Four weeks of conversations and contacts with the authorities of Tetouan and Nador, the Moroccan provinces adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla, have been of no use.. As this Sunday, October 8, marks one month since the earthquake that hit Morocco, the NGOs and volunteers of the two autonomous cities have not managed to deliver the humanitarian aid they collected to the neighboring country..

The civil governments of both cities have not given them a resounding “no” to their request, but they have told them to be patient, that their request would continue to be studied, and that they were waiting for the response from the Ministry of the Interior in Rabat..

If this delays a few more days, we are going to give up on the expedition and all that help will be distributed among needy families in our city, which are many,” says Amin Azmani, local deputy of Somos Melilla, a small political party in the city. Tarik Abdeslam, who in Ceuta heads 317 Homes, an association of residents in Loma de Colmenar, expresses himself in the same terms..

Both have been involved – along with some other local association – in the collection of clothing, footwear, tents, blankets, non-perishable food and some basic medicines, with the intention of sending them to the victims of the earthquake that on September 8 caused almost 3,000 dead and about 3,000 injured. “In a location located next to the University Hospital, we have stored 4,500 kilograms of aid,” Tarik Abdeslam proudly explains on the phone.. “People have been generous,” he adds..

In reality, the problem is that the Moroccan authorities refuse to allow any new merchandise to pass through these two land borders.. Only people and the vehicles that transport them cross, after passing some annoying bureaucratic controls.. They do not want customs to be opened because it could be interpreted as a step towards the recognition, by Morocco, of Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla, say unofficial diplomatic sources..

Non-existent customs

To this explanation, Juan Luis Aróstegui, former general secretary of CCOO in Ceuta, added another in an article published in September in the newspaper El Faro de Ceuta: “Morocco has not invested billions of euros in developing the area adjacent to Ceuta in order, Now, open an 'escape route' for economic flows through a territory that it calls 'occupied', that it does not recognize, and which it shamelessly suffocates as a means of pressure at the service of its annexationist theses.”.

President Pedro Sánchez announced on April 7, 2022, at the end of his Ramadan dinner with King Mohamed VI, that a customs office would be inaugurated in Ceuta and the one in Melilla, which Morocco closed, would be reopened—without communicating it to the Spanish authorities— August 1, 2018. It had been in operation for a century and a half. The Spanish Government did not protest.

Although three specific pilot tests have been carried out since January to send goods across land borders, these customs offices still do not exist.. The Moroccan authorities do not even apply the so-called traveler regime included in their customs regulations at the borders.. This would allow a person entering Morocco from Ceuta or Melilla to carry small purchases worth less than 200 euros.. People from Ceuta and Melilla cannot carry small gifts, not even a box of sweets, to their relatives residing in Morocco and tourists cannot take a souvenir either..

Even so, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, stated on September 22 in New York – in a meeting with the press on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly – that the roadmap announced in April 2022 by President Sánchez “is fulfilling”. A year earlier, also in New York, Albares expressed himself in those same terms.

The Moroccan Ministry of the Interior only accepted, on September 10, official aid to mitigate the consequences of the earthquake from four countries: Spain, the United Kingdom, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.. So it did allow volunteers from Spain and other places to take to Morocco the products that were transported aboard vans and by ferry from Algeciras to Tangier..

The 317 Homes association also considered sending its aid from Ceuta to Algeciras and from there to Tangier, but finally gave up due to the high freight costs.. That was exactly what the Ministry of the Interior led by Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba had to do in October 2006.. He wanted to donate 72 all-terrain vehicles to Morocco to improve its fight against immigration and moved them to Ceuta to deliver them by land. But Rabat refused to receive them. Spain had to send them by sea to Algeciras, and from there to Tangier. The Moroccan authorities also do not accept ships from autonomous cities in their ports..

The situation is now worse than in February 2004, when Morocco was hit by another earthquake that caused 629 deaths.. It then took about 48 hours, but he finally allowed the Melilla firefighters, and the aid they were transporting, to travel across the land border to the heart of the Rif, the area of the earthquake. The President of the Government was then José María Aznar.

Apart from the aid from individuals, which will not reach its destination, the governments of Ceuta and Melilla, both in the hands of the Popular Party, have each donated 50,000 euros to Morocco. These items are not sent directly to the Moroccan authorities, but have been processed through the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Latin Grammys leave the US for the first time in their history and they do so to come to Spain next November. The transfer has been possible thanks to the collaboration agreement reached by the Latin Recording Academy with the Regional Government of Andalusia, which will contribute 18 million euros over the next three years to host this great event with global repercussions..

The agreement, announced in February, gave the starting signal for the preparation of this enormous show and also for the race to get the best services for those days.. Not in vain, Latin Grammy Week alone will attract more than 5,000 attendees, including world-renowned artists, producers and members of the musical field..

On September 13, the list of artists candidates for the awards was made public and with them, the battle to reserve the best suites in the most luxurious hotels, restaurants and catering, exclusive spaces for private parties, rental of vans and limousines..

The Latin Grammy celebration will have its epicenter in the Seville Congress Palace (Fibes) but its passage will be noticed throughout the city, as well as in Granada and Malaga, where two flamenco concerts will also be held, in the Alhambra, and of urban music, in the La Malagueta bullring.

