• Thirteen dead in the fire of several nightclubs in Murcia: “Mommy, I love her. We are going to die”
• The Murcia fire, the deadliest in a nightclub since the Flying in Zaragoza
• The Teatre nightclub, one of those burned down in Murcia, was evacuated in 2009 due to another fire

The incident occurred around six in the morning this Sunday, October 1, in the commercial and leisure area known as Las Atalayas, on the outskirts of the city..

Through a video published on social networks, the Murcia fire department has shared the news that they have managed to extinguish the nightclub fire.

🔴 Atalayas nightclub fire extinguished, we continue working in the area. pic.twitter.com/U1DnRjDRor

— Murcia Firefighters (@BomberosMurcia) October 1, 2023

In the video you can see how firefighters go around the place trying to put out the fire as quickly as possible with a pressurized water hose..

“This way, please, this way,” one of them could be heard directing one of the elements carrying the hose..

Furthermore, they have pointed out that although this fire has been completely extinguished, they are still working together with emergency services and specialized units of the Murcia Police Headquarters in fire investigations to clarify what happened..

The independence movement marks its political agenda for the beginning of an autumn in which they will be key to deciding if Pedro Sánchez manages to govern or if there will be new elections in January. On the sixth anniversary of the illegal referendum of October 1, the leaders of ERC and Junts have marked their position for the negotiations. An amnesty is not enough, they want to vote for independence.

The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has asked this Sunday for unity among the independence movement to make a new referendum a reality whose result will be “respected and implemented”. He said this in an institutional statement on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of 1-O from Fonollosa (Barcelona), a municipality in which the Civil Guard acted to prevent the vote..

“We will do it with all the conviction, looking for the meeting point that we must be able to build,” he stated.. He has pointed out that the amnesty is necessary to “complete the end of the repression and to end the persecution of the independence movement”, but he has assured that, by itself, it does not resolve the political conflict.. “If the Government really wants to resolve the sovereignty conflict with Catalonia, it must listen to and address the broad, transversal and majority demand in Catalonia” for a referendum, he said..

Junqueras defends 1-O

The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, stated this Sunday on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of 1-O that he will not renounce the right to vote and has defended “the legacy and presence of that democratic feat”.

“On October 1, 2017, we were able to exercise a fundamental right that we will never renounce, one of the most fundamental democratic rights: the right to vote,” he stated on the social network 'X'..

Puigdemont calls for unity

The leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, has written a message in which he assures that October 1 was “a victory”, but that “it is not yet a complete victory”. On October 1, 2017, says Puigdemont, “we showed that it was possible thanks to unity, the leadership of the institutions and civil, democratic and non-violent mobilization”. Departing from this formula, says the former president from Waterloo, “takes us away from victory”. “We can highlight our disagreements (…), but we are moving away from the formula with which we won,” he says..

The day of September 11 commemorates a defeat. The one of October 1, a victory. Neither defeat was definitive, nor victory is yet complete. We know how we have resisted for three centuries, and we know what elements make up the victory of six years ago. They all depend on us.… pic.twitter.com/dsL2ZRvcD9

— krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) October 1, 2023

The ANC calls for elections

That unity that Puigdemont calls for has not been reflected, since one of the two main pro-independence parties, the ANC, previously very close to the pro-independence parties, continues its divergent line. The president of the entity, Dolors Feliu, demanded this Sunday that the Government call elections “if it does not dare to do” independence in the event that Congress approves an amnesty law.

“If the Government and this Parliament, with 52% of pro-independence votes, do not dare to do so or do not want to, let them call elections and give voice to a free Parliament, chosen by a people thirsty for freedom. Let them call elections if they do not want to do so. independence”, he demanded at the event that the independence entity has called in Plaza Urquinaona in Barcelona on the sixth anniversary of 1-O.

For Feliu, independence must be achieved from Catalonia, so “if there is an amnesty law in Congress, the same day it is approved, independence must resonate in the Parliament.”

• Thirteen dead in the fire of several nightclubs in Murcia: “Mommy, I love her. We are going to die”
• Terrible images of the fire: this is what the inside of the nightclubs looked like when the firefighters arrived
• The Murcia fire, the deadliest in a nightclub since the Flying in Zaragoza

The fire, which affected La Fonda and Teatre, broke out around 6 in the morning. Around that time, several calls began to arrive at the '1-1-2' Emergency Coordination Center reporting a fire in a nightclub in the Atalayas area in Murcia..

The biggest tragedy in a nightclub in Spain took place in Madrid on December 17, 1983, when a fire that started behind the stage curtains of the “Alcalá 20” nightclub killed 81 people, most of them young people.. Smoke, a failure in the lighting system and a closed emergency door led to the catastrophe..

