conceive of finalizing the negotiation without having wrested Mazón's entry into the Council.

The pre-agreement for the constitution of Les Corts is the first major litmus test. If the PP does not give in to the conditions of its Vox counterparts or if they do not soften their conditions, PSOE and Compromís can wrest the presidency of Parliament from the right-wing bloc. And the intention of the party located to the right of the PP to take control of the Chamber does not seem minor. In recent days, Vox has consulted the legal services of Les Corts about the mechanism for the election of the presidency and the table itself, with the aim of consolidating their requests before the PP.

The next step will be the negotiations for the investiture of Carlos Mazón. For the moment, the popular Valencians have avoided supporting the “red line” that Genoa has raised against the Vox candidate for his mistreatment conviction. “The PP has not vetoed anyone,” said the regional coordinator and number three of Mazón, Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca, on Monday. But if the directive of the Feijóo team prevails, the result of the negotiation is completely uncertain. At the top of Vox, they avoid answering the question of whether or not they would be willing to sacrifice their candidate to save a coalition agreement with the PP in the Valencian Community. “Our red line is not the people”, summarize the sources consulted, who opt for an ambiguous position to avoid clouding the conversations with the PP before starting.

Of course, in the Santiago Abascal party they warn that they would be willing to force an electoral repetition if the PP goes to the negotiation with a position of maximum. “If they do not respect Vox voters, if there is no reasonable agreement, we will go to electoral repetition,” they warn. At the top of the party, they demand “fair” treatment from the popular, which implies a distribution of portfolios equivalent to the electoral result, regardless of what happens to their candidate. Vox warns that, regardless of how the future popular Executive looks, they will not compromise with the red lines of their program either. “If we are not guaranteed a government in which the freedom of parents to choose the education of their children prevails, we will break bridges”, they exemplify.

The investiture negotiation is a bomb that the PP does not want to detonate yet. For Genoa and for Mazón, the maxim is to delay possible government agreements with Vox so that they do not contaminate the general election campaign. The margin is limited, but possible. Before July 21, Carlos Mazón must face a first investiture debate, but the PP can force an unsuccessful first vote, which would be repeated 48 hours later, this time with the requirement of a simple majority. If the numbers still do not come out, the popular candidate would have two months to repeat this process before waving the ghost of an electoral repetition.

The PP will not veto coalitions with Vox in the territories

Beyond the Valencian exception and the express veto to form a government with Carlos Flores Juberías, the national leadership of the PP will give the green light to the coalition agreements signed by its territorial candidates, and will not put up obstacles, especially in those cases in which a alliance with Vox serves to prevent the entry of the PSOE in municipal executives. Feijóo gave “absolute autonomy” to PP barons and mayors to decide the relationship they wanted to have with the ultra-conservative party after 28-M, partly to avoid taking responsibility for the result of negotiations in which Vox seeks to multiply the Castilla model and Leon and assume shares of power. However, as the national leader acknowledged a few days ago in an interview on Onda Cero, it is Genoa that must give the final approval to the territorial agreements.

“We are trying to govern alone by all possible means”, they reiterate in Feijóo's team, where they emphasize that the party's maxim, both in the national and territorial sphere, is to try agreements with those of Abascal “without ties” and without give up quotas of power. But they emphasize that, if there is no other way, Genoa “will not veto coalition agreements with Vox”. Time is pressing especially at the municipal level, with several provincial capitals in contention, whose executives must close before June 17. The trickle of government agreements between PP and Vox in dozens of municipalities and large cities such as Elche will have the approval of Genoa. The campaign spokesman, Borja Sémper, confirmed in public this Monday that the national leadership “absolutely” trusts the criteria of its candidates.

This circumstance paves the way for similar alliances in large squares where PP and Vox have it in their hands to seize the command baton from the PSOE, which won the elections in Guadalajara, Toledo, Valladolid, Alcalá de Henares or Burgos. In all of them, the two forces located on the right are finalizing these days the details of an agreement that could facilitate Vox access to government areas. In Genoa, they influence the free hands of their municipal candidates to close the pacts they consider appropriate, with which they consider Feijóo's proposal that the most voted list govern, due to lack of reciprocity..

The cordon that the national leadership of the party raised to agree with those of Abascal —since Genoa 13, it was asserted that Feijóo does not want to “agree with ultras”— aroused misgivings in the territories. “No one can be asked to resign from governing if they add up to Vox,” popular sources insisted, who did not share that the popular leader returned again and again to his proposal on the most voted list, which could put executives like executives in trouble. the one of Extremadura. In fact, the popular candidate in this region, María Guardiola, evaded the guidelines of the national leadership and warned that she would go to elections rather than let Guillermo Fernández Vara govern.