This event will also be a huge boost for the music industry in Spain, which in recent years has demonstrated its national and international strength, supported by Latin American countries and its growing penetration in the Anglo-Saxon world.. The sector already represents 1.5% of the national GDP.

To analyze these phenomena and the situation of the sector, El Confidencial has organized a large forum that will be held this Tuesday, October 10 in Seville and in which artists, businessmen, promoters and directors of some of the best music festivals in Spain will participate..

The event will begin at 9:30 in the morning at the Cajasol Foundation Theater, in the Plaza de San Francisco, and will take place with two interesting round tables that will feature prominent personalities. Thus, among the participants will be Eva Cebrián, vice president of the Latin Grammys Board and main person responsible for the awards being held, for the first time, outside the United States and coming to Spain.. José Luis Sevillano, general director of the Society for the Management of Performing Artists of Spain (AIE), and the popular Malaga singer and composer María Pelae will debate with her..

The second of the tables has managed to bring together those responsible for some of the best music festivals in Spain. Thus, Sandra García-Sanjuán, co-founder of the Starlite Group and executive president of the Starlite Occident festival and the Starlite Foundation, will be present; Javier Esteban, CEO of Green Cow Music and director of Icónica Fest Sevilla; and Alfonso Santiago, founder and CEO of Last Tour, which organizes the Bilbao BBK Live, the Azkena Rock Festival, BIME and Donostia Festibala. Joining them will be Inmaculada Benito, director of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the CEOE since 2021..

Entry to the El Confidencial and Fundación Cajasol forum is free by simply registering at https://andaluciaindustriamusical.tufabricadeventos.com/

Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) still does not understand very well what could have happened at the IES Elena García Armada. Last week, a 3rd year ESO student who had never caused trouble took two knives out of his backpack and attacked classmates and teachers.. The institute insisted that there were never signs of bullying, although, after the stabbing, the students acknowledged mockery and insults in the days before.. After the attack of anger, the detainee recognized that he could not take it anymore.. Now, the Asperger's association to which he belonged comes to his defense to ask for greater awareness and the updating of protocols to avoid cases of this type..

“People with Asperger's do not usually ask for help,” says Rocío Garrido, psychologist from the Asperger TEA Jerez association.. In therapies, the entity constantly asks if any situation has bothered patients to detect possible bullying.. Although it occurs in many cases, it is common for them to have difficulties verbalizing it, as well as, in general, to describe situations.. The detained minor only stated that his class was “a jungle”, but he had felt harassed for two years. After learning the news, an attempt was made to hide their diagnosis so as not to stigmatize the Asperger's group, but the association has decided to provide several stories that reflect the day-to-day life of these patients, their peers and their difficulties in the school context..

“They are very long-suffering and wait for everything to happen, but it doesn't happen.”. And there comes a time when they explode,” says Ana, mother of a teenager from a high school in Jerez.. Her daughter, diagnosed with Asperger's a year and a half ago, also exploded: she defended herself by throwing a table at a classmate, a reaction that also surprised her school.. At 15 years old, he suffered continuous self-harm and several suicide attempts.. Shy since she was little, Asperger's, combined with teasing about her physical condition, led to anorexia that led her to be hospitalized..

The young woman refused to eat and constantly revealed her suicidal intentions.. “We spent sleepless nights knowing that he wanted to take his life,” says the mother. Tried it several times. After the parents' notice, the institute opened two bullying protocols that were closed, like most. In the 2021-2022 academic year, Andalusia opened 1,367 files and bullying was only found in 140, 10% of the total. “If the school says there is no, there is no. And it cannot depend on the center alone to determine if there is harassment,” says this mother..

For teachers, it is difficult to manage certain conflicts. “A person with Asperger's does not understand jokes and what is not important to anyone can be an insult to them,” the association states, pointing to a “lack of sensitivity” in the educational context, both on the part of teachers and students. Few understand the behaviors of these adolescents, “what happens when they are rejected or are not taken into account”. “Teachers need to detect behaviors, know what is behind each complaint. “Sometimes they communicate one conflict out of every 100 they have, and perhaps we have to be attentive and open the protocol first,” adds psychologist Rocío Garrido..

María Jesús even left her job to be with her son and watch from the patio fence. He claims to have seen with his own eyes how they attacked him even though he had an open harassment protocol. The minor is 10 years old and, in his case, everything got worse when he admitted to his classmates that he had Asperger's.. It is one of the great doubts of families and teachers.. Sometimes the group becomes aware of the problem and shows solidarity, although there is always the danger that the damage will be greater.. The detainee, for example, had not communicated this, so in class, after what happened, they simply described him as a “lonely” person.. “The school downplayed it and said that it did not have enough teachers to control everything,” says this mother, who found out about the attacks on her son through a tip from a classmate.. “The detainee is treated as an aggressor, but that is not. “Any person in an extreme situation would act like this,” he adds..

Although there is no official data on the real extent, a study carried out in the USA in 2002 placed the percentage of children and young people with this disorder who suffer bullying at up to 90%.. They are “the easy target”: lonely and with difficulties integrating, many end up dropping out due to the anxiety they experience during school.. A more recent investigation by Autismo España reveals that 12.4% of autistic students have acknowledged having suffered bullying at least once. Another report from the Anar Foundation, which manages the bullying telephone number, offers the reasons for the attacks: in 14.6% it was due to disability; 17% due to their psychological problems; and 53.6% for the things that the Asperger's person does or says.