Years later, on January 14, 1990, there was a fire at the “Flying” nightclub in Zaragoza, where 43 people died, poisoned by gas inhalation..

This is the chronology of the most serious fires with fatalities in nightclubs, restaurants and entertainment venues in Spain in the last 45 years:

– 01/15/1978.- An arson attack destroys the “Scala” nightclub in Barcelona and leaves four people dead.

– 01/21/1979.- A nightclub burns in the Cadiz town of Ubrique, with a death toll of six.

– 02/15/1979.- The fire at the “Charada” nightclub in Madrid causes the death of four people and leaves another eleven injured.

– 17.12.1983.- Eighty-one dead in the fire at the “Alcalá 20” nightclub in Madrid, caused by a short circuit.

– 10/20/1988.- Three dead: two waiters and a 17-year-old boy, due to the fire that devoured the “Dickens” pub in Vitoria.

– 01/14/1990.- The fire at the “Flying” nightclub in Zaragoza causes the death of forty-three people poisoned by gases.

– 09/12/1992.- Four dead in the fire at the “Miami Club” club in Barcelona, due to a short circuit.

– 06.10.1996.- Four dead: two women – one of them, the cloakroom manager – and two firefighters in the fire at the “Siete Seven” nightclub in Valladolid.

– 09/14/2003.- Fire in the brothel “La nuit de la nuit”, located on the N-IV highway, in Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real). Two dead.

– 04/22/2023.- Three people die (one of them almost a month later due to injuries sustained) and another 12 are injured in a fire that occurred in a restaurant in Madrid.

Together they are 157 years old, but they feel like political kids. Ernest Maragall (80 years old) and Xavier Trias (77 years old) saw how the debate of the moment, a new amnesty law for those involved in the process, passed without them being able to do anything. Not like Felipe González (81 years old) or Alfonso Guerra (83 years old), for example. So they decided that they were also going to appear in the photo and as councilors they would force the plenary session of the Barcelona City Council to debate a joint proposal of symbolic value, since the Catalan council lacks powers on the subject and has no role in this funeral.. The two independence veterans achieved their milestone and this was voted on last Friday in the municipal plenary session, but at a price that not even they themselves expected.. An unexpected butterfly effect has complicated talks to invest Pedro Sánchez, which until then were on the right track.

the old rockers never die. If the Rolling Stones release a new album, Xavier and Ernest were going to rock it. And they did. The bubble of. There ERC and JxCAT, oblivious to municipal harmony, were distributing tow thanks to the general policy debate. So the joint proposal in the Catalan capital had an unexpected knock-on effect between the parliamentary groups of Republicans and Juntaires.. If Ernest and Xavier had known how to agree, how could they be less?

In the pro-independence parliamentary groups they made their calculations with a broad stroke. A Parliamentary resolution proposal has the same symbolic value as a municipal proposal: no practical application. So it was just a matter of seeking the easy applause of his voters without assuming any responsibility.. It was all benefits.

As it was also about ERC and JxCAT, the auction so common between both parties soon began.. It was no longer enough to support the amnesty law, the referendum had to be included, even if it was shoehorned in and was not the axis of the negotiations between Moncloa and Waterloo.. The final wording of the proposed resolution, which was voted on in the Parliament, could not be more compromising: “The Parliament is in favor of the Catalan political forces represented in the Spanish Cortes not giving support to an investiture of a future “Government that does not commit to working to make the conditions for holding the referendum effective”.

braking

Now the exegetes of the independence movement assure that the trap is that it calls for a “referendum” and not a “self-determination referendum”. And that this would ultimately allow a consultation to be held to change the Statute, but not to vote to separate from the rest of Spain.. Readings like this, online “Artur Mas's cunning”, is because a part of the independence movement understands that they have gone too far and that maintaining this position runs the risk of ruining all the conversations.

The turn taken in the last few hours has irritated the PSC. Salvador Illa and, at another level, former president José Montilla, have been involved in the approaches to the world of Waterloo, according to sources from the independence movement familiar with the contacts.. While Catalan socialism sought to create a general context to make possible the approval of a future Amnesty Law, the independence movement only intends to convert said norm into another victory for the movement..

Opposite result

The proposed resolution sought applause from its own ranks. In practice, he has torpedoed the talks and has set before his voters a new objective, “the referendum”, which makes the final agreement more expensive and which, in addition, leaves ERC and JxCAT portrayed if in the end it is not achieved.. If the breaking point of the conversations, as MEP Clara Ponsatí confessed, is that “the main novelty is that we admit to talking about the amnesty separating it from self-determination, although now I look at it from the outside”.

