None of the parties of the sanchista bloc is applying a more coherent political behavior than that of the political heirs of terrorism. They are the most predictable and the ones that are generating the least problems. And, also, those who are obtaining the most electoral and social returns. Your normalization advances across the entire machine. The way they are going, they are destined to grow and become the dominant force in both the Basque Country and Navarra.. It is a simple matter of time, although they have a ceiling that will be difficult to overcome.

We'll see if there ends up being an investiture as it seems and if afterwards we have to endure a term as harsh as the one that passed between 1993 and 1996 (the last in the Government of Felipe González).. It seems like a plausible scenario, we will surely go through some years even more ferocious than those. On this occasion, there will be no qualms to remain in power. They will go with everything.

It is risky to predict in which state each party will reach that moment of alternation in political power.. However, there is no risk in assuming that those at Bildu will enjoy a better (even better) situation than the current one.. They have a clear strategy, they are applying it methodically and they have demonstrated a high capacity to benefit from the mistakes made by their competitors..

Throughout the last legislature they were already able to complete the first phase, they took away from the PNV its main attribute. Their electoral adversaries are no longer the only ones who can offer the Basque or Navarrese voter a capacity for dialogue, negotiation and reliability with respect to Madrid..

During the last few years, those at Bildu have not posed a single order to the Moncloa while everyone else made fuss and brandished bluffing threats of rupture.. They worked with rigor and discretion to take their part in each agreement. And then they were able to exploit each political success with skill in communicating. Without much fanfare, they were able to put medals on their chests one after another, from labor reform to raising the minimum wage, including euthanasia and abortion..

This working method, so contrary to that of Podemos, so superior in its neatness to that of the Catalan nationalists, has demonstrated much greater refinement than that applied by the PNV. As a natural consequence, the results of seriousness did not take long to reach the polls.. First in May, where the loot was substantial. And then in the general elections, when all of Sánchez's partners were penalized but they were not.

Your data is impressive. But the greatest triumph is of an intangible nature and with a longer journey.. The whitening process is your true strategic conquest. The naturalization of Bildu fueled by Moncloa generates something more valuable than the broadening of the brand, it encourages its redefinition for the public without altering even a millimeter the political nature of the product.

Democracy defeated terror. But his executors have not given up anything: they maintain the will to rewrite a history different from what happened (hurting the memory of the victims and the moral fiber of our society), they maintain the strategy of bursting the constitutional system and, of course, the unity of Spain. However, they are receiving a substantial payment for keeping Sánchez in power. Those from Otegi do not feel any pressure nor any incentive to stop being what they are or to stop doing what they do..

For this reason, it can be taken for granted that they will continue to persevere. In fact, they are doing it. Since the general elections in July, Bildu is the only formation of the Sanchista bloc that has not made any demands to the PSOE. They don't need it, they do very well that way. And the best is yet to come.

They have Moncloa delivered. They have the rest of the partners working for them. And they have the PNV completely disarmed: culturally surpassed, weakened because its leaders are worn out and without replacements, strategically cornered since they made the historic mistake of tying themselves to Sánchez and surrendered all their political autonomy, and, this is key, electorally aged.

Ortuzar's people, of course, retain mechanisms of social control that should not be underestimated.. But they are running out of political offerings other than tradition (an unfavorable reason for voting in these times of so much iconoclastic demand).. What can they offer in the next Basque elections?

Territorially, a light product compared to Bildu's.

Economically, an antonym product that will be endorsed in Madrid vote after vote.

And socially, a temperate model (correct management of public services) in the face of the discomfort that the permacrisis has been heating up.

His alliance with the socialists is no longer sustained as it was before on ethical grounds, not even ideologically, now we are only faced with a circumstantial couple.. We all know that the relationship will continue as long as there is a sum, but no one knows if the sum will last much longer..

So we will see the Basque socialists voting in favor of the Lendakari investiture of the Bildu candidate and those of us who express our rejection will be called fascists.

It's probably not going to happen next time – although I don't dare rule it out – but it will happen.. All the necessary circumstances are in place for Otegi's team to continue rising. And one is missing, this is difficult to execute, so that your party is definitely propelled.