In any case, it is inevitable that families see through the eyes of their children the case of the Elena García Armada institute, where the worst outcome occurred.. Amanda – fictitious name, to protect her identity – is the mother of another Jerez student who, at 15 years old, has already attempted suicide.. Bring to the interview evidence of harassment and recordings of a student who reported to the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office. “From then on, all his teammates turned against him. “I see that boy and I know that he had two options: commit suicide or attack the people who hurt him,” he adds..

The Andalusian Government has asked for “caution” when assessing whether the detainee had suffered harassment and whether the protocols worked correctly.. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education has insisted that it will be necessary to assess whether the insults in the previous days were a specific issue or repeated over time, something fundamental in the current regulations to determine whether or not there was bullying.. From the Asperger TEA association of Jerez they ask to apply a different treatment with Asperger's, who face the conflict in a very different way from the rest of the students, and to open protocols at the first sign. “The majority suffer great anxiety in the academic context,” says the psychologist, who understands the difficulties of teachers in perceiving details in large groups.. After the incident, the Jerez institute investigates what happened.

He puts his hand on his chest with the gesture of someone who opens his heart wide, of someone who is revealing a pure truth, an absolute dedication, an unconditional love.. The long hair snakes over the braided palm dress tied with a rope at the waist.. You can barely glimpse a small, delicate, almost adolescent body, too young for the sins that are charged in the file.. The mystical beauty of his face, perfection in the profiles that converge at the chin, is clothed with faith and devotion directed at the crucifix that he holds in his left hand..

Who would deny forgiveness to this daughter of the love of art?

The Penitent Magdalene by Pedro de Mena always forces me to deviate from the established path when it crosses my path in the middle of some documentary consultation. It is impossible to pass by and not be enraptured by it..

Today I have brought to these lines one of the crowning works of the Spanish Baroque to gloss the figure of one of the greatest artists that Andalusia contributes to the native Parnassus and to the heat of the Fieramente humano exhibition that is held at the Carmen Thyssen Museum in Malaga and that you can enjoy until February 18 of next year. In this exhibition you have the opportunity to see two works by Mena, an Ecce Homo and a Dolorosa, which are trademarks of the house.. From the Mena house.

Pedro was born in 1628 in Granada and was born into a family with wood shavings in the book of idem. The Roldán and the Mora were surnames known and treated in the house.. Inbreeding of gouges and rasps. Pedro's native Granada was, along with Seville, the other great focus that illuminated Andalusian arts in the Golden Age.. Alonso Cano, that Granada-style Buonarotti with a strange character and dark past, arrived there in 1652 to take charge as rationer of the Granada Cathedral and our Pedro collaborated with him, taking the idealized aesthetics from the master, but creating a very personal naturalistic style that It brings you closer to the raw truths of the boatman, those of sacrifice, penance and martyrdom of Christian models that should serve as an example and object of imitation for our sinful souls..

A style that will evolve in Malaga, where he arrives at the age of twenty-nine and finds the opportunity to demonstrate his talent after the Cathedral Chapter commissioned him to finish the choir stalls, a work extended over time by different events and with the intervention of different people. hands, although Mena's would be the most decisive in the final result: forty-two high reliefs in which Pedro shows his evolution as an artist, from the initial influence of Cano to the formation of his own and unmistakable artistic language.

A path that the artist travels and that leads him to leave Andalusia, leaving examples of his mastery in Toledo, with the portentous Saint Francis of Assisi of the primate cathedral, I doubt that he will not breathe and look at me again, and in Madrid , in the school of the Congregation of Jesus for whom he made the ineffable Magdalena Penitente and which can be experienced today, because there are works of art to be experienced, in the National Museum of Valladolid. This would not be the only collaboration with the Jesuits.

In the Sevillian baroque reliquary of San Luis de los Franceses, the Jesuit novitiate church shores up the pillars of any faltering faith. In the attic of the small altarpiece dedicated to San Luis Gonzaga, an extraordinary carving by Duque Cornejo, an Ecce Homo reveals the presence of Pedro de Mena in the complex. The lock of hair that winds, the purity of lines, the delicate profiles, the blood tracing the map of the sacrifice, the gaze above, far from this world, passing through the lantern of the imposing dome of Figueroa and reaching the Father. It is paired, as was usual in its tremendously demanded production, with a bust of Dolorosa that repeats the same aesthetic language..

His application for the position of chamber sculptor was not accepted; he had plenty of gallons for it, but he enjoyed prestige and recognition in life and that, in the 17th century and in the 21st, equips self-esteem and is a sought-after value..

Pedro de Mena died in his adopted city, in Malaga, and by his own decision he was buried in the floor of the entrance to the church of the Císter Convent, where his daughters Juana, Claudia and Andrea, the last two, sculptors like their father, professed. father. Pedro arranged to be accompanied in his final resting place by a couple of Ecce Homo and Dolorosa that he himself made expressly, but there are wishes that history insists on not fulfilling..

On two gray exhibitors at the Carmen Thyssen Museum, rest the busts of those who had to watch over the eternal dream of the fiercely human, fiercely baroque, fiercely Mena artist.