Although the maxim is still to exhaust every last chance to govern alone, the evolution of the territorial negotiations has led Genoa to loosen the rope and not ask its leaders to let the left govern if there is a sum with Vox. However, in the case of the municipalities where the PP has won the elections —such as Valencia, Alicante or Seville—, the strategy involves convincing the ultra-conservatives to support their investitures for free and, if this is not possible, try minority governments.

The advice that prescribes prudence with what is dreamed of may be applied to ERC, lest it end up being fulfilled. They dreamed of the presidency of the Generalitat, of governing alone in Catalonia, of surpassing those of Carles Puigdemont in all the elections, of becoming the sovereignist party that would condition the governability of Spain and of ending up being the new champions of sovereignist centrality.

Accomplished dreams. Less the latter, to occupy without discussion the central axis of political sovereignty. And it is that ERC is balling the objective of being the Convergence of the 21st century. does not take off. In the sovereignist axis, he cannot leave JxCAT behind, which, even with the party made of foxes, a president convicted of corruption and Carles Puigdemont deciding with the remote control, endures all the challenges. And in the social axis, he observes helplessly how in the municipal elections the PSC has eaten his toast in the feuds that were disputed between the two. In summary, the 300,000 votes that the Republicans left by the wayside in the last elections have activated the danger sensors in the Oriol Junqueras barracks. And with more reason with the general elections, called surprisingly by Pedro Sánchez just around the corner.

With the firm will to continue serving the public and meet the challenges of the whole of Catalonia with more strength, I have decided to make changes to the Government. Welcome to the Executive, @AnnaSimo as the new Minister of Education, @EsterCapella, of Territory, and David Mascort, of Climate Action. pic.twitter.com/MHDXEi2wOw

— Pere Aragonès and Garcia 🎗 (@perearagones) June 12, 2023

The Junqueras plan to consolidate ERC in the Catalan political centrality and gain an advantage over its competitors went through several fronts. The first, to put an end to the infantilism of the independence movement and place the negotiation with the State as the only way to accommodate a solution to the territorial conflict.. The second, to govern the Generalitat correctly and then reap the fruits of an outstanding management. Neither one thing nor the other has just worked, according to the numbers reached in the municipal elections. And the prospects for July 23 are not too rosy either..

The government crisis of Pere Aragonès intends to get more out of the toy that he now enjoys alone after the departure of JxCAT from the Catalan Executive eight months ago. That put an end to the noise made by the partners, but it served so that once calm was gained, the serious deficiencies of the Executive in some of the most important portfolios and with the largest budget became evident..

That is why Aragonès was not satisfied with replacing only and surgically Teresa Jordà, who had to leave the Ministry of Climate Action to accompany Gabriel Rufián as number two on the lists to Cortes, and chose to cut off the head of two more councillors, the one for education, Josep Gonzalez-Cambray, and the one for Territory, Juli Fernández.

The prize for government action sought by ERC in the municipal elections became a punishment. So it was time to react, point out the culprits and expel them from the field of play. Cambray no longer had a single support among the educational community and Fernández, who has only lasted eight months in office, has been dismissed because ERC has reached the conclusion that he is not sufficiently qualified to lead a ministry with such territorial influence through public works and housing policy.

The three purses that change hands are for people raised in the party's udders. The experiments of fishing outside the acronyms themselves are over, as happened when all the JxCAT directors who left the Executive had to be replaced. Eight months ago, a friendly takeover bid for other political spaces was drawn with the signings of Gemma Ubasart (ex-Podemos) for Justice, Carles Campuzano (ex-convergent) for Social Rights and Joaquim Nadal (ex-PSC) for Research and Universities. Expanding the ideological spectrum has not borne the expected fruits in the municipal elections either..

So this time the changes are to incorporate Republican thoroughbreds.. Critical voices must also be silenced, which for the first time in a long time have begun to be heard in ERC discussing the Junquerista strategy. And that goes through strengthening the institutions with party cards that are recognized among the militancy. The three new directors, Anna Simó (Education), Esther Capella (Territory) and David Mascort (Climate Action) meet this profile, which has also been sought in the election of Gabriel Rufián's number two in the candidacy for courts, Teresa Jorda.

It is difficult, beyond the message of encouragement to the party itself, that the remodeling of Aragonès serves to alleviate the problems of its Executive. He will continue to be obliged to negotiate up to the commas of the decrees with the PSC or with JxCAT and his parliamentary weakness will not improve in the remainder of the legislature. ERC was obliged to make some sensible movement – that of trying to revive the discourse of the independence unit after Sánchez called elections was laughed at by JxCAT and the CUP – to demonstrate at least the capacity to react after the municipalist setback.

And government crises always appear in the fireworks manual of political management as an attempt to recover the illusion. But Aragonès knows that, with or without a government crisis, Catalan politics has opened a new parenthesis that will not close until after the general elections.. And it will be the arithmetic that comes out of these elections that will determine the duration of the Catalan legislature. With or without a government crisis in the Government of the Generalitat. If Sánchez loses Moncloa, the Catalans will vote early in 2024. What Aragonès has done is not for the Government to last longer, it is to be better prepared and with the most aligned party if everything ends up rushing.