ERC and JxCAT have made life difficult for the PSC, but they have also done it to themselves. Now it will cost much more to close a pact, no matter how much the current Government offers an amnesty. A good part of the independence movement will not know much. Seeking applause from the bases can end up turning them against you.

From the point of view of negotiating strategy, the Parliament's proposed resolution makes no sense. Especially if, as it seems, the talks were going well until the independentists themselves sabotaged themselves. But this is what always happens to the movement: they lose their gestures towards the gallery. And in the end, they sacrifice everything for that. Just like on October 27, 2017, when Carles Puigdemont first declared independence and then went away for the weekend.

“Get used to Galician sarcasm”. The phrase is by Alberto Núñez Feijóo; the context, one of his responses to the groups during the failed investiture session that he faced this week in Congress. The message, addressed to locals and strangers, left no doubt: he has come to Madrid to be president of the Government “sooner rather than later”, as the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, ventured.. Another Galician. The PP now begins a new stage after a “difficult” month, they recognize in the party, in which it has been difficult to digest that the most likely horizon, unless Pedro Sánchez fails in his investiture attempt with the Catalan independentists, is the opposition.

There is satisfaction with the result of the leader's debut in the lower house. From the popular leadership they highlight that “many citizens have discovered Feijóo” and that one of the “errors” to which the baronies blame the insufficient result of 23-J is that there was “excessive repeal of sanchismo” and “absence of country project”. The Galician combined both aspects well in his speech to request support from Congress. There was a motion of censure against Sánchez, but he also presented his economic proposals. The popular ones saw it reflected, according to their own considerations, that “we have a solid alternative to Sánchez”.

The closing of ranks, which was visualized with the barons supporting Feijóo from the guest gallery, does not prevent the demands for “important changes” in the structure of Genoa from having subsided.. For senior party officials, the negotiation of the pacts with Vox and how the general election campaign was planned showed that the party leadership “is not well oiled”. There is no criticism of the figure of the leader who, they insist, “has more than demonstrated his political worth”, but there is criticism of the “lumps” in the strategy and the “confusion” in the organic functioning.

The focus is on the “tricephaly” that represents the coexistence between the general secretary, Cuca Gamarra, the general coordinator, Elías Bendodo, and the deputy secretary of Organization, Miguel Tellado. There are complaints from the barons about the “lack of operation”. The one who came out “most burned” was Tellado. He is from the president's most trusted team, with whom he has been working in Galicia for years, but “Madrid has weighed on him,” say popular sources who suggest that he could consider making the leap to Brussels taking advantage of the fact that there are elections to the European Parliament next year.. Bendodo was one of the few who dared to suggest to Feijóo that the surveys that gave them above 150 could fail and it was necessary to lower expectations. The man who was Juanma Moreno's plumber has found the place, although he has not always been comfortable with the distribution of powers.

Showing off his Galicianism, Feijóo listens, but those who work closely with him emphasize that he is “methodical” and has his “own times.”. Having overcome the debate of his failed investiture, he is now focused on dismantling Sánchez's story and on what, this time, will be face to face in Congress with the acting president, unless the negotiations with Carles Puigdemont ultimately fail. hour. The popular leader is more inclined to make “adjustments”, according to management sources, than to an internal “revolution”. The analysis is that the elections have been won and if big changes are made it is as much as assuming a failure that the PSOE hails as a political weapon..

The Galician does not like leaks very much, that is why only he, and “two or three people” will know before they are announced the true significance of some changes that will be forced in the case of the party leadership after the appointment of the vice-secretary of Coordination autonomous and local, Pedro Rollán, as president of the Senate. The change of Javier Maroto from the spokesperson of the Senate to the Board of the Upper House will mean a double change both in the direction and in the election of the future spokesperson. Until now, the position is held on an interim basis by the veteran, Javier Arenas, but he himself has told his colleagues on the bench that it is most likely that he will not continue in this position.. Feijóo wants it to be a woman and the former Environment Minister of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Paloma Martín, has entered the pools with great force, who “the boss really likes”.

In the case of the Congressional spokesperson there is a quorum in which Cuca Gamarra has defended the position “with gallons” despite the fact that he inherited the stage of Pablo Casado. He has earned the trust of Feijóo, who, when he was confident of being the next president of the Executive, nominated Gamarra as the future political vice president.. Proposing her to preside over the Congress Board when everything indicated that it would fall into the hands of the socialist Francina Armengol caused the party to interpret that the plan was to replace her as the voice of the popular people, but the leader of the PP officially left the position vacant..

