Every day, 300,000 Catalans board the Rodalies trains in the hope of arriving at their workplace, school or university on time.. “When you look at the schedules you have to calculate two trains before the one you should take to make sure you will arrive on time,” says Jon García, a young university student waiting on the platform at El Masnou (Barcelona).. “You never know when it will happen or what time it will arrive”: a Russian roulette of punctuality with which millions of travelers coexist every day.

According to the Territory Department of the Government, in 2022, 831 serious incidents were recorded, an average of more than two incidents per day.. This year, from January to August, only 44 days have been recorded without notable incidents compared to 199 in which the service has been altered. The most striking fact is that during July and August there were 26 serious incidents related to infrastructure or trains; one every two days.

To refute the criticisms of the Generalitat, Renfe has made a statement stating that the Generalitat focuses on the 22,500 trains that were delayed and not on the remaining 278,000 that arrived on time.. This figure maintains that 92.5% of users used the train normally. “It's hardly credible, it can't be that I take all the bad trains,” says Noelia Poyato, a regular user of the R4 in a skeptical tone.. With 22,500 trains delayed a year, the chances of Russian roulette are much higher.

A tunnel is missing under Barcelona

One of the most obvious problems in the Rodalies network is the access to the Catalan capital. The age of the facilities and the increase in traffic through the tunnels generate bottlenecks and constant delays in the movement of trains.. “We have normalized wasting time in the tunnels and not receiving any explanation of what is happening,” explains María González, who uses the Rodalies service every day to travel to Barcelona.. The Catalan capital has been planning the construction of a new tunnel to decongest the center for years, but the administrations still cannot agree.

Another of the main recriminations from users is the lack of effective communication on the part of the operator: “Absolute normality means that there are always incidents,” comments, ironically, Adrià Garnica, a regular user of the R1 line that connects the Catalan capital. with the Maresme coast.

Unpaid invoices

All this in the context of Sánchez's investiture, which the pro-independence parties want to take advantage of to start a competition that the government, both the PP and the PSOE, have refused to transfer..

At the height of the negotiations, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has condemned the Generalitat to pay nearly 81 million euros to Renfe for the expansion services that were agreed upon when it obtained the service planning powers (timetables). and rates) in 2010. The ruling maintains that the complementary services provided are the responsibility of the Catalan government, as it is the owner of the service, and that they must be the ones to assume the payments..

The Generalitat has announced that it will not pay the debt and that it will appeal the court ruling. The Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, defended in statements to Ser non-payments to Renfe, since the State “takes charge of these expansions in other places”. In addition, he adds that the services for which the central government does have powers “don't work either.”.

Intercity buses, victims

Recurrent incidents in the train service force users to look for alternatives that allow them to continue with their established schedule.. The Generalitat accuses Renfe of causing “harm to users and their economic activity” in addition to “straining the public transport system”.

In Catalonia, the bus network is not efficient. The lower capacity and low frequency make it not a real transportation option for most users.. The situation worsens when there are serious incidents. Intercity buses receive a demand that they do not have the capacity to face. For this reason, although the train service in Catalonia has many deficiencies, users have no other option than to use it.. “It is difficult to find the bus schedules, it is more confusing and they seem to hide them,” say regular train users when asked about their choice of transportation..

The Government has also taken care to point out to the State for the free rates, since “it destabilizes the system and makes it difficult for supply to adequately adapt to real demand.”. In 2022, Rodalies accumulated a total of 108 million users compared to 83 in 2021, data that supports the supposed saturation of the service.. But this changes when we look at 2019, the year before the pandemic, when the number of annual users reached 128.5 million.

The controversy comes a few days after the R3, the line that connects Hospitalet de Llobregat with the Catalan Pyrenees, was cut off for three months. The interruption of service is part of the works to improve infrastructure. It is estimated that the interruption of service will affect about 12,000 users per day, who will have alternative bus service.

The total of the actions will involve an investment of 155 million euros that was approved in 2020 and includes the doubling of the tracks and the fencing of the section in which four young people died a month ago.. The general secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has explained that it is a “comprehensive transformation” of the line.

The explanatory statement of the future amnesty law, which is part of the investiture agreement of Pedro Sánchez, not only pits the PSOE against the representatives of JxCAT and former president Carles Puigdemont. Above all, it divides the independence movement, which has plunged into a bitter fight between the different sectors to determine the story of what the 1-O vote entailed.. These differences have always been latent, but now they have come to light in the most bitter way..

For the doctor in History, Agustí Colomines, very close to JxCAT, the situation is as follows. “We start from something that we do not understand: we lost. Let's see if we can get it into our heads. We do not live in an independent Catalan republic. We lost and we are trying to regain the initiative. History, luckily for us, has not abandoned us and we still have the capacity to fight,” he noted in an interview with Vilaweb, which has raised many blisters.. Especially since the sectors opposed to the amnesty within the independence movement defend the opposite: that October 1 was the great victory of the movement over Spain, which represents a democratic mandate that sovereignty cannot and should not ignore..