The SOS Desaparecidos Association has reported the disappearance since last Monday in Madrid of Rosaura Diana de la Coba, a 19-year-old girl who had just returned from Galicia, where she had been working for several months in the hospitality sector.. The young woman is 1.67 meters tall, has a slim build, brown hair, green eyes, wears glasses and at the time of her disappearance she was accompanied by a dog, a pitbull mix with a black and brown American Stanford, the organization has reported..

Lawyer Juan Manuel Medina, collaborator of SOS Desaparecidos, has highlighted that this is a “high risk” case, because the young woman made the trip with her ex-partner, who had a restraining order for sexist violence..

The disappearance was reported on Friday to the National Police, which has already located her ex-partner, who assures that he has no information about the girl, according to relatives.. “He swears and swears that he knows nothing about her. I spoke personally with him and everything,” commented Ana López, Rosi's sister-in-law, as she is known in her family..

The girl went this summer to Galicia with her then partner, also 19 years old, to work.. They had found a job as waiters which also provided them with a place to live.. “They couldn't find work in Madrid and at 19 years old they think they can take on the world,” her sister-in-law, the wife of the young woman's older brother and who serves as spokesperson for the family, told EFE.. However, during her stay in the north, he beat her, which she reported for the first time after three years of abuse.. As a result, a restraining order was imposed on him, López said.

Last Sunday, Rosi notified his relatives that he had returned to Madrid, but did not give too many details. The next day, he exchanged a message with his little brother: “How are you?” he asked. “Bad,” she replied. It was 4:00 p.m. and since then no member of the family has heard from Rosi.

“With my husband and me she can go a week or two without speaking, but with her little brother the maximum was two days, they are inseparable. That's why we raised the alarm. The earth has swallowed her,” said Ana.

The negotiations between PSOE and Sumar are crossed by a secondary factor with respect to the central issues of the investiture, as well as its result, but which has great importance for the formation of Díaz. Sumar must become an internally established party and structure a political space that has not yet been fully defined, neither ideologically nor organizationally.. The way in which this occurs is entirely linked to the ministerial appointments that Díaz makes from Sánchez..

The calling of the elections accelerated the times of a formation that was about to be built, which had an unavoidable positive effect, because the urgency, together with the poor results of the municipal elections, granted Díaz the possibility of bending his arm to Podemos in Little time. The result of 28-J, which was good for the formation, as well as the possibility of forming a government again diluted (or rather postponed) the latent tensions. But sometime they have to be solved and Sumar is in that process.

Diaz's core

Since Díaz lacks his own party, he must begin by building a hard core from which to create organization. The parliamentary group, in which it has very close deputies, will be its center, along with that group of related cadres, in which Urtasun appears in a preeminent place.. But a parliamentary group and a set of advisors is not a party, unless Díaz wants to continue the dubious path of internal cohesion that Iglesias walked.. Need anything else.

The integration of Más País in Sumar is a priority. In that package, of course, Más Madrid is included. Certainly, if Mónica García ends up getting a ministry like Health, it would greatly facilitate the process.. MM, along with the commons, is the party most related to Díaz of all those that make up Sumar but, for them to become faithful allies, that closeness must be established with concessions of power. It is true that, ultimately, this depends more on Sánchez than on Díaz, but it would be logical for people from both parties to be in charge of the ministries that Sumar ends up starting in the negotiations.. The names of García and Colau are heard, but not that of Errejón.

The Podemos rebellion

Things are complicated in the case of Podemos, and not only because of the evident lack of affinity between Sumar and those of Iglesias. Belarra has repeatedly insisted that Montero should retain the Ministry of Equality, but the PSOE does not seem willing to give it up, and even less so to someone who has been pointed out as a source of problems that translated into loss of votes.. Díaz's incentives are contradictory, since his express desire is to distance himself from the policies followed by Podemos, but that with the need, even if it is by quota, to grant some space of power to those of Iglesias.. Belarra sounds much more than Montero, although not to lead a ministry.

If the positions that Sumar leaves to Podemos do not satisfy those of Iglesias, and even more so with Montero absent from the appointments, the door to a breakup would be open: Montero could appear in the European elections under the Podemos brand, and not as Sumar, which would would imply the complete separation of the paths of the two parties. It will be difficult for it not to happen this way, because the programs and needs of the two formations and their leaders are very different.. Podemos wants its own space and will get it one way or another.

The role of Izquierda Unida

This story is complicated by another of the actors that come together in Sumar, such as Izquierda Unida. Alberto Garzón came out to point out the need to build Sumar as a broad front, which still seemed strange. And not so much because of what it meant to repeat an idea that is not going to prosper, but because he rebelled against the foreseeable lack of space that his formation seems to have in the new Sumar. It must be remembered that Garzón is a minister fully aligned with Díaz, which conveys the feeling that things are getting complicated.

Enrique Santiago, who has also aligned himself in recent months with Díaz, hopes to have a relevant position, but it remains to be seen what will be offered to him if the coalition government is repeated, as well as the lower-ranking positions that fall to him. luck to IU. An ungenerous offer from Sumar would complicate things internally. Given the importance of the European elections, for what they mean and for the resources they bring, if IU and the PCE feel mistreated by Díaz, the incentives to increase ties with Podemos and participate with them in the June elections would be much greater..