In the same way that Catalan nationalism will have to get rid of the entire generation that failed in the coup and poisoned Catalan and Spanish politics, it is also essential that Bildu get rid of Otegi and company if it wants to take over the dominant position.. The rational decision is that. And, this is the paradox, anyone can behave rationally when reason is not on their side..

The template is clear: Gerry Adams was (like Otegi in ETA) an active member of the terrorist group IRA, he stopped being the leader of Sinn Féin five years ago. Last year, his party was victorious in Northern Ireland. Time can do almost everything, it would be desirable if it could not also power memory.

• Almost €1,800 per month and an indefinite contract: this way you can sign up for the unopposed job offers published by Correos
• X-ray of public employment: it generates one in every four new jobs since 2019

Finding a job can become quite a challenge and, sometimes, it is a long road to which we do not see the end.. When looking for the job of our dreams, many factors influence, from each person's professional objectives and working conditions, to the needs and requirements of each position..

To try to shed some light, the Government publishes weekly public employment bulletins. In this case we present you the permanent contract offers that you can find in the Community of Madrid. Firstly, they seek to fill 10 technician positions for the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Employment.

Specifically, the qualification under which the offer is included is that of Agricultural Technician, specializing in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Research (Group III, Level 5, Area B). Of the positions announced, 9 are free and one of them for personnel with disability. The final date to submit the application will be next November 13.

At the Mint and Stamp Factory

The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism announces a technician position for the ICEX-VIVES project department. Interested parties have until October 31 to submit the application. Likewise, the Ministry of Science and Innovation is also looking for a technician for the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT).

Specifically for the support and management activities of the networks of National Contact Points. The date to submit applications also ends on the last day of October. The Ministry of Finance also calls for 7 warehousekeeper positions for the National Mint and Stamp Factory that can be requested until November 3.

The National Police, under the coordination of the National Court and the Prosecutor's Office, launched this Monday a new operation against jihadist terrorism in which at least two people have been arrested.. Sources of the investigation confirm to El Confidencial that one of them is Mustafá Maya Amaya, an old acquaintance of the security forces.. He is a historic radical leader and jihadist recruiter from Melilla who was arrested in 2014 and sentenced to eight years in prison for recruiting and sending individuals to carry out jihad in places in conflict..

In this case he is accused again of an alleged crime of terrorist indoctrination and glorification.. The work is carried out by the General Information Commissioner. It is the second operation against this type of profiles carried out by the Police in recent days, coinciding with the escalation of violence registered in Palestine after the confrontation between Israel and Hamas.. Last week a cell of four people was arrested, three of whom were remanded in preventive detention on Friday.. Researchers detected an increase in network activity after the Hamas terrorist attack and Israel's bombings of Gaza.

In this case, Mustafá Maya has fallen into an arrest reported by El Español and confirmed by this newspaper.. In May 2019, the Supreme Court confirmed the eight years in prison that the National Court imposed on this radical religious leader from Melilla from a gypsy family who moves around in a wheelchair.. Maya Amaya was sentenced along with five other people in what was considered one of the “largest” cells for recruiting and sending fighters from Mali, Syria or Libya for integration into terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State..

They called Mustafa 'the Taliban and he is a convert to Islam'. He was considered the promoter and director of the cell that operated from Melilla and Malaga.. It is believed that, since 2012, his network has helped at least thirty people to join jihadist groups.. Justice described Maya Amaya as the “leader and promoter” of the cell and who maintained “permanent communication with European Muslims, settled mainly in France, whom she recruited through the Internet to travel to the areas of operation of the aforementioned organizations.” terrorists”.

The accused himself explained it during the oral hearing. He confirmed that he gave “information” through social networks to an “exaggerated” number of people who “wanted to work, who wanted to find a life” or who wanted to “learn the Koran” and then commit jihad.. He pointed out that he did not know specifically which jihadist groups they were going to be integrated into.. Almost a decade later he has been arrested again.

The Civil Guard has collected 18 bales of hashish floating in the sea and also on the beaches on the coasts of the municipalities of Calvià and Andratx, west of Mallorca, weighing 660 kilos.

Throughout the weekend, through warning calls from individuals, the collaboration of the Calvià Local Police and their own sightings by Civil Guard units, the agents have collected those 18 bundles, the armed institute has reported in a release.