If the explanatory statement of the new law reflects the vision of Supreme Court judge Manuel Marchena, the independence movement will read it as a defeat. From JxCAT to Waterloo they are very concerned about the construction of a “political story” in which the amnesty represents a victory for sovereignty. In fact, something similar happened with the pardons. The nationalist world tried very hard to build a narrative of victory and the Government of Spain did nothing. But as the months passed, the pardons ended up being experienced as a political defeat.

These statements in the laws do not have a normative nature.. This also implies that it cannot be appealed before the Constitutional Court (TC).. But it is considered key to validating its constitutionality. “It is not about making the amnesty that each of us likes, it is about passing the filter of the Constitutional Court, because if we all look very good, but it does not pass the filter it will be of no use to all the retaliated people, starting with the exiles,” said lawyer Jaume Asens on TV3 last week. Asens has been commissioned by Vice President Yolanda Díaz to negotiate the rule by Sumar and today in Barcelona they will present the recommendations of the legal experts who have been advising them, although the document they present will not be the law itself nor will it respond to the project. what is being negotiated.

Asens thus sent a message to the independence movement. There must be an exposition of reasons yes or yes. This introduction only has a hermeneutic or interpretive legal value, but it also establishes the political narrative that supports it, according to an ERC source.. In fact, it is common in amnesty situations. It is so relevant that in 1977 the fathers of the Transition preferred to dispense with the exposition of reasons because they could not agree on describing what the Franco regime had entailed..

Background crisis

The underlying crisis responds to all that independence movement that is against the amnesty, the leadership of the ANC and a good part of its bases, the members of the Council of the Republic who have forced a vote to try to block the investiture against the interests of Carles Puigdemont or the personalities with whom radical sectors identify, whether they are the MEP Clara Ponsatí or the former vice president of the Parliament, Josep Costa.

Costa has precisely been one of those who has reacted the most angrily. “Most of his party can assume that story of defeat (even if it is blaming ERC), but he does not. “President Puigdemont cannot tell his followers that we must accept the amnesty because we have lost!” he replied on X, formerly Twitter, in a bitter discussion with Colomines..

These debates can seem very esoteric when there is half of Spain that does not accept the amnesty due to the way in which it is being processed and what it means in essence.. But on another scale, the same thing is happening within the independence movement, with consequences now unimaginable for Puigdemont and for many of the senior officials of JxCAT, for example, Laura Borràs, who has always placed 1-O as the core center of his political action.

Defend amnesty

In the JxCAT environment, aware of these differences, they are trying to sell the amnesty as a way to settle a moral debt with all those bases of the independence movement who saw how the leaders of the process were pardoned, while they continue to this day carrying with multiple legal problems. This goes for the young people of the so-called “battle for Urquinaona,” the thousands of people who took over the Barcelona airport and who were then abandoned to their fate by Tsunami Democràtic in 2019, and the most diverse activists. But that doesn't convince many..

The depth of the dilemma is such that the newspaper Ara, the reference of the most focused independence movement, published an editorial on October 2 in which it stated: “Today everyone admits that the referendum was a massive mobilization, but that precisely because of the lack of internal recognition (half of the Catalan population did not participate) and external recognition (neither the State nor the international community granted it validity) could never have legal effects. One of the basic principles of referendums is that they must be accepted by both sides, by those of yes and by those of no, and unfortunately that did not happen in the Catalan case.. If 2.3 million people participated in 1-O, a few months later, on 21-D, in elections imposed by Madrid, but accepted by everyone, four and a half million did so.. Something like this was necessary to open the way to the amnesty: the political mandate of October 1 does not exist.

The electoral wheel does not stop and the journey towards the Galician and Basque elections that should be held in the summer of 2024 is already beginning.. The PSOE has given the starting signal by activating the primaries in both territories at the meeting of the Federal Executive that was held this Monday at the Ferraz headquarters at the request of the regional federations. In both Galicia and Euskadi, the two most obvious candidates have already run, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro and Eneko Andueza, but any activist who collects the necessary number of endorsements can appear and force a vote.. In fact, Gonzalo Caballero, nephew of the Vigo mayor Abel Caballero, has run against the apparatus.

The federal spokesperson for the PSOE, Pilar Alegría, has announced the procedure when there are 9 months left until the established date of the elections, since the last ones were held in July 2020, the year of the covid pandemic.. The logical thing is that they move forward several months to avoid the summer dates, but there is still no clear calendar, since it depends on the Galician and Basque presidents.. The popular Alfonso Rueda and the jeltzale Iñigo Urkullu have the power to set the electoral date whenever they wish. The scheduled date for the primaries will be next October 29.

The socialists have very different situations in the two territories. In Galicia, the PSOEdeG has been in opposition for years since Alberto Núñez Feijóo began to chain absolute majorities, although they maintain part of the local power with leading city councils in La Coruña and Vigo. José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, who was a Government delegate and is now a deputy in Congress, has already announced his intention to run in the primaries..

