The photo of Pedro Sánchez with EH Bildu has provoked an energetic response from the right. PP and Vox have harshly censored the meeting, described as “unworthy”, and have criticized the negotiations of the Government in office with the nationalist and independence forces.. “Today is a black day for democracy in Spain,” Cuca Gamarra, spokesperson for the Popular Party in the Congress of Deputies, declared in La Rioja..

Sánchez has normalized the relationship with the radical coalition to the extreme. If in 2019 he avoided the image with EH Bildu, only four years later he has done the opposite. He has portrayed himself with Arnaldo Otegi's party and has placed them in a preferential place for everything that is to come. In fact, with no date yet for the investiture attempt, it is one of the few supports guaranteed to continue in the Moncloa..

The main leaders of the PP have come out in a rush to criticize the meeting. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who speaks of a “pact of shame”, has reiterated that EH Bildu cannot be another ally in any scenario until it helps to clarify ETA's crimes.. “Pedro Sánchez's pact with Bildu is the pact of shame. No president should speak to those who refuse to collaborate to clarify the crimes of terrorism. As I said at the investiture, there is nothing to agree with Bildu,” he published on his X profile, formerly Twitter.

Pedro Sánchez's pact with Bildu is the pact of shame.

No president should speak to those who refuse to collaborate to clarify the crimes of terrorism.

As I said at the investiture, with Bildu there is nothing to agree on. pic.twitter.com/eMDoO0tIaR

— Alberto Núñez Feijóo (@NunezFeijoo) October 13, 2023

Gamarra, who appeared during a press conference in La Rioja, has also been very harsh with the allies of the PSOE. “It is the photo of indignity and the lowest one can fall in politics.”. Today he has shown that, between indignity and decency, he chooses the former,” he stressed.. However, it has not been the only. The general coordinator of the party, Elías Bendodo, has done the same along the same lines. “In case anyone had any doubts, this is how shame is sealed. I am sure that many socialists did not expect this when they voted on June 23,” he said in X.

The response has also come from the leadership of Vox. Santiago Abascal has been as belligerent as the popular ones and has recalled the conviction for glorifying terrorism of Mertxe Aizpurua, one of the interlocutors of the radical nationalist formation with the Government in office. “Condemned for advocating terrorism, friend of ETA members and editor of ETA propaganda. Today she is a partner of the autocrat Sánchez. He is guilty, but there are others responsible: those who voted NO to the illegalization of Bildu when VOX proposed it in Congress,” Abascal said from the same social network..

Whitening

The two right-wing parties have placed special emphasis on Sánchez's “whitewashing” of EH Bildu, which in the last municipal elections included among its candidates those convicted of terrorism, seven of them with blood crimes behind them.. “Apart from the infamous betrayal of the victims of ETA…, the corrupt Sánchez buys his chair with the vote of those who have the objective of destroying Spain,” Gamarra added..

In this Friday's meeting, as reported by El Confidencial, Pedro Sánchez and the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, participated on the socialist side.. Representing EH Bildu were the spokesperson in Congress, Mertxe Aizpurua, and Senator Gorka Elejabarrieta. The radical formation has valued the “exercise of responsibility and respect” that it entails and has paved the way for new support. The fundamental premise is that the result of the general elections in Euskadi involves avoiding a PP and Vox Government at any price, which inevitably implies a long-term alliance with Sánchez. “Bildu does not and will not speculate,” Otegi's men point out in a note published after the meeting.

On Agreement Street, in the Conde Duque area, between Noviciado and San Vicente Ferrer, there was for many years a long-established bar called El Chorrillo.. Its tin counter, with those geometric shapes that are so characteristic and so old, can still be touched and enjoyed.. Although now the name, the concept and its interior have completely changed.

Behind them are the guys from Kitchen 154, a reference in the most restless and unprejudiced Asian cuisine.. Experts in recipes from countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand or India. And from their base camp, in the Vallehermoso Market, where they opened nine years ago, they mark Madrid's passion for spicy food..

They are one of the best exponents of the diversity that can be found in our kitchens.. With Alejandro Zurdo, a resident of Puerta del Ángel, a medievalist by training and one of the great chefs of oriental gastronomy, who has been studying it for 25 years, traveling continuously to those countries that continue to stir his heart, as one of his best representatives.

Novitiate, the oriental bar

The spirit of El Chorrillo can still be felt on the walls and in the atmosphere of Kitchen 154. “We are very fond of bars, and upon entering here we noticed that El Chorrillo was very present,” confesses Zurdo, who we caught preparing some of the dishes that will be served at lunchtime.. “We tried to make a Southeast Asian cuisine menu but make it a bit like bar food”.

They have marinated anchovies that emulate those made on the coast of Sri Lanka, “with a lot of spices”. They also have a salad with fried cauliflower, “which I think is what we sell the most.”. What else do you have? “We have a bonito nam tok, which is a Thai salad. There is also a fried ear with a habanero sauce that is very good”.

When we chat with him he confesses that he is preparing a green curry with marinated chicken. “We try to make each one as different as possible and to be quite orthodox with what is done in Thailand.”. Of course they are spicy. We have managed to ensure that they have their acidic points, their sweet, salty, and spicy points,” he says..