They were located on the coast of Andratx, in the waters of the island of Sa Dragonera and Cala Llamp and on the coast of Calvià; in Costa de la Calma, Santa Ponça and Portals Vells.

The Civil Guard investigates the discovery to try to find out the origin of the drug. Because of how clean the bales are, the researchers have told EFE that they believe they had not been in the sea for long..

Circulation on Line 7 of the Madrid Metro is interrupted due to “technical causes” between the García Noblejas and Las Musas stations, with an estimated solution time of more than eight hours..

As indicated by Metro de Madrid this Monday on the social network.

🔴 Traffic continues to be interrupted on L7 between García Noblejas and Las Musas, both directions, due to technical reasons. The estimated solution time becomes more than 8 hours.

— Madrid Metro (@metro_madrid) October 23, 2023

Metro de Madrid indicated in a first note that the estimated solution time was more than four hours, but in an update it has placed it at more than eight hours.

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This weekend LuzMadrid, the Madrid International Light Festival, will take place. This biennial event, which is organized by the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sports of the City Council, consists of more than 20 artistic installations focused on the lighting aspect, which will fill the streets and squares of the capital with light.. In this edition, and although light continues to be the “creative impulse”, they explain that the “backbone” of the works is “movement and vibration”.

Specifically, the creations of the LuzMadrid Festival will illuminate the city on October 27, 28 and 29, from 8:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.. In addition, on Saturday the 28th the LuzMadrid Meeting will take place throughout the day, with presentations in which artists, lighting designers and other experts related to the world of light will participate.. On the other hand, there will also be a guided route on Friday and some workshops on Saturday, in which those who want to attend can register..

🌟 LuzMadrid joins the vibrant art scene of the #Carabanchel neighborhood. This traditionally working-class neighborhood in the south of Madrid is on the rise, there is even talk of its similarity to SoHo in New York, since art and fashion find their way into its premises and corners.. pic.twitter.com/qn9SYV6pKh

— LuzMadrid (@_LuzMadrid) October 20, 2023

The artistic works, therefore, will illuminate the Madrid night through holographic projections and other audiovisual resources, and anyone who lives in Madrid or is visiting the capital will be able to appreciate the lighting works just by taking a walk, with creations from the festival in four major areas of the city. These are the four areas of Madrid where the more than 20 works that appear in the official program can be seen:

• Zone 1: Retirement
• Zone 2: Plaza de España, Royal Palace and surroundings
• Zone 3: Matadero / Legazpi
• Zone 4: Carabanchel District (new zone in this edition)

LuzMadrid Meeting Program

This is the program of the LuzMadrid Meeting – City, light and art: from the ephemeral to the permanent, which will take place at the Fernando Lázaro Carreter Cultural Center, on Saturday, October 28 between 9:30 and 2:00 p.m.. Admission is free until capacity is reached..

• 09:30 – Welcome to the LuzMadrid Meeting. With Elena Hernando Gonzalo, Delia Piccirilli and Lara Elbaz.
• 10:00 – The future of light festivals. With Elena Hernando Gonzalo, Daniel Canogar, Eloi Maduell, Ricardo Morcillo and Juan Gómez Cornejo. Moderated by Delia Piccirilli.
• 12:15 – Coffee Break.
• 12:45 – Other ways to inhabit light in the city. With Ignacio Valero, Coque Alcázar, Guillermo Acero and Gemma Gallego Serrano. Moderated by Lara Elbaz.
• 14:00 – Closing of the day.

The meeting can be seen live via streaming, through the following YouTube video that will begin broadcasting on Saturday morning:

Workshops and guided route

Three workshops will be held on Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28. To participate in them, it is necessary to register in advance through the official website.

• Friday, from 6:45 p.m. to 8:40 p.m. – Guided route: Illuminated Carabanchel. With the artist Remedios Vincent.
• Saturday, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. – Workshop: Shadow Theater. With the artist Alexandra Eseverri.
• Saturday, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. – Workshop: Building light with recycled material. With the industrial designer Vicente Porres.

artistic works

There will be more than 20 light works on display, divided into the four areas of the city mentioned above.. The exact location of each one can be consulted on the maps that the organization has published on its website and official networks, as well as the names of the works and their respective authors..