The municipal pacts have made the pro-independence parties nervous. In Catalonia, disagreements between pro-sovereignty forces are an added problem to the difficulties in forming local governments. Although they officially proclaim that the national front should be prioritized, in practice this is not the case.. “Each town is different and we cannot avoid local dynamics, in which local leaders know the situation much better and agree with the most similar forces. Except on certain occasions, or when the weight of a locality requires it, the territorial leaders usually have a lot of room for maneuver to agree, ”explains a JxCAT leader.

Hence, there are pacts that clash with the general political positions of the political formations. The ERC management did not miss the opportunity this Monday to reproach the strategy of their pro-independence colleagues from Junts per Catalunya. The spokesperson for Esquerra, Marta Vilalta, blamed the post-convergents for making pacts in town halls with the PSC to kick Esquerra out of some consistories. “Junts prefers to hand over the mayoralty to the PSC instead of joining the ERC and prioritizing independence agreements,” warned the republican leader. The tension is such that Vilalta had no hesitation in accusing the junteros that “while we do positive things to regain confidence, the Junts response is to fight for power and hand over mayoralties to the PSC where Esquerra has won”.

According to the documentation to which El Confidencial has had access, the Republicans manage a list of a dozen and a half town halls (more are being added day by day) where Junts has stolen the mayoralty from the Republicans or is about to do so, according to that list.. It also includes the Tarragona Provincial Council, where ERC has more representatives, but where, according to the Republicans, “the PSC gives the presidency to Junts”. Socialists and post-convergents have eight representatives each, compared to nine from the Republicans and a single deputy from PP and Vox. The presidency, then, depends on a tactical pact between the three big parties. The Republicans consider that the PSC-Junts alliance is an anti-ERC strategy, similar to the pact that the PSC and Junts had in the Barcelona Provincial Council in the last legislature, although on that occasion the Socialists were the party that had the most provincial deputies with difference.

representative squares

But the strategy denounced by ERC includes such important and emblematic squares as Roses, Lloret de Mar, Sitges, Calella or Cervera. In Roses, according to the Republicans, the winning list was ERC, but Junts “gives the mayoralty to the PSC”. In reality, Republicans and Socialists tied for four councillors, while JxCAT got three. Vox and PP got one councilor each and two lists of independents (one close to JxCAT) got two representatives each. The Socialists will govern with the support of Puigdemont's men and the representatives of Gent del Poble.

In Lloret, despite criticism from ERC, the clear winner was the PSC, which swept and obtained eight councilors, compared to four from JxCAT (this party has historically held the mayoralty), three from Tots per Lloret, two from ERC, two more than one list of independents, one of the common ones and one of Vox. In Calella, on the other hand, it was JxCAT who removed six councilors, compared to three from ERC and three from PSC, so the socialists will vote in favor of the representative of the junteros.

In La Bisbal, on the other hand, ERC was the list with the most votes. And, although it had about 150 more votes than the PSC, it equaled it in councilors (four each). JxCAT obtained three, the same as the CUP (the commons obtained one and a list of independents, two). Puigdemont's party elected the Socialists, which is why the Republicans also complain that “JxCAT gave away the mayoralty to the PSC”. A similar situation occurs in Lliçà de Vall, a town near Barcelona, where ERC and JxCAT tied four councilors (Esquerra had 63 more votes than its main opponent) and the PSC, with three councilors, supports the Junts candidate for mayor.

In Dosrius, also near Barcelona, “Junts gives the mayor's office to the PSC”, although on this occasion the Socialists have five councilors, compared to three from ERC and two from Junts (the PP and two independent lists share three more seats). In Calafell (Tarragona), the Socialists are one step away from an absolute majority (they have 10 out of 21 councilors), so Junts will lend them their councilor after signing a governance pact. But the Republicans do not poke their chests for a similar pact, although the other way around, in Reus, where those from Junqueras will vote for a socialist mayor, as the PSC has obtained eight councilors, compared to five from ERC and five from Junts, for example. Another post-convergent list made up of the PDeCAT drew two mayors, who will complete the absolute majority necessary for the PSC to govern in a fiefdom that has traditionally been in the hands of Junts. A similar situation exists in Castell-Platja d'Aro, where the Socialists, with six councilors, will have the support of the four Junts (the plenary session is 17 members) to be able to govern this legislature.

The curious pacts

In Cervera (Lleida), the Republicans also complain that “Junts gives the mayoralty to the PSC and avoids agreeing with Esquerra”. In reality, the Socialists won the elections with five councillors, compared to three from Junts, three from the commons and two from ERC. Despite the protests of Junqueras's men, the support of Puigdemont's men for the Republicans would not have been enough for them to win the mayoralty.