His career was marked by almost a dozen accusations in a case of political corruption from which he ended up emerging unscathed and has now been rehabilitated for public life by Pedro Sánchez, who has even included him in the negotiating team for his investiture process.. The previous candidate and former regional leader of the party, Gonzalo Caballero, has also expressed his intentions to run and compete with Sánchez's favorite.

In Euskadi, the PSE is part of the Urkullu Government, with Idoia Mendia as vice president. But the candidate will not be the former general secretary of the party, but her successor, Eneko Andueza. The regional president has already made clear his intentions to attend the process, which begins with the collection of guarantees scheduled between October 11 and 18. The reforms in the statutes implemented by Sánchez reduced the number of signatures necessary to 2% of militancy, which facilitates internal competition. Andueza, a native of Eibar but resident in Portugalete, has a different tone than her predecessor and allows herself to criticize the head of the Executive in which her own party is part.

Meeting with unions

The general secretaries of the two main unions, CCOO and UGT, have also been in Ferraz, after Sánchez has summoned them to a consultation prior to the meetings he will hold with the parliamentary groups for the investiture.. Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez have conveyed the need for the next legislature to focus on the social agenda. Among the specific demands that have been conveyed to him include a reduction in the maximum general working day, which is currently 40 hours a week, the tightening of unfair dismissals and an increase in taxes.. Both have celebrated Sánchez's “predisposition” to address these issues.

The amnesty has concentrated journalists' doubts around this meeting. Union leaders have avoided giving a firm response on the amnesty, but they have opened the door for the future government to continue taking steps to normalize the political situation in Catalonia.. Sordo has called for abandoning “the criminal and punitive perspective” to move towards reconciliation. “Politics needs to play a role,” he claimed..

Álvarez has asked to continue with “the path that began with the pardons” and that continued with “the change of the penal code.”. They thus open the door to defend the amnesty law demanded by the Catalan independence parties to favor Sánchez's investiture.. In any case, they have regretted that the political agenda is focusing on the Catalan issue, because “social policy should have a weight in this debate”.

The leader of the UGT has demanded that Junts sit down to negotiate the investiture, not only in terms of the amnesty, but also of social policy.. “It would be welcome to be able to establish a dialogue with Junts, although it is not easy,” he noted.. In any case, they reserve the final opinion on the amnesty to know the specific content of the law.

A 77-year-old man died this Sunday at the Don Benito-Villanueva de la Serena Hospital, in Badajoz, with symptoms compatible with the West Nile Fever virus (WNV)..

The Extremadura Health Service (SES) has indicated to EFE that it is a “probable case” of this infection, awaiting definitive confirmation by the National Center of Microbiology (CNMI)-Majadahonda (Madrid)..

If confirmed, it would be the first victim to be registered for this virus in Extremadura. WNV is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes, mainly of the Culex genus, and the main reservoirs of the virus are wild birds, which do not infect other animals or people..

There was no better detail as proof of the political tone that this Monday overshadowed the institutional event of October 9 than the applause that the PP deputies (and by contagion other attendees) launched when the president of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, made reference to the need to unblock the expansion of the Port of Valencia. Unlike previous years, when the claque waited until the end to applaud, the first celebration of the Valencian Community Day with the Popular Party and Vox at the head of the Generalitat was marked this Monday by the protest spirit of the speeches in front of the Central government, in what has been a general trend for weeks now in the regional political debate before a foreseeable investiture of the leader of the PSOE Pedro Sánchez as president of the Government.

Cheered on by his people, criticized loudly by the socialist deputies, who discredited the fact of converting the autonomous institutional act into a proclamation of duties for the central government, Mazón made his debut as host at the solemn event in the Saló de Corts flanked by the councilors appointed by the Popular Party and Vox. It was the second vice president Susana Camarero (PP) and not the first, Vicente Barrera (Vox), who served, as government secretary, as presenter and introducer of speeches and award winners.. A difference with the Botanic of Ximo Puig, in which that role was reserved for the vice-presidency of the coalition partner Compromís, first with Mónica Oltra, and Aitana Mas, in the final stretch of the last legislature.

The anniversary had the interest of knowing how the Presidency of the Generalitat was going to focus its tone. It didn't take long for the mystery to be cleared up.. After a first condemnation “of the terrorist acts that occurred in Israeli territory” and a reference to the victims of “senselessness and fanaticism”, Mazón claimed on the occasion of the holiday “a large, open and hospitable Community, where everyone who want to feel at home. How they want to feel, how they want to express their way of seeing life, how they want to build their personal project.. Because here they will be another Valencian if they want it that way.”.

And then he reviewed the “levers” that, in his opinion, should serve to “consolidate our condition as a fertile land for opportunities and for that economic and social progress that must reach all citizens.”. Levers, all of them, whose competence is in the hands of the central government. It was then that he alluded to the need to “establish and prioritize strategic infrastructures” such as the Port of Valencia.. “It is not a regional whim, but a need for all of Spain,” he said, at which point there was applause from some of the attendees..