🌇🌟 Get ready to experience the magic of light in Madrid! More than 20 lighting installations await you at LuzMadrid. Go out and be part of this unique experience!

🗺️ Discover the routes on the map on our website.

🕗 From October 27 to 29, between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m.. pic.twitter.com/H4L9RY4D0F

— LuzMadrid (@_LuzMadrid) October 18, 2023

The creations will be illuminated on October 27, 28 and 29, between 8:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m..

A person has died when the vehicle in which he was traveling overturned after a landslide on the Arroyo Sequillo road, in the municipality of Trigueros (Huelva), as reported by the Provincial Fire Fighting and Rescue Consortium of the province of Huelva..

The event occurred yesterday, Sunday, at 9:19 p.m., when the vehicle fell into the ditch, where it was left semi-overturned, after one of the walls of the road came loose.. Its occupant was unable to exit the vehicle..

The firefighters of the Huelva Consortium carried out more than thirty interventions yesterday Sunday from 4:00 p.m., due to the numerous havoc that the storm Bernard is causing in the province.

It is not difficult to imagine Beatriz Echeverría (Madrid, 1972) as a child, smiling and lively, a bit of a demon, too, why not say it?. Today, at 51 years old and with five businesses in charge, he continues to radiate that same character, lively, happy and alert.. Echeverría is one of those bakers who love what they do, she puts the same passion into talking about the pH of the dough as she does when describing how the crust of one of her countless breads should crunch; His favorites are the loaves with seeds. “I recommend that you try it, if you haven't tried it,” he advises me: “It's really very good, because we make our own seed mixture, which is exquisite.”.

He set up his first bakery just a decade ago, in the fall of 2013, in the Peñagrande neighborhood.. Next to where he still lives. “There is nothing that can match walking to work. “I'm five minutes away,” he confesses with his small appearance.. The first winner of the Madrid Golden Crumb, back in 2016, is aware of everything that has changed in the sector in ten years. Also about the bakeries that offer a good product: “I really like Panadario, Obrador San Francisco and 180 Obrador”.

From Lancaster to Madrid

“I started making bread in 1999,” he reveals, while laughing at the time that has passed. She did it in England, while studying History and meeting her future husband, a Hispanicist, like her. He spent 12 years there. “First in London, and then in Cardiff and Lancaster,” he lists. “The first breads were a bit churro. I mean, it was a very strange thing. I don't really know how I got it. And then the bug bit me, and I continued making very simple bread at home: focaccias and soda bread, mostly, which is an Irish bread that does not contain yeast, sourdough, or anything, which is made with baking soda.

In Lancaster a neighbor gave him sourdough and everything changed. “That was the difference, mind you, because I liked to make bread the way I liked to cook, but when I started making bread with sourdough, it's another world, it's exciting, because you have your own live ferment in your house,” he continues explaining.. Then came the courses.

And there he found the key to what he would do next: “I had studied, I had done my doctorate, I had spent a year at the university, and at first I still didn't know what was going to become of me. But I thought, the truth is that “I would like to set up a school.” Between 2008 and 2013, Echeverría became one of the most renowned bread teachers on the Peninsula. Not only because of the courses he gives, but also because of the bakers he invites, some of the brightest minds in kneading and fermenting.

“In fact, at my school, Iban Yarza taught the first course of his life,” he reveals. Javier Marca, who would later set up Panic, was already there as an audience. “And this was in 2008, although everything else was still everyone's imagination. What we were going to be able to do or not do. I didn't plan to open a bakery back then either”. In New York, and especially at Sullivan Street Bakery, she discovered that she wanted to be a baker. “I loved how they worked,” he recalls. “Normally, in slightly more conventional bakeries, one person is in the oven and is a baker and that's it. But here they were in the complete bread process. I liked that, because they were proud of what they did. It was very stimulating. I found it. another, in the end, you're almost a pawn in a line of work.”

Babette's first oven

His first workshop, a secluded space, small in size, which was also placed behind a hedge, did not allow him to be very visible. The neighborhood, in the northwest area of Madrid, did not help either due to its remoteness. And yet, it worked.. These were the beginnings of sourdough bread. A few months later, in December, Panic will open. Something was moving on the Madrid soil, we were leaving the ostracism of the frozen loaves of bread that were heated to the minute.