Esquerra includes in the list some pacts that are still curious, such as the one in Calonge (Girona), where JxCAT has six councilors out of a total of 17, while ERC has four, the PSC two, and the rest is shared between them. five different lists in equal parts with one councilor each, including the PP. Given this, the Republicans regret that “Together agrees with the PP and the PSC”. Another apparently unnatural pact for the Republicans is that of Vilafant (Girona), where they complain that there is “a tripartite pact with PSC, Junts and Ciudadanos”. In this town, the PSC took out five representatives, compared to the three of ERC. Junts has a councilor and Ciudadanos, another, who will make the head of the socialist list mayor, with the peculiarity that he is the only representative of Ciudadanos in the entire province of Girona.

The reproaches between Republicans and post-convergents did not prevent a pact, at the last minute, in Ripoll to oust the far-right Catalan party Aliança Catalana, led by Sílvia Orriols, who in 2019 ran for mayor of the also ultra-Front Nacional de Catalunya (FNC).. The ultra force monopolized six councillors, surpassing Junts per Ripoll (3), ERC (3), PSC (2), the CUP (2) and an independent force (1). For the ultra-right to govern in this municipality in the Pyrenees, the president of JxCAT herself, Laura Borràs, was in favor this Sunday of letting the force with the most votes rule “so as not to contradict the popular will”..

The truth is that, with this, Borràs, who is accused that her theories and strategy are getting closer every day to the pro-independence extra-parliamentary ultra-right, questioned the legitimacy of the presidency of the Parliament (presided over by her, despite being the third party with the most votes) or even from the Government (the party with the most votes in the last elections was the PSC, so, according to their reasoning, it should be the Socialists who were in the Palau de la Generalitat).

Her party was quick to disavow her, but her rivals were quick to take their toll on her, starting with ERC. Vilalta herself warned Borràs that if Ripoll did not agree against Aliança Catalana she would be “whitewashing fascism”, letting it be known that the president of Junts was flirting with the extreme right. The spokesperson for Catalunya en Comú, Joan Mena, even called for her dismissal as president of JxCAT for her position on this issue.

The newly appointed president of the Parliament and until recently mayor of Vic, Anna Erra, entered the discussion and was in favor of the local Junts group deciding what to do, in the face of criticism from the other parties, who are calling for a “sanitary cordon” before the extreme right, whatever the sign. It should not be forgotten that Erra was sentenced by the Justice for not allowing the installation of information tents for Ciudadanos in her town, arguing that the theories of the constitutionalist party “clash with the majority public opinion in the city”. Days before, he had denied another information tent from the Escuela de Todos entity because he considered that requesting 25% of the classes in Spanish was “contrary to morality, good civic customs and public order”.. Finally, it was the spokesperson in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, who announced the addition of JxCAT to ERC, PSC and CUP to unseat Aliança Catalana in Ripoll.

“We have Nadia, they have no one”. With this slogan, the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, broke into the PSOE campaign yesterday. To the surprise of the socialist ranks, Pedro Sánchez's two gave a press conference from Ferraz street. The confusion, according to party sources, was enormous, given that Calviño, in addition to not being a militant, is not on the lists. From socialism, they interpret that if she had wanted to lead the candidacy for Madrid together with Sánchez, she would have done so and, therefore, her withdrawal is read as “desertion”.. “She has left us stranded”, they lament from the territories, where the “excessive” role of a “technocrat without a license” is not understood. Sánchez has already placed Calviño on the Federal Committee. The vice president will be in El intermedio today, an unusual format.

There are those who use irony to question a decision that they attribute directly to the president. “Nadia is nobody”, they stand out in a play on words that circulated like wildfire in the chats of those most critical of sanchismo. Sánchez has once again given a script twist to the strategy. If just a week ago the message was to stop the “reactionary wave” that 28-M has left territorial power in the hands of the PP, now the slogan is to focus on the economy. The president has assumed in first person the planning and messages for 23-J. The setback of 28-M has led him to distrust his closest team. The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and his chief of staff, Óscar López, limit themselves to agreeing, as confirmed by Moncloa.

There is no counterweight to the president and from Ferraz they regret that he falls into the same errors of the May elections. They warn that the economic discourse and management were “innocuous” to mobilize the electorate. In the campaign, they remember, there were promises for all groups, from retirees to young people and women. The Council of Ministers also approved aid for farmers. “It did not work”, sentence socialist barons, who attribute it to the fact that the PP is the one that has a reputation for “good management”. The same sources explain that Alberto Núñez Feijóo does not need to present an economic guru for citizens to trust his brand as a synonym of stability.