Mazón, who interspersed phrases in Valencian in the intervention, alluded to the financing deficit, for which he demanded “a satisfactory solution, not just any solution”, and to still unfinished works such as the Mediterranean railway corridor. He demanded from the new central Executive a response in terms of investments “that is in line with the weight and projection of the Valencian economy”, in clear reference to the 10% of GDP and population that autonomy represents in the whole of Spain, and a “sensible” solution and sustainable approach to the water problem in provinces like Alicante”, although without making an explicit reference to the Tajo-Segura transfer. The list of duties to the Government was completed with an allusion to the ceramic industry, “especially neglected despite its strategic contribution to the common wealth.”. He also claimed Valencian Civil Law, despite the fact that his party has refused in the Congress of Deputies to guarantee it through a reform of the Constitution..

The popular baron, who cited in his speech the Alicante writer José Martínez Ruiz 'Azorín' and the Valencian singer Nino Bravo, posthumously awarded the distinction of the Generalitat, also defended an autonomy with an “open, tolerant perspective, without suffocation. “The one that does not need to copy or be inspired by other territorial roadmaps that bear little or no resemblance to the one established in the spirit and letter of our Statute,” he slipped in what is interpreted as an allusion to the negotiation with Catalonia.. “I refuse to think that the diversity of this land has owners. Our diversity is the rich and varied reality of what we are, Valencians and Spaniards.”.

In the part that corresponds to regional powers, Mazón committed to “meet equally legitimate expectations” in matters of health, social services, health, education and policies for young people.. “To meet these expectations, it is not enough to request more resources, but rather to guarantee efficient management that supports our own arguments,” it was stated as a duty..

The institutional event brought together the main Valencian authorities and political representatives. The previous president, the socialist Ximo Puig, occupied a discreet second place together with Joan Lerma (PSPV) and Alberto Fabra (PP). The former presidents with open or convicted judicial proceedings, Eduardo Zaplana, José Luis Olivas and Francisco Camps do not attend the meeting at the Palau.

After the presentation of the awards and the speeches in the Saló de Corts of the Generalitat, the traditional civic procession took place through the streets of Valencia, with the 'Reial Senyera' parade, this time supported by the new mayor of the city , María José Catalá. The flag concluded the journey by entering through the door of the Cathedral, a tradition that the previous mayor, Joan Ribó, had suspended because he understood that the gesture was contrary to constitutional non-denominationalism..

The Tax Agency has opened a new investigation against Fútbol Club Barcelona for its payments to the players' agents between 2015 and 2018. The club already managed to cancel a previous claim for the same reason on March 28, but, according to a resolution of the National Court to which El Confidencial has had access, the Treasury has returned to the fray with the notification of “new actions verification and investigation”.

The Treasury's thesis focuses on the fact that agents only work for the players and, therefore, these payments are still a way to increase the salary of the footballers themselves.. The Tax Agency clings to this reasoning to pursue two alleged irregularities: on the one hand, the club cannot deduct VAT from invoices with these intermediaries, and, on the other, the player must pay personal income tax or income tax. non-residents (IRNR) for this supposed hidden salary increase.

The judges viewed this type of claims favorably until last February, when the Supreme Court changed the rules of the game.. The judicial body focused on the procedural aspect, not on the substance of the debate, and concluded that the Treasury should have claimed the money through another means.. Despite being a technicality, this new doctrine has caused the cancellation of million-dollar claims to several clubs throughout 2023.

In the case of the Barcelona Football Club, the Central Economic Court (TEAC) annulled on March 28 a claim from the Treasury that exceeded 12 million euros: “Following the jurisprudence previously collected from the Supreme Court, the regularization carried out exceeds what was anticipated “, concluded the TEAC. “Based on the above, it is appropriate to cancel the adjustment referring to the regularization of payments made by the club to the players' agents”.

From the club, its directors denounce that, shortly after, the Treasury notified them of a new investigation “for the same concept and periods”. Specifically, for the IRNR that goes from July 2015 to June 2018: “The documentation on file has been incorporated into the administrative files of the inspection procedures followed with respect to the years in question [2015 to 2018] (… ), granting the process of disclosure and a deadline to formulate allegations.”. El Confidencial has contacted the Tax Agency to clarify what phase this new investigation is in, but has not made any statements..

Barça fears new investigations

The National Court collects Barça's complaints in an order dated September 1. This resolution is part of a parallel procedure by the IRNR from the years 2012 to 2015 in which, by applying the doctrine of the Supreme Court, the magistrates also annulled the corresponding inspection of June 14: “The Administration has exceeded the limits,” concluded in their sentence. The decision was a boost for the club, by canceling a claim of more than one million euros. But now, after notifying them of the opening of new actions by the IRNR from 2015 to 2018, Barça fears that the Treasury will also reopen those for these years.

In an attempt to avoid it, the club presented a new document before the National Court on June 30. “The Tax Agency has initiated new actions in order to dictate new settlement agreements [for the IRNR from 2015 to 2018], so it can reasonably be expected that, with respect to the IRNR corresponding to the periods in question here, the Administration will proceed in the same way [by the IRNR from 2012 to 2015]”, he warned.