“It was all a learning experience,” he clarifies. First with the workshop itself and then with the training, which he continued whenever time allowed. “I went to Switzerland to take a course, I joined the Richmond Club. I was also at the Ecole Internationale de Boulangerie, in the south of France. I have gone everywhere. I have done all the courses I could. And then, also , I continued bringing teachers to Madrid, people I admired”.

The result of those visits was the founding of La PEPA, “which was a collective of like-minded small bakers.”. A group of 15 bakeries spread across Spain with which to share ideas. The fever for sourdough bread spread throughout the different corners of the Spanish geography. Madrid also joined this flurry of openings, including El Horno de Babette and Panic, followed by Panadario and La Miguiña, among others..

— Today we have a sourdough bakery on every corner?

— It is not true that there is a bakery with sourdough bread on every corner. There are many who say they have sourdough bread and it is not true..

– What happened?

—The Bread Law came out, which in theory was going to protect those of us who really work with sourdough bread, but the reality is that it has not been like that. There are many bakeries that claim sourdough bread and it is not.. This is a bit frustrating, and I would say there is some unfair competition. Nobody watches him.

—Can you find good bread in Madrid?

— It is true that Madrid right now has a significant handful of good sourdough bakeries. I would tell you that there may be 15, even 20, good sourdough bakeries, but they are not all the ones you see on the street..

The Golden Crumb and the pH of the doughs

In 2016, El Horno de Babette won the award for best bread in Madrid. “When we won the Golden Crumb, it was not like now. Now you have a piece of bread that you decide to present to the Golden Crumb.. But when we won, three judges came to you incognito and tried your bread, they saw the attention of the public and decided there who won,” he says of that first edition.. The only one, according to the story, that was done like this. “It's different, because you can make better or worse bread, but you present what you want and it doesn't necessarily reflect the bread you make”.

And he ends by saying: “That does not mean that the following were bad, in fact Panadario and La Miguiña later won, which are fantastic. But it is true that I believe that the bakery must be judged on a day-to-day basis, not on a bread that one presents at a specific moment.”. In this decade, Babette's Oven has evolved tremendously. These are the words of Echeverría who comments how “we have greatly improved our process control and we have begun to control all aspects of bread making; they are the two main things that I would tell you, control of the temperature and pH of the dough. “.

This bread making, with a crunchy dough, spongy, almost elastic crumbs, well-controlled alveoli and a tasty and nutritious bread, is what has made El Horno de Babette always be in the top positions when it comes to excellent bread. sourdough.

Pastries and sweets

Also in the sweet part, where their cookies, their croissants, their muffins and their flaky palmeritas stand out widely.. “I think that in the end, since you go to the bakery, it should be accompanied with authentic products,” he says of his bakery pastries.. “What we do is very simple. The cupcake has extra virgin olive oil, has egg, has lemon zest. “It's a little bit what you would do at home, a little more professional, but it doesn't take anything more.”. A basic pastry, but excellent in the raw materials. “Since you have a sweet, at least it doesn't have substitutes, that the butter is real butter, that the chocolate is real chocolate”.

Among their recommendations for these months to come, you cannot miss the Three Kings roscón. “It is another recipe that I have been working on since I opened the school, and I am improving it year after year. I think that the one we have now is quite the definitive one. Very different from the roscones that are on the market, because in format it is a bit alternative, but then it is very purist in flavor”. And then there is the chocolate cookie, “it's soft, with good chocolate, which is the key.”

The Sumar coalition was a kind of miracle of necessity. Sánchez surprised with an express electoral call that forced all parties to find the formula of maximum profitability and after May 28 that was a disaster for the purple ones, the main members of the coalition, namely those of Yolanda Díaz and those of Podemos, they were aware that the only possibility of obtaining a decent result was to add, although reluctantly.