In the Basque Country, 209 strikes were held from January to June. And in Spain as a whole, until May, 380, according to data from the Employment Department of the Basque Government. Labor conflict in Euskadi is a reality that has put the Lendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, and the PNV on guard at the beginning of the electoral course. The nationalists accuse the radical nationalist left and the unions of devising a strategy of attrition, preparing a “hot autumn” in the streets and projecting a
“gray image of Euskadi” that has little to do with reality, they say, with the sole purpose of evicting them from power in the regional elections that will be held next spring. And in this strategy, ELA, the majority union and the central union whose creation the party promoted in 1911, occupies a prominent place, although their paths have long since separated..

It is the thesis that lies behind the “they are coming for us and we are not going to allow it”, launched by the president of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, at the Aberri Eguna (Match Day, celebrated on the last Sunday of September). Ortuzar, by the way, is affiliated with ELA, like many other party officials.. And it is the idea that Urkullu repeated again this Friday in the Basque Parliament. This same week, on Wednesday, in an El Diario Vasco forum he was more explicit. “Euskadi represents 5% of the State, but more than 50% of the strikes are called here. “Are we the ones who have the worst conditions? Who has the worst services?” asked the Lendakari.. And the answer was: “It is a strategy focused on creating a climate of permanent social unrest.”. Strikes and more strikes, protests and more protests with a clear political intention.”.

But for political scientist Félix Arrieta, the PNV is wrong with this type of messages. “It is a reading of the diagnosis that he makes of society, but not of the message that he should send to society. The PNV is a government party and should not be constantly pointing out what others are doing, but rather exposing its measures, the solutions it offers.”. The scenario for the PNV is complex – the result of the municipal elections in May and the general elections in July confirmed a drop in support and the strength of Bildu – and the proximity of the regional elections, which are held in June, influences the strategy. that the party has adopted and that the specialist from the University of Deusto considers erroneous.

Firstly, because although some economic indicators may underpin the PNV's discourse, the reality that ordinary citizens experience is very different due to factors such as inflation.. Also due to the wear and tear in the management of a legislature marked by the pandemic and how this has influenced Osakidetza, the jewel in the crown of public services in Euskadi and one of the elements of friction with the unions, like Education.

Precisely, Urkullu outlined a series of indicators to reinforce his thesis. In the last 10 years, he defended, the GDP of the community has gone from 64,000 million to more than 80,000, unemployment has dropped from 16 to 7.4%, there are one million people working, 125,000 more, and spending sanitary means per inhabitant has gone from 2,700 euros to 3,500. However, the X-ray of ALS is very different: “We live in a phase of generalized impoverishment”. And a large part of the citizenry also sees it that way.. The latest DeustoBarómetro, published last summer, shows that the biggest concern of Basques is the rise in prices (45.5%). The percentage is similar if the data is analyzed by vote recall. It is the main problem for 48.4% of PNV voters, 44.6% of Bildu voters, 47% of PSOE voters, 54.9% of Podemos, 51.4% of PP and 39.2% of Vox. The same study found that the state of health is the second concern, as reflected in the graph.

The struggle between the PNV and ELA is not new, in the 2016 elections the central party called strikes against the Basque Government in the middle of the electoral campaign, but now it has intensified and the union attributes it to the fact that they are the only counterpower in Euskadi. This is how the general secretary, Mikel Lakuntza, defended it this Thursday in an interview on Radio Euskadi: “In this country there is no political opposition. The only thing there is is union and social opposition. And evidently in this task of union and social opposition the main agent is ELA, which is committed with pride.”.

The head of the union center completely disassociated himself from Bildu and placed the coalition on the same level as the PNV. “They do not have nor do they want to do anything with counterpower. If something characterizes EH Bildu's policy today, it is moderation and reaching agreements. The Lendakari attacks us for non-appearance, because there is no other opposition,” he concluded.. The central office has more strikes planned for this October, both specific to Education and one for the entire public administration next Wednesday the 25th..

The DeustoBarómetro also asked about the degree of trust in the unions and in this case the main difference lies between the left-wing and right-wing parties.. In the latter, distrust is much greater. 34.8% among PNV voters, compared to the lowest percentage, that of Bildu voters, with 21.4%.

But beyond the figures and the sympathies that the unions draw on both sides of the political spectrum, Arrieta warns that the maximalist readings of ELA are not correct either.. “That it exercises counterpower is a fact. There is no doubt that it is trying to set the agenda of the PNV and especially that of Bildu, which right now is where it can have the most influence, but whether it is the only counterpower is very debatable,” says the political scientist and gives the example of the last elections, of the municipal and general elections, in which the nationalists and the nationalist left moved to expand their respective bases, seeking greater centrality. “Who reads society better? The two main Basque parties or a union? The logic of counterpower is distributed according to various parameters,” concludes the expert..

The beginning of the break with the PNV dates back to the Transition, although over the years the disagreements modulated depending on the political context.. For example, during the governments of Juan José Ibarretxe, ELA once again converged with the PNV on the nationalist issue, but not on the labor or social issues.. However, with the arrival of Urkullu to the Basque Government the bridges ended up breaking. “Before I knew what the PNV was and what ALS was. Also today. ELA is an anti-PNV union, which is seen more in the HB demonstrations than in the batzokis,” Iñaki Anasagasti criticized in 2011 in an article published in El País on the occasion of the union's centenary..