“They don't have to debate with anyone,” they say, alluding to the ordeal that the vice president has launched at the PP so that “someone” will star in an economic face-to-face with her, like that of Pedro Solbes and Manuel Pizarro. In the PP, they rule out moving a file in this sense. They agree with the PSOE on how “ridiculous” it is for someone who does not even show up to ask for a debate so that the Spanish can judge their work in recent years. The socialist cadres have their own theory about Calviño's plan for after 23-J. The polls are not very encouraging and, except for a last-minute comeback, it seems difficult for Sánchez to repeat. In this scenario, they point out that the first vice president would have the intention of returning to Brussels as commissioner for the Social Democratic quota.

Calviño has been a fundamental piece in carving out the positive image that Europe has of Sánchez. Her past as general director of the EU Budget has opened many doors for the president and has been the perfect transmission belt for the arrival of funds in Spain.. In fact, his team at that stage is the one that today accompanies Valdis Dombrovskis, responsible for financing. After 23-J, if there is no socialist government, he will ask for the favors to be returned, taking advantage of the fact that Sánchez is the current president of the Socialist International.

Their relationship has grown stronger over the years.. The vice president has had notorious clashes with the ministers of Podemos. The departure of Pablo Iglesias from the Executive was a respite for her, although she kept up with José Luis Escrivá and Yolanda Díaz. With the last one, he has been smoothing out rough edges and both became the “essential” of the president in the Council of Ministers. Although yesterday he disdained the role of Díaz and Podemos in the economic work of the coalition government. “It has had practically no influence,” he said from the Ferraz press room.

In the game, it does not arouse sympathy, less at a time when spirits are low. Despite the fact that Calviño has been forging a political profile and has defended the position with more enthusiasm from the blue bench than many fellow militants, she is viewed with suspicion, according to socialist officials who are in every man for himself mode.. In the territories, you look at Moncloa from a distance. A large mobilization of the cadres in the campaign is not expected. Sánchez is aware and will handle the spaces and times of his rallies well. At the moment, she takes selfies with the coordinators of the electoral program: Cristina Narbona, María Jesús Montero, Idoia Mendia, Félix Bolaños, Teresa Ribera, José Luis Escrivá and Calviño herself. “The gravediggers”, they were renamed in internal chats.

The way in which Berlusconi prepared his death says everything about his legacy. He never had serious plans about his political succession, which is the collective fact; but he prepared the fate of his funeral remains decades in advance, which is the individual fact. The funeral of the Cavaliere began to be in the news so many years ago that today people write about it with the feeling of writing an ephemeris.

Berlusconi has a large stone sarcophagus waiting for him in a crypt, a monument to kitsch (in the “Aztec Cubist” style, according to its author, Pietro Cascella) inspired by the funerary complexes of the Egyptian pharaohs and full of Masonic references.. It is in the gardens of the Villa de San Martino, that of the bunga bunga, a mansion that his lawyers took from the only heiress of the Marquis de Casati —who was a minor and had just been orphaned after a horrible crime— for something more than 100,000 euros. There he ordered the excavation three decades ago of the so-called Heavenly Vault, a mausoleum with space for 36 bodies in addition to his own.. The idea was to bury himself with the Berlusconian gens, with his relatives and close friends. Some rejected the offer, as did Indro Montanelli.

Outside the walls of that crypt, Berlusconi never took seriously the continuity of his political legacy.. The party, Forza Italia, did not transcend the personal project. As a result, both your rivals and your partners spent decades imaginingly dividing up loot that doesn't exist, because it's everywhere.. Like the indebted millionaire who plays with the ambitions of his nephews, he amused himself by making them think that there would be inheritance and heirs.. He practiced with Pier Ferdinando Casini, also with Gianfranco Fini and then with Angelino Alfano. The last to dream of throwing themselves into the Berlusconi pool of votes in a thong were Matteo Renzi and even Matteo Salvini.

What happens nominally with Forza Italia is one thing and its route is quite another.. For the first, it is expected that Antonio Tajani is the one who picks up the baton, although it is not ruled out that Marina Berlusconi, the only one of his daughters with an interest in politics, can also try.. But both have known the morphology of berlusconism for enough time to understand that, with the dog dead, the rage is over.

The newspaper La Stampa said yesterday that with the death of Berlusconi the Second Italian Republic ends and that what is now at stake are the wickerwork of the third. In the short term, a Tibetan burial with Florentine daggers is expected, which for a reason we are talking about Italy. The deputies of Forza Italia support the Government of Giorgia Meloni and, without the leader calling up the ranks, the temptation to undertake adventures on their own will be great, perhaps looking for a center in which to materialize that old dream of bringing Christian Democracy back to life. For her part, Meloni has always aspired to occupy space and turn her Fratelli into the hegemonic right for years to come.. His first big challenge is going to be to tie the Cavaliere orphans short and prevent them from destabilizing his future project before being able to consolidate it..