Regarding the green they will have, he confesses that they have finally found a Thai basil, which has an aniseed touch: “Because actually Thai curries have much less cilantro than basil and we had to add cilantro because we couldn't find that basil.”.

Vallehermoso, the first to experience

About his flagship house, opened in 2014 in the Vallehermoso Market, he only has good words. They landed there out of necessity. “When we arrived in Vallehermoso there were very few things. About 75% of the stalls were closed and there were very few places that provided food,” he points out.. We settled because the price suited us, we could afford it.. And without having a very clear idea of what we wanted to do, we set up the restaurant there and it went very well”. And while they did well, in some way they also greatly energized the market, which today is one of the hot spots if we talk about eating well at reasonable prices.. With Batch, El 2, Tripea, Güey, Craft 19, Prost, Washoku or Drakkar.

“At first we started selling tacos, we focused on spicy and sous vide cooking. In the vacuum kitchen, which were not things that were seen too much at that time in Spain,” he recalls.. That was like the common thread.. Then spicy food led them towards more Southeast Asian cuisine.. “When we opened we continued making tacos, making dishes that were a little bit Southeast Asian, dishes that were a little bit Indian, a little bit from everywhere, whatever we wanted,” he says..

“The first things we took out when we had the restaurant were the ribs. “We had ribs, we had dumplings, we had tacos,” he continues to explain.. “We started playing more purely Thai or Southeastern dishes”. And what happened was that, naturally, the public began to opt for the more Southeast Asian dishes, “because I think that at that time, I also talk about a mythical place and time, 10 years ago, in which “Asian food in Madrid was 1% of what there is now”.

In this way they refined a recipe book with classics and innovated with preparations that went beyond the most conventional line. “We try to ensure that in all the establishments we have there are three dishes that are the same, that are more or less iconic.. The red shrimp curry, the ribs and the sweet chili wings, which have been with us since the beginning. They have always been there and are like our symbols”, lists those basics that one cannot ignore if visiting them for the first time..

Now, they also have an ear that they make in the wok with a chilli and ginger sauce. Also a yellow curry, a Thai curry with fried marinated dogfish. A fish that they fry in chickpea flour and put on top of the curry. “It has the Cádiz roll, let's say, the Andalusian roll, but we also put our things in it, we put garlic, ginger, we put coriander, we put some chili pepper in it,” he clarifies..

From their kitchen they also come out with a Sichuan eggplant and some crabs that are like chili crab with black pepper.. “And I think this month we are going to add some sautéed mussels with nam prik, which is a toasted chilli jam.”. We continue to hit it hard and change dishes often depending on the time we have”.

Off menu and Asian culture

The Kitchen menus and cards rotate regularly, as Alejandro comments, his enormous knowledge of different oriental cultures and cuisines allows him to play with all of it.. “The last trip I took was three and a half months,” highlights a man who has been visiting those countries for more than two decades.. “Everything has changed a lot. Before there wasn't this whole foodie movement, a word I don't like, so it was very easy to get into the kitchens, for people to invite you or give you recipes.”.

In any case, now his way of learning is very different, “I already have many more years of experience in the kitchen, so I don't need to get into the kitchen so much, but rather to take ideas.”. Zurdo travels and settles in cities for a long period: “I don't travel to see monuments. I'm just eating and I'm writing and I try to talk to people, I try to get to know them and they take me places.”.

Among the cities that he has visited and are fascinated by are Hanoi, Hue, Bangkok, or Penang. “The last thing I did was spend two weeks with an incredible chef, in the north of Thailand, in Chiang Mai, called Hanuman and who, well, is a reference for all the people who make Thai cuisine,” he confesses. one of the last courses you have received.

What will be in the future? “I want to make a Sri Lankan menu and put it here in the store. “I lived there for two years.”. And about the off-menu items, he confesses that he adds new things whenever he can: “Recently, before I went on a trip, we made stewed bacon with caramel and black pepper, which is a typical dish from Phuket, in Thailand.. We made a fried egg salad, Thai, jam kai dao. It is a very typical salad from there, which is made with a fairly crispy fried egg and then with a lot of herbs and fish sauce, lime, all that,” he explains. “We are also trying a sea bass in banana leaf, which is called ikan bakar, it is a Malaysian dish that is made with a chilli paste. I think we started releasing it this week. What do I know, with a lot of stories.”

Aware that the migration crisis has short-circuited the possibilities of understanding with the Canary Coalition, Sánchez will impose a ceasefire on his people, lower the pressure, cool down the headlines, put out the fire that has engulfed the relationship with CC for weeks now. As a gesture of good will, María Jesús Montero will now call the general secretary of the nationalists and president of the Canarian Government, Fernando Clavijo. Clean, negotiating table and new account. Hairs to the sea. The socialists propose to bury the hatchet and negotiate. Sánchez wants the Coalition to be in favor. CC is not in the yes. If anything, an abstention, and after the investiture we will see. The conversation will not be easy. Too many storms have been sown. There is no chemistry. Not physics. Nor thermodynamics. Neither empathy nor trust. CC doesn't trust it. Coalition is not comfortable. He doesn't want to be in the amnesty photo. He wants to put himself in value, yes, but after the president's foreseeable re-election. Sánchez showed his kindest version in the meeting with deputy Cristina Valido, but it is not enough. It's not enough. It won't be easy. There are many open wounds. Pending accounts. Bad precedents. There are few reasons to bet on an agreement. The PSOE must show willingness and give guarantees, it is not easy, it may not be enough.