The power of ALS: the street and the resistance box

ELA proudly boasts of being a union without any type of link with institutional or economic powers, the only one without ties to represent the interests of the workers.. It has about 100,000 members and its representation quota is 40%, double, according to central sources, that of the second union by representation in the Basque Country, since CCOO and LAB alternate, linked to the radical left.. But ELA was not always the reference union and nor was it the harshest..

In the 1980s, ELA broke into factories to prevent “UGT from eating its toast,” explains Jon Las Heras, professor of Applied Economics at the University of the Basque Country (UPV) and author of the article Going on strike to renew: the strategies organization of Basque unions and the use of the resistance fund, published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations of the London School of Economics. It is in those years when the union manages to become the majority, however, it is not until the 90s, “when it already had mass and representation”, when it decided to change its strategy. Leave the offices and storm the streets. In short, move away completely from the CCOO and UGT model, that of dialogue with the Government to guarantee social peace..

The union sets new objectives and a key element comes into play, the resistance fund, to guarantee its own resources. It is the tool that allows long strikes to be covered and an almost unique case in Spain. ELA allocates 25% of its members' fees to feed the fund, an amount that in 2021, the last year for which data is available, amounted to 5 million. Its striking workers receive up to 1,243 euros per month. It is the lifeline that allows strikes like that of Tubacex, which lasted 235 days, or that of the cleaning workers at the Guggenheim Museum, which lasted 285 days. It is your ace in the hole to twist the arm of the company in charge or the administration. And its strength is what partly explains why Jesús María Pedrosa Urquiza, a PP councilor in Durango murdered by ETA in 2000, was a member of the union. So was his wife.

The radical independence movement was on the verge of extinction, in part, due to the skillful management of the Sánchez Government in confluence with the pragmatism of ERC. And, on the other hand, because it was evident that he had reached a dead end (independence is a chimera) and that, along that path, he had deceived many Catalans who believed, in good faith, that what was approved on 1 October could come true. And as a result of deception, they led the country to an unprecedented economic and social decline.. His management has, therefore, been a failure, which the Catalans who, at some point, supported him, were increasingly realizing..

Broken and confronted, the two souls of the Catalan independence movement, both in evident electoral decline and social support, with their leader pending to return to Spain where he would be tried for crimes committed (putting ballot boxes is not a crime, unless prohibited by law and the courts). and to do this, you also have to commit acts against administrative and electoral law) and a Catalan society waiting for a change in the political cycle with the most likely access to the Generalitat of Salvador Illa and the PSC, after the next regional elections.

Landing the negotiation with the Generalitat on specific issues, with a budgetary reflection, far from the dream-nightmare of 1-O, the pardons and the will to keep the political channels open, was a great success of the Sánchez Government, which knew how to read the moment very much. better than the right anchored in 155, cornering Junts with its refusal, for example, to recognize their dialogue to negotiate in Congress their radical proposals, such as amnesty, and thereby helping to “deflate” tensions in Catalonia and with Catalonia.

And we would still be there, if it were not for five parliamentary votes: after a confusing electoral result, where whoever wins, loses and whoever has lost, can win, those deputies are the determining factors to elect the next President of the Government of Spain, a nation that, For “repressive and oppressive” those who have those votes with decision-making capacity in the investiture are of no interest whatsoever.. Some votes for which the failed candidate Feijóo said he was willing to meet with Junts and, some votes, that the current acting Government has explicitly requested to reinstate President Sánchez. This must be made very clear: Puigdemont would not be, as it seems now, the one who has the upper hand in Spanish politics, which allows him to regain strength in Catalan politics as well, if, either PP+Vox, or PSOE+ Add up, they would have gotten five more seats in the elections.

The need, then, and not the conviction that it is the best thing that can be done now to find that new “fit” of the independentists in Spain, is what has placed the amnesty and, again, the almost forgotten self-determination referendum , on the frontispiece of Spanish politics, threatening to cause another earthquake that will increase, even more, the number of trenches in the polarized and confrontational Spanish scenario of coexistence.

I don't know if this will heal wounds with Catalonia. But it is certain that they will reopen them in Spain and, also, in Catalonia, leaving all of us who have defended with conviction both the 155 at the time and the political steps taken subsequently by this Government confused, refusing to accept the framework within which the radical independence builds its feverish discourse. Until the night of July 23, I believed that the referendum was postponed indefinitely, that the rupture between the independents was irreversible and that the amnesty was either not constitutional, or it was a serious mistake that we socialists refused to make, coinciding, in this, with the party leadership.

It is true that the need for Catalan votes forced, for example, González to accept the transfer of 15% of personal income tax to the CCAA, as well as Aznar to raise it to 30% (after having said that the transfer of 15% “would break Spain “). Or that the parliamentary votes of the PNV have imposed conditions on the governments of both sides in recent decades that, without needing their support, they would not have accepted..