Hundreds of Italian journalists yesterday wrote lines that they had been chewing for decades, their accountability with the personality to which they have dedicated a notable percentage of their lives. Aldo Cazullo, in Il Corriere della Sera, gave the most synthetic definition of an incomprehensible character. The Italians, he says, voted for Berlusconi because “they found in him things that they felt were their own: distrust of the left, of the State, of the treasury, of the judiciary, of the parties” and of “politics itself.”. Hatred of rules, experts and homilies from the media. Cazullo also chooses his defining anecdote. El Caimano used to say that the most beautiful thing he has been told in his life was said to him by a Milan fan: “Silvio, sei una gran bella figa!”. Whoever is capable of understanding Berlusconi is already prepared to understand this century.

The still Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Interior of the Community of Madrid, Enrique López, plans to request the incorporation in the coming weeks to the position to which he was assigned in 2019 in the Appeals Chamber of the National Court, legal sources report. López will leave the government of the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in the coming days, after beginning a first transition in February for her definitive abandonment of politics. It was then that he resigned from the Popular Party, to which he had joined when he took office.

López's departure has been confirmed for weeks along with that of the directors Enrique Ossorio and Enrique Ruiz Escudero. A few hours ago, it emerged that the Minister of Economy, Finance and Labor, Javier Fernández Lasquetty, will not repeat either. Ossorio, number three of the candidacy with which Ayuso obtained an absolute majority with up to 71 deputies, will resign this Tuesday as vice president and Minister of Education after being appointed president of the Madrid Assembly, regional sources have advanced.

Article 355 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary establishes that judges and magistrates in special services must request their return to active service within a maximum period of 10 days from the day after they leave office and return to their destination. within the 20 days immediately following. The sources consulted specify that, due to the proximity of July —the month from which the so-called Holiday Room operates—, it is likely that the formal reinstatement of the judge will not take place until September. It must be the CGPJ who formalizes his return to active service once these procedures have been completed..

López's relationship with Ayuso was never fully recomposed after the internal crisis of the PP that led to the departure of Pablo Casado from the presidency. His role as a bridge between the national and regional boards took its toll on him. Although he came to politics at the hands of Ayuso, in August 2019, a few months later, Casado incorporated him into his most trusted team in Genoa as the party's Secretary of Justice and Public Administration, replacing former minister Rafael Catalá.. He failed to gain the confidence of the new party executive after the landing of Feijóo.

López's role in the Casado stage went far beyond that of a political office to use. He led the conversations with the Ministry of Justice on the renewal of the CGPJ. He also participated directly in the line of training at the legal level and promoted some of Casado's opposition proposals, such as the initiative launched —without the other party taking over— to draft a pandemic law. It was also fundamental in the pact reached with the PSOE for the renewal of institutions such as the Constitutional Court and the Court of Accounts..

Round trip

Now, after more than four years in politics, López is heading back. His professional career has always bordered the limits between Justice and politics. More than 30 years of experience full of comings and goings and some controversy. After his first postings in First Instance and Investigation Courts, he made the leap to the General Council of the Judiciary, where he began as Section Head of the Continuing Training Service of the Judicial School and ended up as a member, assuming the functions of spokesman with enormous media exposure.

Upon leaving, he joined the National Court -where he will now return- and remained as a Chamber judge for more than 10 years. Already in 2013, he was appointed magistrate of the Constitutional Court, a position from which he resigned after an incident in a breathalyzer control. The Court, his permanent anchor point with the judiciary, once again served as a refuge and he remained there until his appointment to the regional Executive of Ayuso.

His return clashes with one of the demands of the Feijóo stage, which calls for a regulation of the so-called revolving doors. The PP claims limits for reinstatement after passing through politics and defends that those judges and magistrates who are appointed to positions of political or government election, with a rank higher than that of director general, may not return to active service until after two years from the cessation of the aforementioned charges.

“On the contrary, and despite the news that appeared in the press, we do not need to go to a pre-bankruptcy process, the main objective of this company being to continue with all the projects in progress”. Approximately four months have passed since the CEO of the Otero Group, Rubén Otero, sent this letter to his clients and just a couple of weeks ago the Mercantile Court number 2 of Malaga declared the bankruptcy that confirmed the collapse of this company specializing in the construction of luxury homes.

According to the order issued on May 23, and to which El Confidencial has had access, the “dissolution” of the company and “the cessation of its administrators” are agreed, which are “replaced” by a bankruptcy administration.

The resolution reflects that the procedure “has been urged by the debtor himself”, who “has initially requested the liquidation”; and it is highlighted that “the suspension of the exercise of the powers of administration and disposition of his assets” is agreed..

The administrators, attorneys-in-fact and representatives, “in fact or in law”, of the Otero Group have the duty to appear before the judicial authority and the bankruptcy administration “as many times as required”. They are obliged to “collaborate and inform” in everything “necessary or convenient” for the interest of the contest, “making the corresponding books, documents and records available to the Competition Administration.”.

This obligation, agrees the judicial authority, extends “to the positions of the debtor company that would have been in the two years prior to the declaration of bankruptcy”.