The relationship between both parties had run aground without giving time for the interlocutors to see each other's faces, face to face.. The August flirtation, a summer dalliance with an uncertain life expectancy, seemed doomed to be reduced to ashes.. The decreasing interest that the socialist ranks showed in the Canary Coalition was joined by the shootout that the immigration crisis on the islands unleashed between both parties.. The bridges were blown up, they cracked, they gave way, they distanced the Canarian Coalition from the PSOE and, consequently, from the support of the Canarian nationalists for the candidate, Pedro Sánchez.. Now it's time to rebuild. Only the miracles that politics is capable of cooking in the minutes of stoppage time, when parliamentary emergencies are pressing, could rebuild a relationship, that of CC and PSOE, which was blown up by poisoned statements.

The conversation descended into noise. It has not been, by any means, something unprecedented. Tension has been common between them for years now. Although socialists and nationalists have been perfectly capable of understanding each other in the past – they have been partners at different times in the autonomous journey – there has never been chemistry with Sánchez. At times, if ever. Former deputy Ana Oramas, who was particularly harsh with him every time he went up to the congressional rostrum, did not agree with the president. There has never been a fluid relationship, ever, between Sánchez and the Canarian president, Fernando Clavijo. It's better for both of them to get along worse.. Both presidents have never had affection or patience for each other.

They don't even need to, some distracted voice will say. And, yes, it is necessary. Aid. Facilitates. About. And not. They have not been found. On the contrary, the relationship between Sánchez and Clavijo is the chronicle of a disagreement that has only had two parentheses: CC's support for the latest General State Budgets and, from the elections to this part, the intention of the PSOE to incorporate the Coalition to the photo of those who will make the president's re-election possible—an objective that had been on hold for weeks in this part.

Although it is not admitted with the desired officiality, both parties maintained contacts before the storm. Messages. Phone calls. Exchange of roles. Encounters in the middle of the light. With the Minister of the Presidency as a back-and-forth messenger, Canarian socialists and nationalists made efforts to learn to understand each other. Bolaños has managed to generate the trust that the Coalition general staff does not fully deserve in the president. From the approach we went to the cold. The messages stopped coming, the calls stopped. The communication entered a hibernation phase, causing the CC deputy to inform the King that they had no news from the PSOE or the candidate Sánchez. The unstoppable cooling of the relationship gave way to a dynamic of accusations, replicas and qualifications that broke the summer conversation of Canarian socialists and nationalists.. It was assumed that it would be resumed when the King commissioned Sánchez to create a sufficient majority, but with the exchange of accusations as a result of the migratory crisis, the possibility that they would give up trying to reach an agreement began to take shape.. Sánchez wants CC in his investiture photo. going to try. Thus there is no one to negotiate, the conditions are not met to attempt a more or less solid agreement for the investiture – it was heard in CC -.

The migration crisis has the Canary Islands with assisted breathing, pedaling on a stationary bicycle, flying over the collapse and on the verge of the tension between the national and regional governments landing at street level. Relations between the central and regional executives are practically broken, an uncontrolled explosion that has reached the category of institutional crisis.. The unstoppable arrival of immigrants and the apathy of the relevant ministries have led to an indigestible cocktail. Nobody called. Nobody responded. Nobody extended a hand. Anything. The rope broke, until yesterday.

In the archipelago, the idea is growing that in Madrid and the other autonomous communities they have ignored a crisis that, with the facts in hand, far from being a matter of State, seems to be considered a Canarian matter.. The Minister of the Interior added gasoline to the bonfire of press headlines (his statements ignited a legion of indignant people) and the Canary Islands president decided to bury the truce that PSOE and CC had agreed upon.. A parliamentary collaboration between both formations was, given the circumstances, a hypothesis that was no longer viable.. At least, facing the investiture. Paint that they will not be in the photo. CC prefers something else. The day-to-day situation will be a different matter, once the next legislature gets underway, if the wild card of an electoral repetition is not pulled..

CC and PSOE will not shake hands at the investiture session. The amnesty and the immigration crisis crossed their path that Sánchez now wants to smooth out. The vote of the CC deputy, Cristina Valido, was no longer essential since Carles Puigdemont's party announced that they were putting the abstention letter in the drawer. Without intending to, Junts did a favor for the Coalition. In CC they prefer it that way, convenient but not essential. Sánchez wants them in the photo. Coalition prefers to save it and understand each other, yes, but later. A negotiation begins that will be marked by mistrust and discomfort. Sánchez wants yes, but CC prefers abstention. The ceasefire has an expiration date.

Iberdrola Generación and four company directors will sit next Tuesday on the bench of the National Court in the first criminal case against an electricity company for allegedly manipulating the price of electricity. The company faces a fine of 84.9 million euros for inflating the cost of its hydropower between November 30 and December 23, 2013 to cause other more expensive sources of production, such as combined cycles, to have to connect to the network. As a consequence, the price of electricity shot up by up to 126%.