Irene Montero's veto was the big straw that Podemos had to swallow, but contrary to what they had done on previous occasions, they did not dare to break the pact. They were aware that public opinion, their bases and above all, the officials who were left out, would not forgive them.. So, they participated in the elections with a marriage of convenience that did not convince any of the parties.. Once the July 23 deadline has passed, the main actors in this coalition now seek to regroup and protect their interests.. The results of the general elections were not conclusive to settle the internal battle. Nor good enough to consolidate Yolanda Díaz as the undisputed leader; nor bad enough to defenestrate it and assault the skies of the coalition with Montero and Belarra at the head.

Sumar, an artifact broken before it began, could hold the key to what happens in the future of Spanish politics. Whether there is a progressive government or not, those from Belarra seem willing to fight to preserve some autonomy and power. For her part, Yolanda Díaz is very clear that if she wants to consolidate the Sumar political project, she must keep it protected from the core of Galapagar, who one day anointed her as successor as a kind of delegate with a good image so that she could reign, but not govern..

The large part of the territorial elites of Podemos, now without institutional power, joined the side of Yolanda Díaz and made this clear in the municipal and regional elections on May 28, in which they signed non-aggression agreements.. However, these cadres still do not want to definitively break with the Podemos environment, with Pablo Iglesias who has a certain influence on his electoral bases and who does not hesitate to point out traitors, sewers and sellouts to the structures of the state, while as long as they do not support him without fissures.

And now that. The Spanish political panorama is unclear, but there are only two options. Either Sánchez gets the investiture or there is a repeat election. And in both scenarios the rupture of Sumar's space seems to be a fact and this could have important consequences on the governability of Spain.. Let's explore the options, because they all have depth.

During the investiture negotiation

There is much talk about the investiture and the supposed amnesty. However, the 5 Podemos deputies could give Sánchez and Díaz as many headaches as the 7 Junts deputies.. For now, they are biding their time, they are perfectly aware that they cannot compete with the media power of such a controversial clean slate political operation.. But in the PSOE and Sumar they cannot take the support of the purples for granted. Ione Belarra warns this in all the public interventions she makes. They will not negotiate with Sumar, nor will Yolanda Díaz be able to do so on their behalf.. Podemos wants to negotiate its own conditions directly with the PSOE. And if the 7 of Junts are well worth an amnesty because they are essential for there to be a government, the 5 of Podemos are no less so and the situation could arise that, at the last minute, the fundamental obstacle did not come from the nationalist parties/ independentistas, but of the partner who formed the first coalition government with Sánchez 4 years ago that was signed with the hug between Iglesias and Sánchez.

One might think that Podemos would not dare to tighten the rope so much and put a progressive government at risk.. But the truth is that you are afraid when you have something to lose. And those from Belarra could make the following equation: if they do not enter the government they will not have any media platform to cling to when the legislature begins to function.. If it is already difficult for a minority party in a government coalition to make the agreement and presence profitable, imagine what happens to those who support from the outside without having their own flags, or victories that they can make profitable among their electorate.. PSOE and Podemos are not the same, nor do they represent the same. For this reason, the purple ones have been able to make themselves noticed in policies that are not typical of the PSOE, or in measures to which they have dragged the socialists to less focused positions.. However, the differences between Sumar and Podemos are not clear; Therefore, those of Podemos will have a difficult time finding spaces, policies, measures, in which they will not be overshadowed by those of Díaz.. Consequently, they want, need and will pressure for Irene Montero to be minister.

Sánchez and Díaz obtain the investiture

Let's imagine that Sánchez's investiture is finally successful and he gets enough 176 seats to govern. The breakup of Podemos and Sumar will also be a whole chapter in the via crucis that awaits them to approve progressive policies that have nothing to do with territorial issues.. Firstly, because this majority that Sánchez is trying to forge is not clearly progressive. In fact, during the investiture debate, Mr.. Feijóo reminded those of the PNV that they had not voted for them to carry out the Podemos program. Together we still do not know where it is located on the ideological continuum, its miscellany with ex-convergents and people with no other discourse than independence makes them unpredictable. But if we look at their electoral program, I wouldn't place them on the radical left either.. Therefore, from an ideological point of view, the Spanish parliament has a right-wing majority that could not be amalgamated in a PP investiture due to the repellent that Vox represents for nationalists..