Barça asked the magistrates to complement the sentence to make it clear that any action by the IRNR from 2012 to 2015 has already prescribed or, at a minimum, to point out that the resolution alone prevents “opening a new procedure in relation to the same issue.” “. The National Court rejects both possibilities in its order.

Regarding the request for prescription, they maintain that “the ruling is entirely upholding the claim of the plaintiff club”, which is why the requested supplement is “totally inconsequential”. And as for the references to the new Treasury investigation, they conclude that they have no value in this procedure: “The subsequent or hypothetical actions to which the plaintiff refers in relation to subsequent years are outside the scope of the present actions and, therefore therefore, of the content of the ruling of the sentence”.

This resolution leaves the way open for the new investigation by the Tax Agency, which will now take note of the Supreme Court's doctrine to avoid falling into the same mistake.. As for the possibility of opening another investigation into the previous exercises, it remains to be seen if this step is taken, which could affect other teams: as El Confidencial has been reporting, clubs such as Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid They have also benefited from that same doctrine throughout 2023 to annul million-dollar claims.

The renewal of the Basque PP, which will finally hold its regional congress on November 4 after years of instability, opens the door to strengthening the rest of the territorial leaderships that were choked by Genoa in the first stage of Alberto Núñez Feijóo's mandate.. In addition to Euskadi, the conclaves of La Rioja, Catalonia and Asturias are still pending. And the national leadership is only guaranteed a smooth transfer in the first, where Gonzalo Capellán governs with an absolute majority and has “total legitimacy” to take over the reins of the formation.. The Catalan schism and the fracture between the leadership and Alejandro Fernández anticipate a high-voltage congress in Catalonia. But Genoa does not plan to open that melon in the short term.

Although in the first instance the PP proposed to “accelerate” with the pending regional conclaves and even have its organic renewal ready before the end of the year, the truth is that the party leadership has chosen not to move waters that already revolts descend. The failed investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo left a positive reading internally. Despite the parliamentary defeat, the experience served as glue in some ranks where concern had been established over the “up and downs” and “disorientation” of the leadership after 23-J, and the party once again breathed united behind the figure of Galician president despite the fact that his place will be in the opposition and not in the Moncloa, at least in the short term. And, for the moment, the popular leadership prioritizes that internal peace over organic debates.

In the PP of Catalonia they assure that they have not yet received news from Genoa to begin activating the machinery and discounting the days for holding a congress. The last one was held in 2018. Pablo Casado had already taken charge of the party at the national level, and trusted Alejandro Fernández to take over from Xavier García Albiol. But the new leader of the popular Catalans was very far from reviving the PP brand in Catalonia. The terrible electoral results took their toll and had weight in the decision to withdraw confidence in the leader by the new leadership of Genoa. But the continuous disagreements between Alejandro Fernández and the Madrid leadership in recent months have only strengthened that thesis.. “Alejandro is only a spokesman for himself,” national leaders said.

Genoa has a great task pending in Catalonia. Feijóo seeks to rebuild the party with new teams and speeches, and a strengthened leadership so that a possible electoral advance does not catch him on the wrong foot. In principle, the Catalan elections do not take place until 2025, hence the party does not feel too much pressure when it comes to holding the regional conclave as soon as possible without the certainty that it will be able to impose its candidate without leading to fractures and tensions..

In the leadership of the PP they doubt that Feijóo can impose the Basque route in this case and that there is only the candidacy of the apparatus in a possible conclave. Or in other words: the party fears that Alejandro Fernández will fight and run in the Catalan PP primaries, supported by a sector of the Catalan militancy that supports him unconditionally, among whom is Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo..

Feijóo has always had a couple of clear candidates to relieve Alejandro Fernández. One of the best positioned is the mayor of Castelldefels, Manuel Reyes, who shares the podium with MEP Dolors Montserrat, who also has the advantage of having a seat on the Genoa steering committee.. The leadership of Genoa tried without success to solve the Fernández problem in the general elections. Although his name was floated for months to lead the PP's ballot for Barcelona, Génova finally offered him to head the party's list for Tarragona, an exit that would have made things easier for Feijóo, but which Alejandro Fernández rejected.. “After 23-J, we are going to live again episodes in Catalonia that will demand a strong voice that defends the rights and freedoms of non-nationalist Catalans (…). “I'm not going to abandon you,” he wrote, a declaration of intent against the wishes of Feijóo's leadership..

I would like to thank, with all my heart, the opportunity that my party gives me to return to the Congress of Deputies. BUT I STAY IN CATALONIA.
At the time, I was very critical of those politicians who, at the first difficulty, went to Madrid and left behind a huge…

— Alejandro Fernández (@alejandroTGN) June 10, 2023

In the 23-J elections, the PP managed to triple its results in Catalonia. But Feijóo's goal is much more ambitious. The popular leader wants to present himself in Catalonia as the only constitutionalist alternative to Sánchez's concessions to sovereignty, a banner with which he intends to grow at the expense of the most moderate sector of the PSC, stop Vox and attract all former Ciudadanos voters. But he knows that a civil war would be a disastrous letter of introduction.