The oral hearing is expected to last until November. In addition to the fine, the anti-corruption prosecutor in charge of the case, Antonio Romeral, requests two years in prison for the four managers who would have intervened in the alleged adulteration of the price for a crime against consumers and the market.. This is the director of Energy Management at Iberdrola Generación, ACT; the person responsible for Optimization, Resource Management and Trading, GRC; the head of Asset Management, JLRJ, and the head of Short-Term Market Management and Global Generation, JPZ.

The experts from the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) concluded during the investigation phase that, with the adulteration of the pricing mechanism, Iberdrola would have achieved extraordinary profits of 21.2 million euros and the suppliers and citizens lost 107.3 million. In addition to the Public Ministry, the marketing companies Geoatlander SL, Axpo Iberia SL and Belegi Invest SL, as well as the consumer association Facua, which exercises the popular accusation, are accused..

Witnesses such as the former Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism José Manuel Soria and the former Secretary of State for Energy Alberto Nadal, top political officials of the electricity sector in the moment of the events. Both already declared during the investigation phase.

During his appearance, Soria recalled that the ministry's technicians detected that Iberdrola “did not generate the corresponding hydraulic electrical energy” and was convinced that there was “manipulation” of the system.. According to the former PP minister, his Government's relations with the Spanish multinational were not exactly going through a good moment in those weeks, after the Ministry of Finance refused to include an item of 3.6 billion in the general State budgets for 2014. to reduce the tariff deficit. Soria linked the closure of the reservoirs to these tensions.

Nadal had more friction with the electricity companies during his time at the Secretary of State for Energy, but, when it was his turn to testify in this procedure, he ruled out that Iberdrola had committed any type of irregularity and downplayed the importance of the episode.. However, the uncontrolled escalation of prices led the Government of Mariano Rajoy to cancel the auction that was to set the prices that consumers would pay during the first quarter of 2014 to prevent them from rising by 10.5%..

Reports prepared by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard after the search of the Iberdrola headquarters in Madrid and Bilbao in 2017 and that are included in the case summary reveal that the company allegedly established the price of its hydraulic production in informal meetings, through verbal orders, with unknown criteria and without leaving a written record of those decision-making processes.

The agents verified, for example, that the multinational awarded a much higher price to its water reserves than in previous years, despite the fact that, in 2013, the state of its reservoirs was more favorable.. They also confirmed that the company had planned in internal documents to contribute more hydraulic energy to the network than it finally delivered on the days under suspicion..

The Public Ministry concluded the investigation phase by pointing out that, “to achieve a higher price in the electricity market (…), [Iberdrola] increased, without legitimate cause to justify it, the price in the electricity offers corresponding to its Duero, Sil and Tajo hydraulic plants, at a level above the daily market price that prevented the operations from being matched.”. “This situation determined the withdrawal of programming from the aforementioned plants, that is, they stopped producing energy,” the prosecutor noted in his writing.. “The consequence of the artifice concocted and carried out by the defendants was the increase in the price of electrical energy by at least 7.156 euros/MWh, which caused damage to demand of at least 107.3 million euros” .

For its part, Iberdrola has always maintained that, during the weeks investigated, it had a buying position in the market and that the increase in prices caused it losses, so it had no reason to contribute to the increase in costs. Likewise, it points out that the evolution of its hydraulic supply responded to rational and transparent criteria and that the intervention of other factors in the rate increase has been undervalued.

Homicide Group V of the Provincial Judicial Police Brigade of Madrid investigates the discovery of a body that showed signs of violence in a home in the Ciudad Lineal district in the capital. The victim would be the doorman of an apartment block at number 366 in the capital, who was murdered in a house on the property itself, as reported by El País..

As investigation sources have confirmed to Europa Press, the discovery occurred on Wednesday night, when the agents were able to access the interior of a home where it was suspected that this person could be found, whose disappearance had been investigated for several days..

Specifically, the investigation, initiated following the disappearance report, determined that he could be found inside a home.. After the entry, authorized by the court on duty, it was found that the victim was dead inside..

According to the information published by the newspaper, the owner of the house where the body was found is being sought, although the sources consulted have not confirmed this and emphasize that at the moment there are no arrests..

Tragic day in the PP of Madrid. Regional deputy Jorge García Díaz, former mayor of Colmenar Viejo, has died at the age of 43 in a traffic accident early this Thursday. García, who was in charge of the city council of the Madrid town between 2016 and 2023, made the leap to regional politics on May 28, on the lists of Isabel Díaz Ayuso for the Madrid Assembly.

The party has dressed in mourning after hearing the news. Leaders of the training, from Alberto Núñez Feijóo to Isabel Díaz Ayuso, have conveyed their pain and condolences to García's family. “Shocked by the death of our deputy Jorge García Díaz. A good man who gave everything to represent his beloved Colmenar Viejo anywhere,” the Madrid president published in X, before Twitter.