Anyone who knows how a democratic parliament works knows that that is precisely what it consists of: negotiating and accepting things that were not in your initial project, in exchange for improving the text, expanding support or, most of the time, in exchange for the votes necessary to move it forward. It is the same democratic logic that we have seen in the current coalition government between PSOE and UP, or in the new autonomous governments of the PP and Vox coalition: it is discussed, it is negotiated, it is accepted what you denied before. So what is the difference now? Why is negotiating the investiture with Junts different from doing so with PNV, Canarian Coalition, ERC, Vox, Sumar, etc.?

Part of the controversy has focused on the change of opinion of the PSOE leadership. I don't think it is the most relevant thing, although I would have liked it to have been carried out differently, without giving the feeling of the joy expressed on the same election night of having already secured the investiture, despite having obtained fewer votes and seats than the PP. All agreements involve accepting what you didn't want before.. As a mythical example, that Aznar who, in the middle of negotiations with ETA, brought prisoners to Euskadi or agreed to call them “Basque Liberation Movement”.

It is also still used as a central argument against the agreement, that what Puigdemont has asked for, dragging Esquerra into it, in exchange for their votes, is not constitutional.. Well, first we will have to see if Sánchez accepts what they ask of him as is or if there are changes to it that may affect his legal fit.. We would have to wait to know specific texts to pronounce. In any case, given the opinions expressed by distinguished jurists, it could happen that it would be possible to find a fit for them within the current legal system, as the Government has always repeated (“the limit is the Constitution”).. In any case, regarding the constitutionality of what was agreed, the only relevant opinion is the one made by the Constitutional Court on texts and not on intentions..

Some heroes of the transition have raised their voices indignantly because agreeing now with Puigdemont would be a betrayal of the transition and everything that the “regime of '78” means.. I disagree. If we remember something with pride about that complicated process of transition from a dictatorship to a democracy, it is precisely the spirit of reconciliation and consensus that made it possible.. From Suarez legalizing a PCE against the ultras, to Carrillo accepting the flag and the monarchy, against the extreme left.

Finally, the definitive argument is once again that, with this, “Spain is broken”, causing a grievance and an insult to “the Spaniards” (Whoever accepts this, aren't they Spanish?) and the “rule of law”. Well, the right has used this argument so much, with the pardons last time, that it is not worth spending much time on it. Suffice it to add that, apparently, we Spanish progressives have greater confidence in Spain and its strength as a European project, than those patriots who have half of the Spaniards left over seem to have..

And having said all this, I disagree with how the Government is managing such an important issue, with obvious errors due to excessive prominence, such as the visit of the vice president to Puigdemont, with no other purpose than to appear on television whitewashing whoever, at the moment, He is a fugitive from Spanish justice. A successful negotiation of the investiture should never have been taken for granted, because this required putting all the focus and all the negotiating capacity in the hands of Puigdemont, positioned as the architect of a new progressive Government in Spain..

Because he has been resurrected, contravening the entire meaning of what was done in the last legislature. Because he is someone who has built his entire political character and his party, “against an oppressive and repressive Spain”. Because it would drag ERC into a competition, already exhausted, of “let's see who is more independent”. Because it upset those of us who have been with the Government, until now, in the Catalan administration, above all, it left the PSC and Illa out of the game, only recovered by the high political clumsiness (I don't know if agreed) of the independents in bringing the Parliament an impossible resolution.

Revitalizing Junts, because their votes are needed, is a serious political error, in one of the most important issues for Spain: the fit of Catalonia (many Catalans say they want to leave Spain and many more that they do not want to leave).

If finally, as a result of the negotiation that seems to be already very advanced, “a historic agreement with Catalonia” were reached that went beyond the investiture and that included other aspects in addition to a pardon law, as Sánchez has hinted, it would be essential submit it to a referendum of the entire Spanish people. If the negotiation is successful, we would not be facing a minor matter or one of interpretation of the laws, but rather assuming mutual commitments that must include the abandonment of the unilateral route, of great magnitude and quasi-constitutional or statutory scope..

Therefore, unless, in the end, the mountain gave birth to a mouse or an agreement was impossible and we had to repeat elections, I believe it is unavoidable to subject any agreement that seriously affects the governability of Spain to the right of Spaniards to decide through a specific referendum.. As was done with NATO, at the time. Alternatively, a qualified majority would have to be guaranteed in the Congress of Deputies that included the support of the PP since the existence of bridges cut between the two major parties is the authentic abnormality of our political moment, proof of the success of populism and the reason why the tyranny of minorities exists. At least, in matters of state like this, it should not be possible. Therefore, either a referendum, or elections since, in democracy, forms and procedures are of the utmost importance.

And, by the way, I would vote in both cases in favor of an agreement that would give us years of relative tranquility with “the Catalan problem” and allow us to focus on the other really important problems that this 21st century brings us..

The Government delegate in the Region of Murcia, Francisco Jiménez, said this Friday that the police investigations into the fire at the Teatre and Fonda Milagros nightclubs, in which 13 people died, are expected to end before this Monday.

At the celebration of the festival of the Virgin of Pilar, patron saint of the Civil Guard, ahead of this Friday in Murcia, Jiménez added that once all the statements from the witnesses, survivors, family members and workers are available, and owners of the premises, as well as the evidence collected by the scientific police, will be made available to the judge handling the case.