Therefore, Sánchez and Díaz will have to seek parliamentary support to approve progressive policies with unenthusiastic partners and with 5 Podemos deputies who have already announced that they are going to go on their own.. It matters little that they signed an agreement to join the Sumar coalition to integrate the parliamentary group. Now the seats are theirs and they will use them to affirm that everything their former partners propose seems unprogressive to them.. So the government, if formed, could be caught in an impossible equation between the centrifugal forces of the PNV and Junts that invite them to soften their political proposals and the Podemos 5 that accuse them of being a government without a leftist profile..

Electoral repetition

If there is a repeat election, Podemos will not join Sumar. Obviously, it is a statement that is endorsed by the interventions of the members of Belarra. In all of them we can see a certain regret for having succumbed to Díaz's ultimatum.. In fact, our colleague, Alejandro López de Miguel, published last Friday, October 20 in El Confidential, that Podemos was preparing its strategy to break with Sumar. In fact, they have already announced that they would not run again in elections without there being primaries to choose the candidate.. And if there is a repeat election, Díaz will once again argue that there is no time. If this scenario were to occur, Sumar and Podemos could compete separately in a supposed electoral repetition, which could mean that the fragmented space would not be able to make profitable all the votes in the area to the left of the PSOE and, therefore, reduce the possibilities of re-editing a progressive government.

Sumar's breakup is a fact, but the consequences of this divorce are still unclear. From forcing an electoral repetition to splitting the parliamentary group. They all have the same denominator, the weakness of the left and the strengthening of the right.. At the same time, a political force cannot be blamed for fighting for its survival, even if it means dying while killing..

Does Europe have anything to do with the Middle East? The question has infinite answers, but it is likely that the most accurate, certainly the most visual, occurred this week on the beaches of Rota. Last Tuesday, 66 years after the signing of the Treaties of Rome, the European Union held its first non-theoretical military exercise outside NATO.

As reported by Politico, the publication that best knows the insides of Brussels, air, land and maritime armed forces from nine EU countries landed on one of the beaches of the Cadiz city to rescue a fictitious European ally called Seglia, whose Government had asked for help to address a security problem caused by a violent extremist group. During the exercises, Spanish troops defended themselves from enemy forces.

The different attacking armies, and here is the uniqueness, neither speak the same language nor use the same military equipment nor do they currently have a unified political command, which clearly reflects Europe's difficulties in advancing a common position, sometimes not even own. Making good on Kissinger's famous phrase: when I have to call Europe, I don't know who to call. To Paris, to Berlin, to Brussels? No, Europe doesn't look like anything.

The reason is very obvious and does not deserve any explanation.. Military or political deterrence, which is part of the hallmarks of international relations, like it or not, has been absent from Europe's foreign and security policy for almost seven decades, which partly explains its progressive geopolitical irrelevance..

The curious thing is that, at the same time, Europe is the region that has put the most resources on the table to help development on the planet and has contributed the most to the expansion of globalization, which has had a high cost for its productive structure. internal. The weight of emerging economies has gone from 40% in the early 90s to 60% today, reflecting a radical change that is still difficult to evaluate today..

The euro loses its step

It is true that it has also benefited from the expansion of trade, but the balance has been unbalanced. You just have to take into account, for example, that, according to a recent work published in ICE, one of the most prestigious magazines in the country, the participation of the euro in currency transactions carried out throughout the planet has fallen almost seven points. since 2001 (up to 30.5% adding all purchase and sale operations). The presence of the dollar, on the contrary, has remained stable, while the Chinese yuan has gained what Europe lost, despite the fact that the old continent exports almost 50% more than the US and close to China..

This may explain, in part, the decline in Europe's political influence throughout the planet, particularly in hot zones, despite the economic power it represents.. Probably due to the absence of diplomatic action that has worked in parallel to shore up, and in some cases encourage, democratic systems without the need for military intervention, as the neocons intended during the times of the second Bush.. That is to say, foreign action has been emptied of political content, which has ultimately strengthened autocratic systems, which have often even been presented as more efficient..

The extreme of its lack of strategic autonomy has been its high dependence on global value chains, which has ultimately weakened its political position to negotiate with third parties and has made Europe more vulnerable.. For example, almost 80% of suppliers to European companies that use semiconductors are based outside the European Union.. As a consequence, diplomatic pressure in favor of democracy, which is part of international relations, has been minimal.. It is the high dependence on foreign countries that has weakened Europe's ability to influence.