The creditors, for their part, have one month, counted from the publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE) of the court's decision, to communicate their claims to the construction company to the bankruptcy administration; while the report prepared by the designated administrators must conclude within a period of two months.

The order also states that the situation of the Otero Group must be reported to the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT), the General Treasury of Social Security (TGSS) and also the Salary Guarantee Fund (Fogasa)..

record numbers

The company entrusted its “restructuring” to a law firm that announced the “development of future viability plans” to try to contain creditors. Suppliers of materials and services, as well as clients, who began to advise me legally to take action in court.

In a letter sent to those affected, a significant percentage of SMEs in the construction field, they were summoned to a meeting —in person or by videoconference— in which they will be informed of “concrete proposals”.

The legal representatives of Otero Builder SL, the company with which in 2017 the group began to take shape that later formed five companies —OBC, Otero, Lagoom, Urbatech and Atrium—, began a “restructuring” of the company that has already been “ duly” communicated to the Commercial Court of Malaga.

The objective was “to save the declaration of bankruptcy in the face of the insolvency situation directly caused by the extra costs in the work”. As in other previous communications, they resorted to the current situation to justify their sudden fall, although they always ignored that events such as the increase in material prices, inflation and the conflict in Ukraine have severely influenced the sector for more than a year. anus. However, they did not prevent the company from continuing to bet on an expansive management, without contracting spending, throughout 2022. To which we must add that the company itself reported that it had exceeded 500 million in business volume and in its own information channels they advertised record figures..

Grupo Otero presented itself as “the leader in the construction of luxury homes on the Costa del Sol”, they were very important. “More than 130 million euros in portfolio of works”, “190 units” of exclusive houses for “250 million”, “500 projects delivered” and the “objective” of building more properties for “affordable rentals”.

returned promissory notes

“Who could have guessed what has happened?” Asked the owners of one of the supplier companies, which is facing a possible non-payment of 1.5 million euros. “We had been working with them for more than seven years and we had never had a problem. Only last year, in a dozen works”, they insisted, to emphasize their astonishment at what happened, saying that “we have collaborated on very important works”.

They told this newspaper that on January 25 they should have paid promissory notes for 370,000 euros, but that the payment obligations were returned by the bank, a circumstance that also happened to them in December. “Then they told us that there had been a setback, not to worry and that it would be added to the amount that they would have to pay in February”. But when the second non-payment aroused suspicion and they again asked for explanations, the answer worried them even more: “They said there had been financial problems.”.

The rumor mill around the alleged bankruptcy of the firm grew, as did the complaints from the businessmen consulted, who I know complain about the lack of information from the Otero Group. “You call and nobody knows anything”, pointed out one of them. Four months later, on the windows of the company's main headquarters in the capital of Malaga, located on the Alameda Principal, hang “for rent” signs..

Clients with half-built and undelivered houses also received letters in which the firm urged them to renegotiate the purchase amounts, arguing that “the evolution of the prices of raw materials and energy is difficult to predict, and transcends the sphere of purely economic towards geopolitics”, for which “it has led to an increase in inflation globally from mid-2021 to 2022.

“In application of the fourth clause of the contract —which is not described in the letter sent in this case—, relying on the doctrine of the Supreme Court and the principle of 'rebus sic stantibus' —legal figure that establishes that an agreement will be in force as long as the initial conditions are maintained—”, affirmed the CEO of the company, who defended his position to apply an increase in the price of luxury homes.

And in this context of the collapse of the company, its employees were informed that it was starting an Employment Regulation File (ERE) that entailed a “collective dismissal” given their “absolutely unsustainable” situation.

The Constitutional Court is wrong when, identifying loyalty to the Constitution with militant democracy, it concludes that from our Fundamental Law it is not possible to impose an unalterable oath formula as a prerequisite for the acquisition of parliamentary status. Beyond the details of the decision on the oath of the deputies of the XIII legislature that we have just learned about (through a press leak that, however inadmissible it may be, no longer seems to shock anyone), what matters now is explain the misconception underlying the court's reasoning on the crucial issue of loyalty to the Constitution.

A mistake that is massive, because it ignores the political dimension of the Constitution and leaves it reduced to a kind of strange meeting point of supralegality in which an intricate complex of subjective rights and labile procedural rules come together from which any interpreter skillful can draw the conclusion he needs. An à la carte Constitution —one could say— suitable for a tear and a tear, which is the result of ignoring that components qualitatively different from administrative, procedural or other regulatory sectors converge in constitutional law. I forget that, in turn, is the basis of the phenomenon of progressive liquefaction of our Constitution that we are witnessing.