Traffic accident on the M608 in #GuadalixdelaSierra. #SUMMA112 confirms the death of a man after 45 minutes of CPR.
He also stabilizes 4 injured people and transfers them to the La Paz Hospital.. #FirefightersCM carry out prevention work.
Investigate @guardiacivil pic.twitter.com/DK5P4Ts48v

— 112 Community of Madrid (@112cmadrid) October 12, 2023

The event took place in Guadalix de la Sierra early this Thursday. In the incident, according to Emergency 112 sources, four people were also injured, two of them minors.. The accident took place at kilometer 10 of the M-608 highway, after the head-on collision of two vehicles. From Emergencies they detail that the first hypotheses suggest that García was trapped in his car and went into respiratory arrest.. The Summa 112 paramedics rescued the body and performed pulmonary resuscitation maneuvers for 45 minutes, but they could only confirm his death..

In the other car involved, a family was traveling, including two minors and a pregnant woman.. Jorge García is the only fatal victim of the incident. The rest have been stabilized and transferred to the La Paz Hospital..

⚫️ Dismayed by the death of our deputy Jorge García. All the support of the GPP to his family and friends. D.E.P.

— PP Assembly of Madrid (@PPAsamblea) October 12, 2023

All Madrid politics share the pain of the PP of Madrid and García's family. The leader of Más Madrid in the Community of Madrid, Mónica García, has conveyed her condolences through social networks, a message that has been joined by the deputy Hugo Martínez Abarca.. “We regret the death of the deputy in the Assembly and former mayor of Colmenar Viejo Jorge García Díaz. A hug to your loved ones and the entire Popular Party family,” García published. The PSOE of Colmenar Viejo has also mourned the death of the Madrid politician.

After receiving the terrible news, we join the pain of the PP of Madrid after the death of Jorge García Díaz.

All my love to your family, friends and colleagues. DEP. https://t.co/Vzgmvf72gE

— Alberto Núñez Feijóo (@NunezFeijoo) October 12, 2023

The president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, as well as the Madrid president, have shown their sadness at the tragic event: “A good man who gave everything to represent his beloved Colmenar Viejo anywhere,” writes Díaz Ayuso.

From mayor of Colmenar to deputy in the Assembly

Jorge García dedicated almost his entire political life to service in Colmenar Viejo. First as a PP councilor and then as mayor, a position he reached in 2016 due to a court case by his predecessor.. The former councilor held the baton until this year, when he did not run for re-election.. “I think it is time for a new candidate to defend our project at the polls, convince the neighbors and manage the city with the dedication with which the four mayors that the PP has already had in Colmenar Viejo have done,” he said then..

We regret the death of the deputy in the Assembly and former mayor of Colmenar Viejo Jorge García Díaz. A hug to your loved ones and the entire Popular Party family.

— Mónica García (@Monica_Garcia_G) October 12, 2023

The popular politician, well regarded in his locality, changed the Colmenar city council for the Madrid Assembly. He attended the PP lists for the Chamber of Vallecas, in what was his first experience in the regional Parliament..

• October 12 parade in Madrid: Hispanic Heritage Day, live
• What is celebrated on October 12? Origin of the National Holiday of Spain

The celebration of Hispanic Heritage Day this October 12 has its central event in Madrid. The parade of the Armed Forces will travel along the Paseo del Prado and Recoletos of the Spanish capital in the presence of the Kings, the political and military authorities and the citizens who come to see the show.

In the air parade, 57 airplanes and 29 helicopters participate in formation for a total of 86 troops, including 291 soldiers.. As for the land parade, 109 vehicles, 33 motorcycles and 120 horses will take part, in addition to 3,884 soldiers who will make the journey on foot from the Glorieta of Emperor Carlos V to the Plaza de Colón..

Excitement before the military parade

Precisely one of these soldiers took advantage of the moments before the start of the parade, while his unit was waiting for the departure time at the military parade, to propose to his girlfriend, who was a spectator, to marry him.. To do this, he has had the help of all his teammates, who are aware of the young man's plans..

In this festive but solemn atmosphere there is also an occasion for a marriage proposal.. We continue with the excitement #DFN23 @EjercitoAire https://t.co/wB3xkVDLRK pic.twitter.com/Zy8Xx2cXzx

— Defense Staff 🇪🇸 (@EMADmde) October 12, 2023

The soldier wanted this to be an unforgettable day and decided to ask his partner to marry him. While all his companions were in formation, the young man and other members of his unit carried out an exercise with rifles and kneeling on the ground, a moment that the girlfriend recorded from a privileged location, oblivious to what was going to happen..

Still on the ground, the soldier has taken the ring out of his pocket before the girl's surprised face.. Everyone gathered there began to applaud while the couple hugged and gave each other a long kiss.. More than 30 soldiers banged their rifles on the ground to the rhythm of “Say yes,” which he finally did.. The images were shared on the profile of X, formerly known as Twitter, of the Defense Staff.

Proposal 💍 in Plaza del Pilar on Pilar Day 😍
.
Congratulations @royromeoj and @plbnrtjn pic.twitter.com/6O0lRu7nOV

— Enjoy Zaragoza (@enjoyzaragoza) October 12, 2023

Exciting morning with a proposal at the Flower Offering pic.twitter.com/C73MxWfEoj

— Radio Zaragoza (@RadioZaragoza) October 12, 2023

But they have not been the only requests that have been made, since in Zaragoza and, taking advantage of the patron saint festivities of the Virgen del Pilar, two young men have asked their respective girlfriends to marry them.. Everything happened during the Offering of Flowers, which is the central act of the Pillars. The video of one of them says it all. “I want to make you happy and I think there is no better place in the world to do it than here,” the young man told him in the Plaza del Pilar.. Excitement for everything great to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Day.