In this sense, he pointed out that regarding the causes of the fire, “there is still a lot of work to do, so it will take a long time to be known”, and he recalled that at the moment nothing more can be reported about the investigation because the prevailing summary secret.

Thus, after the identification of all the bodies and their making available to the families throughout this week, the Government delegate in Murcia met with the consuls of the countries of origin of the victims (Colombia, Nicaragua and Ecuador ) to address the repatriation of 7 of the 13 deceased, which must be authorized by the central government.

Finally, Jiménez has called on all the municipalities of the Murcian community to refine the licensing and action protocols on leisure venues, and ensure “rigorous compliance” with all safety regulations..

In some way, As Pontes is in mourning. It has been 47 years watching how a gigantic chimney, taller than the Eiffel Tower (365 meters), relentlessly spit out the smoke from burning coal from the mine from which the livelihood of many families came since 1976. “It was the bread of the people for everyone,” summarizes a retired veteran of the plant, saddened by the closure of the center where he worked “all his life.”.

It was Endesa's largest thermal power plant on the Iberian Peninsula.. With 1,469 megawatts, it contributed more than 5% to the state energy system and also had the dubious honor of being one of the most polluting in Europe, according to CO2 emissions data from the EU and WWF.. For the majority of residents, pollution took a backseat because the plant was pulling employment and the regional economy..

Its closure was the chronicle of an announced death that the energy crisis of the Ukrainian war postponed for a few months as electrical insurance.. The thermal power plant was kept at half throttle, with two of the four groups turned on intermittently, to guarantee system availability, the Government justified.. Paradoxical, in the midst of the fight against climate change.

Early Thursday morning, the last stones of coal were consumed and the boiler went out. “Sadness,” summarized Ricardo Casas, president of the Endesa Committee. Its closure leaves the shadow of an industrial giant with five chimneys attached to an artificial lake printed on the horizon of As Pontes; which was generated by diverting water from the Eume River to flood the immense hole of the old brown lignite mine that closed on December 31, 2007.. The result is a sheet of fresh water 18 kilometers in perimeter with depths exceeding 200 meters and that has forever changed the environmental physiognomy of a mining town..

The definitive closure of the facility leaves several human problems. Part of the Endesa employees in As Pontes will be early retired or relocated to other centers on November 1. Another 25 will stay until the end of the year to “secure the facilities” before they are dismantled, the Committee explains.. “Everything that involves a fire load must be removed: fuels, coal, hydrogen.. Because there will no longer be activity or maintenance.”. Left in limbo are the 80 auxiliary industry workers and truck drivers who in the last 15 years were in charge of transporting imported coal from the port of Ferrol to the thermal power plant boilers.. “We have no solution other than to go to the fucking street,” explains Roberto, a subcontractor employee tired of hearing about an agreement for a just transition that does not allay his anxieties in the short term..

The service sector of As Pontes is also helpless: practically everything, from real estate agencies to gas stations, to the daily menu of the bars or the volume of work at its health center revolved around the activity derived from the plant. -and its staff- who were already in free fall, from the 1,800 employees that Endesa had on its payroll in 1987 to 256 in 2008. At the end of this month, there will be barely twenty left.

Another reading is made by Ecologistas en Acción, who always had the As Pontes plant on the radar “as the largest climate change factory” in Galicia and the northwest of the peninsula, and who celebrate the shutdown of the boilers. For the mayor of As Pontes, Valentín González Formoso (PSdeG), the shutdown of the boiler leaves a “bittersweet” feeling as a result of “the speculation of CO2 rights by 7 North American brokers that monopolize 70%,” he said, but it opens the door to other possibilities to continue being “an electrical industrial complex”.

And what will Endesa do in what was one of its homes in Galicia? “Endesa is neither leaving nor ignoring As Pontes and Galicia,” emphasizes the electricity company. It plans to “replace” the 1,400 megawatts of the thermal power plant that turned off its boilers with another 1,300 in renewable energy. It was already operating in parallel to the thermal plant with a combined cycle plant (800 Mw/hour of natural gas) and they have another 100 green hydrogen and several wind farms in perspective..

Goodbye, coal. Hello tires.

Called the Galician Springfield, due to its parallelism with the town of Simpson, the Endesa thermal power plant has marked the economy of the entire region for half a century.. Closed, the town of As Pontes has to reinvent itself. In addition to exploring wind and green hydrogen projects with Reganosa and EDP, the landing of Ence (the pulp multinational that requires a lot of water) is also being cleared and they have a large Chinese tire plant from Sentury Tire SL in perspective, with 531 million and 750 jobs taking advantage of the aid from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for the Just Transition.

Another multinational that has set its eyes on As Pontes is Ence pulp, which plans to occupy 45 hectares in the old coal park, investing 355 million euros for a bioplant for the recovery, development and production of recycled natural fibers from paper. and recovered cardboard that will generate 400 jobs. It would be necessary to add the H2 green hydrogen plant planned by Reganosa and EDPR, produced by electrolysis and necessary to guarantee the energy supply, to carry out the new industrial projects. It would occupy 35,000 square meters to generate a hundred direct and induced jobs.

The sum of the projects of the economic and social development plan that accompany the closure of the plant translate into a global investment of 2,682 million for 1,361 jobs. In As Pontes they wait impatiently for the commitment to go from promise to reality with the fireplace turned off forever.