If Feijóo keeps her as spokesperson in the party, they suggest that what is foreseeable is that she will end up ceasing to be general secretary.. In one scenario or another there are two names that are in all the groups: Borja Sémper and Carmen Fúnez. The first acts as spokesperson for the party and some place him as the “chosen one” to face the Government in the control sessions.. The internal noise generated by his intervention in Basque on the day in which the PP was protesting the approval of the use of co-official languages in Congress, showed that he does not have the sympathies of everyone.. “Sémper would be a good spokesperson for the government, not for the opposition,” reflects a member of Mariano Rajoy's team, who anticipates that the legislature is going to “be very tough” and advises that Feijóo “rearm” himself with “very political” profiles..

“Feijóo has to have someone who will bite for him,” insists the aforementioned source, who lived with Rajoy a journey similar to the one that awaits the current leader and from his experience considers it a priority for the Galician to maintain his profile as a “statesman.” and takes refuge behind a praetorian guard that “shakes Sánchez”. “Some change has to be made,” they repeat in the party where the vice-secretary of Social Policies and Demographic Challenge is vying for promotion.. Fúnez, “sorayista”, represents what the PP leadership wants to convey after the detailed study of the results of the parliamentarians leaves three elements to improve: we must regain the trust of women after having lost more than a million of these voters for alliances with Vox; We must broaden the party in the center and recover the transfer of voters from the moderate PSOE, which was much smaller than expected; and we must bite Vox from the Government alternative. If these circumstances do not occur, management sources warn, “we will not return to Moncloa”.

The discovery of Alberto Núñez Feijóo as a parliamentarian brings with it the novelty of relations between the Popular Party and Vox: now, their leaders smile with the placidity of cordial enemies who await the day when they can stab each other. But without stopping smiling. In the debate in which Pedro Sánchez decided to send one of his gladiators most in need of favor to the pit, lacking in scruples, therefore, the tone and manner of the leader of the Popular Party favored the contrast in his favor..

Feijóo's discovery as a parliamentarian, in italics, is due to the fact that it was the first time that the president of the PP sat in the Congress of Deputies and, furthermore, he did so with the stripes of a candidate for the presidency of the Government, which allowed him to measure himself as a speaker against all his opponents in the chamber. We knew him, obviously, in rallies, interviews, television debates and even in the Senate appearances, in front of Pedro Sánchez, but, except for the Galicians, Núñez Feijóo premiered his oratory, biting and stinging, for the rest of the Spaniards.. And for the other spokespersons of Congress, who did not know of him as a speaker either.

The first consequence of the Feijóo style in the Congress of Deputies is what, for the moment, seems like a new model of relations between the Popular Party and Vox. The relations between these two parties have always been burdened by two unavoidable cracks in the five years of institutional coexistence that have been completed, counting from the first time that those from Vox occupied seats in the Parliament of Andalusia after the December 2018 elections.. The first crack is political contempt and the second is the social rejection that the extreme right arouses, per se, by its mere existence, regardless of the events that occur.. So let's go in parts. The first, political contempt, is at the very origin of the appearance of Vox which, as is well known by its founders, is a split from the Popular Party..

The origin of the disagreement is in 2012, when a former leader of the Catalan PP, Aleix Vidal Quadras, promoted a platform, Reconversión.es, to urge the Government (then chaired by Mariano Rajoy) to modify the territorial model.. The initiative is joined by some well-known people such as José Antonio Ortega Lara, ETA's cruelest kidnapper, and others less relevant, such as Santiago Abascal.. The platform does not gather even thirty thousand signatures, so it will have to wait a few years, until Abascal gets the definitive motto right: “the PP is the cowardly right wing.”. It is not possible to insist on this qualification of contempt of this crack of Vox towards the Popular Party. Above all, because it still remains, latent, every time one of its leaders closest to the center takes center stage in the Popular Party, even bordering on social democracy.. Instantly, they will receive attacks from leaders and spokespersons who will accuse them of being “vulgar beings”, “equidistant” and “self-conscious”.. Mariano Rajoy was and everyone who resembles him continues to be.. No need to mention names. The fact is that the contempt remains, although the fundamental nuance of this moment is that it does not entail the frontal tension and rejection of other times.. An example of the frustrated investiture debate that serves as a reference. It was when Abascal asked Feijóo to get rid of centrism, both here and in Europe: “The same thing happens to the European PP, undecided between continuing to approach the socialists or us,” he said in reference to the group led by the Italian Giorgia. Meloni. And he added: “They must recover their roots and let go of the socialists.”.