There are two fundamentals of the discrepancy, theoretical and empirical.. The theoretician starts from a very different idea from the one handled by the court about what the oath of constitutional loyalty is and entails.. Put quickly, there are three options that support obedience to an established regime.. (i) The subjection of those who see Power as a foreign force to which they are fatally handed over as a result of a state of political dispossession (derelict). (ii) The submission of a citizen to a political order considered his own that —possibly because he does not feel particularly threatened— does not require of his citizens/subjects an active exclusion of those who threaten to destroy it. (iii) The one that introduces the express obligation to exclude any other ideological alternative and receives the technical name of militant democracy.. In the first case, the oath is worth nothing, it is a simple formal trick; in the second, it means committing to an obligation of mutual loyalty that does not impose the exclusion of the enemies of democracy, but does require loyal respect for its material contents.. In the third, the obligation also becomes an active duty to act against anti-democrats who are outlawed..

Well, this is precisely the conceptual framework that our court dispenses with, limiting itself to affirming that since our Constitution does not embrace militant democracy, the oath does not carry with it the duty of loyalty, but is reduced to mere compliance derived from the legal imperative. to obey her. Loyalty becomes compliance, and alternative oath formulas that do not “contradict the essentially formal nature of the oath act and its ultimate sense of representing an act of homage and respect for the Constitution” are perfectly fit.. But abiding is not the same as swearing. Compliance is the acceptance of a politically inane subject (from the Latin inanus, empty) who, given his state of political disarmament, makes obedience a factual fact to which he does not consider himself bound beyond the force that eventually compels him. and endorse. Observance converts the oath into a requirement that does not entail any lasting obligation because it exhausts itself and is the opposite of loyalty; in reality, an invitation to disloyalty itself: the modern version of the submission typical of a serf of the glebe who simply complies because he has no other choice. Loyalty is the obligation to respect the funds as well as the forms and for this reason one swears or promises without tags that may imply distorting the oath1.

But let's leave here the abstruse theoretical reasoning (for those who want to go deeper I refer to the work of Professor Leonardo Álvarez in Constitutional Tribune) and go to the field of the empirical, to what the German doctrine has called constitutional feeling (Verfassungsgefühl). Can anyone imagine the next President of the Government swearing in by “legal imperative”? To the constitutional magistrates who have handed down this sentence invoking such a formula in their promise? Can any newly hired State official do it on similar terms? would be admissible. Beyond the spectacle that it would entail, it would generate a distrust in the sincerity of the oath that would question the veracity of the commitment. And it is that the oath —says Giorgio Lombardi— represents a “guarantee of the sincerity of the promise, of the veracity of its affirmation”, that is to say, through the sworn expressly assumes the duty to exclude duplicity and fraud that implies admitting the way to deny the background first and destroy it later.

*Eloy García, Professor of Constitutional Law.

1Those who like constitutional history will remember that in the Liberal Triennium, Fernando VII resorted to the procedure of introducing “a tagline” in the speech prepared by the ministry, adding his own unconstitutional opinions to bring down the Government and ultimately to destroy unfairly the Constitution of 1812, which ended up getting.

A man has acknowledged that he beat to death three homeless people who were sleeping on the street in Barcelona in April 2020, during confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has accepted a sentence of 63 years in prison, of which he will serve a maximum 40.

The jury trial began this Monday at the Barcelona Court with an agreement between the defense and the prosecution whereby the man responded with monosyllables to a brief interrogation by the prosecutor to confess to the three crimes.

The murders were on April 16, 18 and 27, the first near the Auditori, the second on Casp street and the last in Rosselló, and after the third crime the men arrested the defendant, who was 35 years old at the time, in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona), where he lived in a caravan.

The three victims were homeless men who slept alone on the street, and in her previous allegation the prosecutor has remarked that because of the confinement “people who were on the street were much more insecure than in a normal situation” because there were hardly any people in the street.

The prosecutor added that because of the confinement the defendant “had it better to kill without defense, but the police also had it better to investigate”, and explained that the low presence of people on the street due to the confinement made it easier to identify the man in security camera recordings.

The prosecutor's initial indictment requested a reviewable permanent prison and did not include the three crimes against moral integrity that the man recognized on Monday, and regarding these crimes the prosecutor explained: “Somehow, while being They are killed, they are humiliated, their dignity is taken away, because for the accused they are worthless”.

On the other hand, the accusation does not include aporophobia or that he committed the crimes for this reason, and in this sense the defense lawyer has explained that in April 2020 “he was not recognized by law, which would clearly be unfair to apply that circumstance”.

“I thought they didn't deserve to live”

In the trial there are also two private accusations that represent relatives of victims and the Fundació Arrels as popular accusation: “As Arrels considers, and that is the reason why we are here, that precisely they died because of living on the street. In other words, the defendant killed them because he thought they did not deserve to live, that they deserved to die because they were poor and vulnerable,” said lawyer Beatriz Fernández in her previous allegation..

The sentence takes into account as mitigation that when committing the crimes he had taken alcohol and drugs and, despite the agreement and the confession, the trial will continue because the law requires it to be done when the sentence accepted by the defendant is more than six years. jail, and will continue on Tuesday morning with witness statements.