The most obvious case is that of China, which has taken advantage of European and North American investments without taking any steps towards democracy.. What's more, social clauses have not even been included in many bilateral agreements, which would have allowed another model of globalization.. Of course, less asymmetric than the current one, based on dependence on cheap labor.

Europe, likewise, is the largest contributor of development aid in Africa, but China and Russia, despite this, have more influence. Europe's offer, in fact, has been more typical of an NGO, undoubtedly necessary, than of a continent that must say something in international geopolitics, given that the economic integration of the planet has not stopped growing since the years 80s and 90s after the abatement of protectionist tariff policies. On the contrary, the economic offer of China and Russia has had a widespread appeal for what has been called the global south..

Asymmetric benefits

Nor in the Middle East has Europe's position been noticed despite the fact that, thanks to the European Neighborhood Policy, countries such as Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia have an asymmetric preferential regime that benefits the arc Mediterranean to the detriment of the EU.

This preferential treatment has been of little or no use to influence the region. Precisely, because it has looked the other way when it was necessary to pressure States to comply with international law, in the case of Israel for its settlement policy or its position on East Jerusalem.. And when it has not done so, it has thought that the policy of sanctions was enough, which have proven clearly insufficient on many occasions, and on other occasions, even counterproductive, as has happened with Russia or Iran, which have found the way to salvation. in the creation of a new regional order that paradoxically competes with Europe itself.

This is, in fact, the dramatic dilemma that surrounds the politics of the continent today.. If it does not show sufficient commitment to defending the interests of the Palestinians, which is not incompatible with Israel obtaining the necessary security guarantees, it will distance itself from emerging countries and the global south, which in the end is the worst news for Ukraine. , which is the main wound that remains open in Europe. Among other reasons because, with reason, it can be accused of having a double standard with kyiv and Gaza regarding war crimes..

Brussels only has to remember the cost of credibility in the region that it had to support the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq by blindly following Washington, which has finally ended up expelling both from the area and emboldening, on the contrary, Iran. , the main winner of what is happening. The old axis of evil from the times of George W. Bush has transformed today into something more compact and more responsive. Not even the US today has a determining influence over Tel Aviv, as has been seen with the illegal settlement policy.. As the latest of Haaretz's main editorials argues, democracy is also tested in times of war.

Diplomatic prestige?

Mistakes are paid for, as Biden himself has admitted, and are the origin of an increasingly multipolar world, and in which Europe's diplomatic prestige has been liquidated by failure to articulate its foreign policy around the economy and not the geopolitics, which goes much further than trade agreements. And what is no less relevant, when thinking that the Abraham Accords could solve the problem by bringing Israel and some Arab countries together, but ignoring the Palestinians. A policy of appeasement that has proven useless after the brutality of Hamas terrorists.

As former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt recently wrote, the two decades of diplomatic progress following the Yom Kippur War were followed by three decades of setback.. Forces opposed to reconciliation and peaceful compromise gained the upper hand on both sides. The Palestinian fundamentalists of Hamas and other related organizations have grown stronger, while the Israeli fanatics, represented by Netanyahu, questioned for months by a good part of the Israeli population for his attacks on the separation of powers, have expanded their settlements in the West Bank ( that the US no longer considers illegal) in occupied lands that were destined to become the territory of a future Palestinian state.

On the other hand, the progressive replacement of Arafat's PLO, which when the Oslo Accords were signed was still a terrorist organization for much of the planet, by Hamas, the fanatical instrument of Iran, which has managed to unite Shiites and Sunnis. , at the expense of the Palestinians themselves, makes any solution unviable as long as they prioritize the recovery of pre-1948 lands over the prosperity of their own people.. And, above all, as long as they do not give up on throwing the Israelis into the sea.

Together, the fanatics on both sides, although evidently with very different dimensions, have destroyed the bridge that the Oslo Accords built just 30 years ago.. And Europe's impotence is nothing more than the expression of so much political complacency in the name of obtaining commercial results.. Now, with the region on fire, Europe has neither peace in Palestine nor any influence over Netanyahu's Israel, very different from that of Isaac Rabin and Shimon Peres..