Is Spain an anti-Semitic country? The negative response—and the praise of the coexistence model—would make sense if it were not for the fact that there are no Jews in Spain.. The demographic reference represents 45,000 citizens in a stagnation of 45 million. And it cannot be said that the granting of passports to Jews of Sephardic origin produced large adhesions.

In 2015, the Spanish Government intended to repair, on an institutional basis and as atonement, the historical affronts, the medieval pogroms, the expulsion, the structural anti-Semitism, the enlightened persecutions, even the leader's allusions to the danger of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy..

It was an exercise in historical memory whose expectations of redemption did not stimulate the interest of the beneficiaries.. Few cases responded to reconciliation. There were for romantic reasons and for practical reasons, including among the latter the residents of Latin American countries—Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay—in an unstable political situation..

Is Spain an anti-Semitic country? The answer takes on a disturbing profile after visiting the Prado Museum. And not only because of the anti-Semitic tradition of the iconography of national art in all its periods, but because of the exhibition that has just opened with a title with expiatory connotations: The Lost Mirror. Jews and converts in medieval Spain.

It is interesting to frequent it because of the artistic interest of some of the works collected—Pedro Berruguete, Bartolomé Bermejo, Bernat Martorell—and because of all the religious, sociological, political and cultural arguments that predisposed the aversion to Jews.. Art played a pedagogical function in the narrative of anti-Semitic propaganda. Not by caricaturing David's children as blind, greedy, abject and animal creatures, but by transferring suspicions and discrimination to the converts who preferred to stay instead of embarking on the path of exile..

The exhibition ends precisely with the edict of expulsion that the Catholic Monarchs announced in 1492, although the inventory of antecedents—the dress codes of 1215, the Girona pogrom, the racial laws, the Inquisition—seems as eloquent as the influence of the Anti-Semitic DNA in later centuries. Our contemporary vocabulary subscribes to the insult of marrano without paying attention to the pejorative definition that classified Jewish converts.. The Church, the State and the Holy Office placed them in an irremediable category, precisely because the problem of the Jews did not consist of their religion, but of their blood and the responsibility for deicide forever and ever..

It is the context in which some artists – Berruguete in the lead – lent themselves to the campaigns of demonization of the Marranos and the Jews, although the fascinating and disturbing exhibition at the Prado – curated by Joan Molina – also documents the codices, treaties and to the songs that formalized the blades of the black legend and supremacism.

Has the genetic anti-Semitism of the Spanish been corrected? The crater of the Holocaust has put out of place any emboldened or explicit position of repudiation of the Jews, but suspicion of the other has found different recycling channels. In fact, solidarity with the Palestinians and the flag of oppressed peoples often identify old anti-Semitic habits.. A cover-up path consists of the rejection of imperialism, that is, the allergic reaction with which progress denounces the geopolitical relations of the United States and Israel.. And the other path, undertaken since the Intifada, lies in the strength of anti-Zionism.

The great enemy of leftist-libertarian thought would not be the Jews, but the State that represents them, the monster of Israel, the beast, although such a megalomaniac abstraction – the Star of David in its terrifying dimension – suffers from a perversion that identifies the people with the state. And that, for identical reasons, describes the shadow of anti-Semitism with the same telltale features of a painting by Berruguete.

It is impressive that the Spanish left does not give relevance to the evidence of a democratic society – the Israeli one – that has demonstrated against Netanyahu for his authoritarian aberrations and that has questioned the excesses of Gaza and the West Bank. There may be no greater socialist utopia than Israel's agricultural communes – the kibbutzim -, many of them involved in solidarity initiatives with Palestine's neighbors, both in health and food programs and in the political pressure that advocates for the coexistence model..

Saturday's terrorist barbarity hit one of those kibbutz that cooperated in Gaza. And they define the difference between a medieval State and an open and besieged society at the same time.. Our archaizing left has no problem in fully identifying Israel's retaliation with the Israelis (and the Jews), although what is more impressive is the naturalness with which Yolanda Díaz, Sumar and Podemos relativize Hamas's link with the Palestinians of Gaza. And they subordinate barbarism to the cause of the oppressed people.

We have an anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist and anti-Israel left that, for reasons of antagonism, has fostered a disconcerting devotion to the Iranian theocracy and the Bolivarian countries that subscribe to the campaign of extermination of Zion.. Podemos maintained structural relations with Tehran, to the extent that Pablo Iglesias' television was financed with the money of the ayatollahs.. “Riding contradictions,” said the leader of Podemos to excuse sympathy towards a religious tyranny whose model of society disagrees with any expectation of democracy and tolerance, let alone whether we are talking about feminism or the rights of homosexuals..

Is Spain then an anti-Semitic country? The polarization of society has led the Middle Eastern crisis to the exasperating logic of sides. The ambiguity of the left with Hamas has repercussions on the overacting with which the right indicates and exaggerates its total involvement with the cause of Israel, often simplifying the debate between barbarism and civilization or perverting it into an electoral debate..