The Port of Valencia has been just a test. A first trial by fire that will culminate at the end of November/beginning of December in the scenario being prepared in Madrid by the Conexus Foundation chaired by the lawyer Manuel Broseta.. In what will be the II Madrid-Valencian Community Business Summit, with logistics and transportation as sectoral axes of the meeting, the bulk of businessmen with interests in the port super-expansion will raise the tone to demand that the Government definitively authorize the multimillion-dollar work.

This type of meeting has been more of an opportunity for the usual medical team to take the AVE and spend the day in Madrid, resolve some of their issues and meet later at some party in which the ratio of Valencian businessman to Madrid businessman is being 10 to 1, the capital of the Kingdom is quite saturated with parties and events.

In order to link well with the economic powers and the Valencian bourgeoisie, the socialist Ximo Puig elevated Broseta almost to the category of ambassador of the Generalitat, giving him the autonomous Administration building on Españoleto street for free with the task of contacting “the decision nuclei” (Puig dixit) in favor of the interests of the Valencian Community. We do not know what came of that mandate, but Broseta, who, as Giorgio Gaber sang, was always more right than left, has invited the two regional presidents, Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Carlos, to the Conexus meeting, this time Mazón, who if no setbacks occur will hold their first bilateral meeting under the umbrella of the Business Foundation. Ayuso, let us remember, was already at the investiture session of the new president, to which, by the way, Alberto Núñez Feijóo did not attend, who in those days was removing the leaves of his relationship with Santiago Abascal..

Mazón and Ayuso, we said, it is certain that they will agree in demanding before Pedro Sánchez the importance of moving forward with the infrastructure, they will send warnings about alleged hidden pacts with ERC and Junts in favor of the Port of Barcelona and they will launch, as popular barons, a first opposition front policy to the new PSOE and Sumar Government, if the socialist leader is finally inaugurated before November 27, something that remains to be seen.

In that environment of political confrontation that is coming, where the PPCV and the Council of the Generalitat in coalition with Vox are preparing the claim powder (autonomous financing, investments in the State General Budget, water…), the PSPV and Compromise, who still haven't digested the defeat of 28-M.

With the figure of Ximo Puig oscillating between an indefinite role of queen mother and Chinese vase (Carlos Mazón was deleted from the first control session), the Valencian socialists are experiencing a dead calm waiting for the internal congressional processes to start, probably not before summer 2024. Nobody knows if Puig will end up taking a step back (the voices that promoted him as ministerable are already fading) and will open himself to a new leadership led by Diana Morant, Carlos Fernández Bielsa, Alejandro Soler or some other hidden person.. Even the name of José Luis Ábalos is still not ruled out.

What is certain is that the sandwich will be for all of them. Focused as they are on the organic matter, even if it is still in a low intensity format, the second federation of the PSOE runs the risk of waking up one morning pierced by a Valencia/Madrid crossfire from which the popular Mazón will surely take advantage..

Ximo Puig discovered very soon that, in terms of political narrative, he lived much better against Mariano Rajoy than with Pedro Sánchez in the Moncloa. There is no better proof of this than the fact that he has lost the Generalitat despite having his party sitting in the presidency of the Government and occupying all the investment ministries.. It did him not served of for a lot. On the contrary, it harmed him. It is certain that the new conservative regional president will not miss the opportunity to try to make Sánchez guilty of all the evils that plague the Valencian Community, marking a line to indicate where each one stands.. The good and the bad Valencians. It is already generating the necessary complicities, both economic and media.

The PSOE faces the next legislature with a considerable gap in territorial power and the Valencian Community, like Andalusia, are key pieces of that puzzle. The Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, who is also deputy secretary of the PSPV, has sent Moncloa the pertinent warnings about what is to come via periodic reports. In a party of order, working groups would be created, resistance committees with links to Ferraz would be organized and defensive batteries would be charged to have some option that the next electoral event in 2027 would not be the confirmation of a new long stage. of autonomous governments of the PP. But we are talking about PSPV, and its past of navelism and cainism does not bode well for its future.

The ideological control of the leadership of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) is already a palpable reality. Some activists complain both publicly and privately that the organization is tightly controlled by Feliu, who employs a handful of acolytes to prevent any initiative from being taken that is not to his liking.. The head of this powerful machinery is Uriel Bertran, who is actually the hand that rocks the cradle in the organization, who has been commissioned to prepare an internal consultation so that a civic list can be put forward that will confront ERC and JxCat in the next autonomous. It is about giving a corrective to the republican Pere Aragonès and the post-convergent Carles Puigdemont for not having complied with the guidelines issued by the ANC. It is a total order.