The case of Vox is disturbing, because Abascal has not tired of denouncing the Jewish conspiracy of George Soros and has done so even in Parliament, although the solidarity that has arisen towards Israel is also explained by his support for Donald Trump and the priority of the aversion to Muslims, or “the mohameds”, as the leader of Vox said.

The game of antagonisms always needs the reference of the other. We Spaniards cannot be anti-Semitic in a country where there are no Jews—we expel them—but atavistic misgivings concern immigrants from Islam, the caricature of their habits, and the spread of the threat..

It is the perspective that gives special interest to one of the paintings that identify the Prado Museum exhibition.. Not because of its artistic value, nor because of the expertise of its author, but because the Jews appear dressed in Arab clothing and Islamist folklore, mystified in a generalization of infidel monotheistic religions that must be persecuted and eliminated..

So is Spain an anti-Semitic country? The concern of an affirmative answer can be recognized in the embryonic exhibition of the Prado, in the contemporary ambiguity of the left, in the national Catholicism of the reactionary right and even in the current RAE dictionary…. “Jew: derogatory adjective. Said of a greedy or usurious person.”

May 2019. Pedro Sánchez aspires, as today, to achieve a parliamentary majority sufficient to reissue his mandate. ERC is also necessary. Its leader, Oriol Junqueras, is in prison, but attends the constituent session of the Cortes with a prison permit. Shakes the hand of the sitting president in a gesture of mutual courtesy. “We have to talk,” the Republican tells him before a cloud of flashes. The pending conversation has been delayed for four years. Sánchez and Junqueras had not exchanged a word until this Wednesday, as confirmed by sources close to the Catalan.. During this time, Moncloa's interlocutor has been the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, with whom both the socialist and his emissaries have had a constant channel of communication..

What has changed? The answer lies in the reappearance of Carles Puigdemont on the political scene. The result of the polls on July 23 made the fugitive an indispensable interlocutor to secure an investiture with at least 176 votes. ERC was no longer the hegemonic force. JxCAT has been placed at the center of the equation and Junqueras has felt displaced. The Republican conveyed to Moncloa the importance of having a “gesture” with ERC that would show that it was Junts that has joined the path that his party opened years ago.. Junqueras does not forget “the sacrifices” or the cries of “traitor”. In recent days, he shared with his friends his “discomfort” about how the story of the amnesty negotiation was being written: “He didn't like the nonsense that the Junts people were bringing up.”.

In Junqueras's head was the precedent of the negotiation of the Statute of 2006. Carod-Rovira worked with Pasqual Maragall's PSC to implement a reform that CiU boycotted, accusing the Republicans of lack of ambition. Months later, Artur Mas closed with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero the text that would end up cutting the Constitutional Court. ERC felt deceived and positioned itself against the new text under the argument that “Catalonia deserves more”. On that occasion, the lack of attention led the Republicans to break the deck. Now the blood has not reached the river, but Junqueras has been heard warning that the PSOE could find itself with “a surprise” if it did not “take care of” them..

Sánchez's call is a recognition of Junqueras in itself after the visit of Vice President Yolanda Díaz to Brussels to meet with Puigdemont. “Here the bosses have spoken,” they say from the republican formation. In addition to the staging, the message to be conveyed has also been agreed with the Moncloa.. Hence, the PSOE emphasizes that the president has thanked it for the support of the ERC group during the last legislature to achieve “important political and social advances.”. The former vice president of the Generalitat sought to value “dialogue” as a formula to advance his project for Catalonia after Puigdemont's attacks.

ERC has been penalized at the polls for its strategy of becoming Sánchez's crutch, and faced with a foreseeable electoral call for 2024 in Catalonia, it needs to make its role profitable against Junts in the negotiation of the investiture. Junqueras and Puigdemont aspire to be candidates and measure themselves as totems of sovereignty if the times for the amnesty, which will be appealed before the Constitutional Court, end up allowing it.. The Republicans need, on the one hand, to hang the medal of having been the pioneers. And, on the other hand, that not only amnesty is on the table, but also a horizon for the referendum. Yesterday, the spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, made it a condition for voting for Sánchez, but privately the ERC leadership recognizes that it is a maximum position that will be modulated.

📰 [NEWS] @gabrielrufian, before the negotiation for the investiture: “”Our conditions ✅ are demanding but acceptable; and they are not of the party, but of the country”.
Read it here: 👇https://t.co/LfCUNLAjFy

— Esquerra Republicana (@Esquerra_ERC) October 11, 2023

Junqueras has always opted for a vote for self-determination “in the long term”. They are aware that Sánchez cannot “nor does he want to” open that melon right now. The plan involves resuming the bilateral negotiation table of 2020, where it was contemplated that “the measures in which the agreements materialize will be submitted, where appropriate, to a democratic vote through consultation with the citizens of Catalonia.”. As with the amnesty, whose proposal is almost closed after being validated by ERC and pending Puigdemont's approval, a draft will be made on the referendum that meets the expectations of the Moncloa and the independentistas..