In mid-September, Feliu, together with the Secretary of Political Advocacy, Josep Lluís Rodríguez, met at the entity's headquarters with the new leadership of the small party Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència (SI): its secretary attended on behalf of this organization general, David Folch, the secretary of Studies, Programs and Strategy, Lluís Tenas and the secretary of Institutional and International Relations, Francesc Fíguls. No one should be surprised: the three are party colleagues of Uriel Bertran, Feliu's right hand man. Furthermore, SI was a party that between 2010 and 2012 maintained four deputies in the Parliament of Catalonia. The support of radical organizations is fundamental in the strategy of Feliu and his team.

Pro-independence sources point out that what the president of the ANC is preparing is a trident to run in the next regional elections. “He has given orders to his team to prepare an internal consultation that they themselves will control. It is already known, then, what result the consultation will have, but in this way it has the perfect excuse to draw up a civic list, saying that it has been the will of the militants to confront the traditional political parties in the elections,” the sources emphasize.. The operation is done in time so that a possible advance of the elections does not catch her off guard..

An enthusiastic president

Another source reports that “Feliu is enthusiastic and has two important names from the independence movement willing to show their faces.”. One is Clara Ponsatí, Carles Puigdemont's escape partner.. Ponsatí is crazy about participating in elections in the leading positions. What's more: she could go second, if in the end she doesn't top the list. In reality, she has offered, as if it were a sacrifice, to be the candidate. The other number is Jordi Graupera. “These two, together with Feliu, would be the trident of the ANC for an electoral contest.”. The philosopher Graupera was already the head of the list for Barcelona in the 2019 municipal elections and obtained more than 28,000 votes, 1,000 less than the CUP. Both formations were left out of the council by a handful of votes. The intention is to carry out the same maneuver, but in regional elections. “They already have everything prepared,” an internal source in the organization tells El Confidencial.. But that trident will be a public danger, because they have no sense of reality. “They live in a world apart and are totally out of the ordinary.”.

However, others could be added to these names in the future, since there are victims from other parties who are in the crosshairs of Feliu's team for the electoral adventure.. Specifically, there could be female deputies from an independence party who could be tapped for the new adventure.. And they don't forget Bertran either. “He is ambitious and wants to enter the Parliament again through the front door,” they say about him. Apparently, he claims a position in the first places, promising the entire machinery of his party, YES, in favor of the cause.

“What they intend to do, as they themselves explain, is a purer party, radical in nature, with a marked sovereignist and intransigent profile.. In fact, as it is conceived, it has a very limited ceiling, although it is true that it could have a niche of votes that we could call almost anti-system that would be very faithful. But they themselves know that their ceiling could be three or four deputies. The strategy, however, is to stay there to expand that extremist niche and turn it into a reference force.. “That's not easy and you run the risk of failing miserably.”.

“Do not put the ANC at risk”

Sources from the most radical sector explain to El Confidencial that they are not opposed to Feliu and his team wanting to make a foray into politics.. “But don't put the ANC at risk.”. Don't do it in the name of the ANC. Let them create a party and show up. The ANC is something else: it is a transversal organization, where all pro-independence ideologies have a place and which should not get involved in politics,” these sources explain..

The fight is fierce. From some sectors of the ANC, the parties are accused of wanting Dolors Feliu's organization dead. But the parties respond that the leadership of the Assembly has asked for it and makes merits daily for this rejection.. “What it should be is a civic entity that pulls the parties and reminds them of what their mission is. But it not only functions as a party, but it works as a party, assuming functions that do not correspond to it.. He tries to rule the remaining parties and threatens to stand in the elections. Is there any clearer proof of its nature?” criticizes a source from one of the pro-independence parties..

This fight becomes more bitter if we take into account that there is a group of former leaders who maneuver in the shadows to be able to have weight and even control the list.. Among those names are Miquel Sellarès and Pere Pugès, two of the founders of the organization more than 10 years ago.. “They are on one side, but they continue pulling certain threads and weaving contacts so as not to lose track.”. Although at first there was talk that they could lead a civic list, that seems unlikely now, and even less so considering that Feliu and his team control all the resources of the ANC.”.

Inside the ANC, critics are cornered and clearly swept aside. The anti-Feliu sector, grouped in the Indesinenter collective, renounced, just before the summer, a collection of signatures within the ANC because it could not access the entity's census: Feliu and his people vetoed that access and thus safeguarded the president. In February, 13 members of the secretariat resigned, in the largest fracture of the leadership seen so far. But many others stayed inside, crouching, so as not to lose sight of Feliu and try to mark her closely.. Critics assure that the ANC “must embark on a new course, with a new truly democratic, assembly-oriented and participatory leadership.”. However, they don't know how to stop her, because she runs wild..

mixed opinions

“Decisions are made from the top without consulting them with the secretariat, as the statutes say and as has always been done. But the small group that has hijacked the organization goes beyond the rules. Until now, all decisions were made by scrupulous consensus. The consequence of this authoritarianism is the disenchantment of the people and the decrease in militancy.. In reality, we do not know at this time how many militants continue to pay their dues, but we fear that there are considerably fewer than a few years ago,” say critics..

Furthermore, they highlight the fact that “attendance at this year's Diada was not a success.”. There was at least 30% less attendance than last year, which should make the leadership reconsider. But, instead, they counterattacked by saying that there were 100,000 more people, which not even they themselves believed.. “The ANC, as it functions, is doomed to irrelevance”.

Those closest to the official line of the organization affirm, on the other hand, that “what has been done is to stand up to the parties, preventing the ANC from becoming a sectoral group of ERC, Junts and the CUP destined only to mobilize the street. “The ANC has raised the idea of the civic list precisely so as not to be a prisoner of the processist parties.”. Thus, Feliu has an arduous mission ahead of him to carry out his project, facing not only the large sovereignist formations, but also an internal opposition that could put obstacles in his way and even cause an even greater split in the entity.. His battle not only against Spain.

Carmen Amoraga is a writer. Although for eight years he lost that condition. Or, at the very least, it became blurred, to the point that she herself came to doubt if it was.. And more: if he could start writing again. For eight years she was, above all, general director of the Generalitat Valenciana. She had previously won the Nadal Prize (in 2014, for Life was That), but not since 2015: general director. Of Culture and Heritage, after Ximo Puig proposed her for the position.

After leaving office and announcing to Puig that he would not repeat, no matter what happened in the regional elections, Amoraga writes again. To be a writer.

Although his new book, The Reckless Heart, has nothing to do with his political adventure – but with the lives of two people who, close to retirement, decide to embark on a love adventure with unforeseen effects – his writing and publishing process also serves to explain what happens to the personal life of a senior official beyond what is seen in press conferences, at inaugurations and in papers.

The writer became a politician despite a first denial. “For quite some time I said no, I am not a politician. But, heck, it was politics: I was doing politics.” From then on he imposed a rule: he would not publish any book while in office. “It made me uncomfortable to take time away from promoting a novel.” Another thing had to do with writing. “It was my intention, but I didn't have the mental capacity to disconnect. “The pandemic had to come to be able to do it.”

At that time when within the body of a politician there was a sleeping writer, some things would happen to Carmen Amoraga (from Picanya, south of Valencia) that would underpin her future, although she did not know it yet. As happens in his new novel, a doctor was the protagonist, triggering his own story..

She monitored her mother's glucose through the doctor until one of the times they called each other, the doctor asked the politician how she was and the politician, who was not well, started to cry.. kept crying. And the politician, again Carmen Amoraga, told him and told him. “That's when I thought: how sad it must be when you don't have anyone to tell what's happening to you or you don't feel like telling the people around you.. “That feeling was the first spark of the novel.”.

A few days ago, with the novel already published, Amoraga returned to the office. “What a shame, what is he going to think,” he said to himself at the risk of meeting the doctor again.. “When my doctor saw me she told me: what's wrong with you? You are very red…”.

Regular author of Planeta, this time she publishes with Espasa (within the same group) thanks to an unexpected meeting with Esteban González Pons. From different parties, Pons called her for the first time to propose that she present his book, Satan's Seat. From political writer to political writer, he was able to tell. “We only saw each other that day, but we have had many conversations about politics, about literature. And he introduced me to who would be my new editor.”.

With the fuse of his novel lit, the next decision was to abandon his characters of 30, 40, 50 years, and put in the foreground characters of 60, “often relegated to two roles, that of caregiver – of your children, of your dogs, your apartment, you – or the cargo – which prevents you from going to do whatever you want because you have to be taking care of it -. That's why I wanted them to be active people in love, sex, work and life.”.

He composed the robotic portrait of the characters, imagined in detail their careers, their manias, their constants.. “Folios and folios that I have not used. For example, the menu for the protagonist's first communion”. Traced the story. He consulted with experts to solve the story: weapons, cemeteries, medicine. But he was still in politics. I couldn't publish.

Until at the beginning of the year Amoraga met with Ximo Puig. “I will not want to continue in office after the elections. If you want to dismiss me before, I understand it,” he told him. At that time he took for granted the continuity of the progressive pact for a third term. Only he had decided to get off here. “I don't quite see that today you are in Health, tomorrow in Agriculture, the next day in Education. Politics does not have to be a profession. Two legislatures were already good. With three I think I would have become a professional politician”.

The time had come to publish again, to be a writer again, only… The doubts began. “I was very afraid to write.. What if I'm no longer worth it? What if after these years I'm no longer selling?”. His psychologist – whom he includes, veiledly, in the book's acknowledgments – recommended that he spend some periods without writing, to see how he felt.. “And I felt infinitely worse.”.

The publication of the new novel has served to reaffirm herself as a writer: “Now I realize that it is not that I write because I can't help it, I write because I want to.”.

In The Reckless Heart, José Manuel (the doctor) and Tina (who works at the Museum of Fine Arts) represent what happens when you fall in love, even when it is not appropriate to do so: “It doesn't matter if you are 20 or 60 years old, you are going to live a physical process and no matter how old you are, you always fall in love with the illusion of the first time. What matters to them is that, precisely because of their age, guilt influences them more than hope.. The guilt weighs heavily on them throughout the novel,” explains Carmen Amoraga, who is once again a writer..