The telephone conversation between Sánchez and Junqueras is interpreted as a giant step towards closing the agreement that will allow the socialist to become president at the beginning of November.. “Now it is done,” says an ERC source who places the contacts in the final stretch, where he perceives “a lot of haste” on the part of the fugitive's emissaries.. The timing is for a representative of the socialists to meet with Puigdemont in the coming days. Everything indicates that it will be the Secretary of Organization, Santos Cerdán, working in the back rooms. The unknown is whether the fugitive will also want to receive a call from the Moncloa red phone.

First, in December 2022, it was a no. The PNV and the PSE, the two parties that support the three Basque councils, agreed that the tax on large fortunes would not be applied in the Basque Country. The controversy was served, it was the best argument that the PP communities could cling to, with Isabel Díaz Ayuso at the head, to rebel and support the resources before the TC. Then came the nuance. It would be included in the economic agreement as an agreed tribute, as agreed with the Ministry of Finance, it would not be subsidized at 100%, the first possibility that the Basque institutions considered to make it void, but it would be made compatible with the wealth tax so as not to punish taxpayers twice. And almost a year later, the three councils have finally presented their proposal, watered down with respect to the national tax – in Spain as a whole, the tax begins to be applied from three million; In the Basque case, it will be from 3.2― and with the accusation by Bildu and Podemos that everything has been a strategy of the Jeltzales to not apply the tax.

In the best of scenarios, the tax will be applied in the Basque Country one year late – the councils hope to have it approved right at the end of the year – in the worst, never.. The PNV and the PSOE, which govern the three councils in coalition, have a majority in the General Meetings of Vizcaya, the provincial Parliament that must give the green light to the regional norm by which the tax will be approved, but they need the support of a third training in the chambers of Álava and Guipúzcoa. Bildu, which supported the approval of the tax in Congress and was one of the key votes for the measure to go ahead, has already warned that it will not support the proposal of the deputations. Podemos is not willing either if the current wording is maintained and the PP is head-on against the tax..

What will Vizcaya do if it sees that it is not approved in Guipúzcoa and Álava? Will the PNV assume a disharmonization between the three provinces? “This scenario has not yet been contemplated,” sources from the Vizcaya Provincial Council tell El Confidencial.. “The stage is completely open. It's still too early. We are confident that we will be able to approve it. Now the negotiation begins and there is a lot of room,” they defend in Guipúzcoa. However, the sources consulted in the latter province concede that if they finally do not obtain the necessary support, “we will have to see what is done, if it is harmonized or how it is managed.”. For their part, sources from the Ministry of Finance concede that if it does not finally come to light, “it would not have any legal repercussions,” only “political consequences.”.

It would not be the first time that the three Basque provinces, each with its own Treasury, have different tax systems.. But the reason would be different. In the 2011-2016 legislature, Guipúzcoa had its own tax on the rich, but it was thanks to a pact hatched between Bildu, then in charge of the Provincial Council, and the PSOE.. In the other two provinces –Vizcaya, governed by the PNV, and Álava, by the PP–, the measure was rejected. In the following legislature, the socialists became partners of the PNV and in the General Meetings they annulled what they had approved with the nationalist coalition.

The no of Bildu and Podemos

“The PNV has deliberately gone late to lose a year and, with a little luck, see if it is not applied,” denounced this Tuesday Iker Casanova, member of Bildu in Vizcaya.. For the party, the proposal of the deputations breaks with the spirit of the law that was approved in Congress and “empties the tax of its content.”. “All types are coincident with the estate tax. There is no pressure on high incomes, the tax on large fortunes will have no impact,” he explained, and specified that of the 17,000 people who pay the wealth tax in the Basque Country, 16,700 will be exempt from the large fortune tax, so It will only impact about 300 taxpayers, according to coalition calculations.

The proposal of the three councils contemplates that what is paid for the tax on large fortunes is deducted from the wealth tax. The Basque tax will begin to be applied from 3.2 million, compared to three in the rest of the country, and the maximum rate, from 16 million, compared to 10.7 million for the national one, hence the criticism of Bildu. The process for its approval has just begun with the period of allegations and then it must be endorsed in the General Meetings of each territory, the litmus test. To Bildu's refusal is added that of Podemos. “The tax on large fortunes was intended to avoid competition between autonomous communities, against the tax dumping of communities such as Madrid, Murcia or Andalusia, but this movement of the regional governments turns Euskadi into the new tax haven of the State,” criticized David Soto, purple parliamentarian.

Personal income tax deflation

For its part, the Basque Finance Council, in which the three provincial councils, the Basque Government and Eudel, the association of Basque municipalities, sit, agreed yesterday to a deflation of 2.5% in personal income tax for next year.. It will mean a collection of 100 million less and the measure is added to the adjustments applied in recent years to alleviate the consequences of inflation, with a global percentage of 7.5%. And as happens with the tax on the rich, the measure must also be endorsed in the General Meetings, either through the budget project or in a fiscal rule..

The regional Executive and the councils also updated the forecasts for the end of the year and those for next year.. Basque institutions expect to raise 18.1 billion in 2023, 5.7% more than last year. In 2024, if the calculations are met, it would be 19,000 million. This is the figure with which administrations will now begin to prepare their budgets.