Feijóo ignores this type of insinuations, he does not even enter the debate, because the only thing that seems to rebel him is the consequences that the social rejection raised by Vox has for the aspirations of the Popular Party, which is the second crack that separates them, as stated. I said before. The president of the PP is of the opinion that one of the causes of the unsatisfactory result of the last general elections is, precisely, the alert that is generated in society every time some extreme right leader, somewhere in Spain, rampages against women, against immigrants or against homosexuals. The discourse of fear of the right that the PSOE, and the entire left, always promotes, is activated immediately and that is what happened in the elections, amplified by the widespread pacts in city councils and autonomous communities.. Feijóo thinks, and this is what he said in the debate, that Vox's serious problem is that, with each outburst, it ends up benefiting the PSOE. If we add to that the fact that the division of the center-right takes away seats, the consequence is the result of these elections. For Feijóo, there are no more explanations: without these conditions, the PP would have won “190 seats” in the elections. “Who told you that, the same polling house that predicted an absolute majority on July 23?” Abascal replied ironically.. “No, that's what the D'Hont Law says,” Feijóo replied..

The leader of Vox is right that it cannot be stated, far from it, that the PP would have obtained 190 seats, if only one party existed, as it did years ago.. It cannot be said, among other things, because it is very likely that two out of every three Vox voters have no intention of ever voting for the Popular Party.. Therefore, the hypothesis can never be developed by adding electorates, without further ado.. On the contrary, what is incontestable is that Vox arouses social rejection that does not occur with any other political force.. And it is not about getting involved in debates about how fair or unfair it may seem to us that the same thing does not happen with far-left political forces… Everyone will have an explanation, but the point is that this fact occurs. Spanish society of this time is intolerant of these extreme right-wing speeches and, in each episode, an uncontrollable rash occurs.. Therefore, the conclusion we can reach is that, certainly, this phase of détente, of cordial enmity, is very positive for the parties of the right, but none of this will prevent many of the possible achievements from being lost due to the sink of that second crack, that of the social rejection that the mere concept of the extreme right entails.

“I have questions and doubts about the amnesty that I hope are explained”. This is how the president of Castilla-La Mancha, the socialist Emiliano García Page, spoke this morning, with the shadow of the referendum and the amnesty that the Catalan independentists demand as a toll and price to offer their votes to Pedro Sánchez on the screen that opens after the failed investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

“Sánchez resists as much as possible to being placed in a straitjacket. I believe in it and I want to trust that the central positions of my party are the defense of the Constitution, which guarantees equality,” proclaimed the socialist from La Mancha.. Page does not hide his discomfort with the political unrest that comes from Catalonia and raised the dilemma of whether it is not “immoral” for the independentists to “vote their apology” and forgive themselves. He also recalled the words of his fellow member, Salvador Illa, socialist candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat, who the day after the elections “marked the limits: neither referendum nor amnesty.”.

The regional president launched a warning to Junts and ERC: “The yellow brick road of the Wizard of Oz, in addition to being tortuous, does not end anywhere and when someone tries to get the right to vote on their own, even if it is to stay as it is, it is already being independent”. “I think that the independentistas are going to have to step back a lot because the consequences of seeing Puigdemont entering and running for elections would have to go through the Constitutional Court,” he added..

Autonomous framework

Catenaccio or closed defense of the State of the Autonomies in the final fireworks of the La Toja Forum Atlantic Link with a marked political character on the closing day and the morbidity of seeing Emiliano García Page —socialist president of Castilla La Mancha— and the leader together of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in the week of his failed investiture.

They coincided in space and time, but not at the table, since the organization placed them consecutively and not simultaneously. A reflective and quite content Page with some of the proclamations that are already a trademark of the house, participated this morning in the regional table: 40 years of autonomies. Challenges and opportunities, together with the presidents of Galicia, Alfonso Rueda – Feijóo's right-hand man and successor in the Xunta – and Fernando Clavijo, from the Canarian Coalition and current president of the island Government, in a debate led by Rocío Martínez, director of the Foundation Felipe González.

“Buero Vallejo said that in moments of doubt, it is legitimate to doubt what to do.”. What is not legitimate is to doubt what one is. There are people who don't know what it is and that is already more difficult to manage,” Page proclaimed.. “Spain is a nation and that is what is approved in the Constitution. Multi-emotional, what each person wants and how they want to feel,” he said.. “The State has exercised very little, very little, the line of harmonization,” he criticized, to reflect on the differences between powers and autonomies.. “Harmonizations between territories have come from Europe. “There has been more Europe than us so that this doesn't get out of hand and we have 17 states.”.

The first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has called on Junts and ERC to “be up to the task at a transcendent moment”, which entails “a bit of political skill and a high dose of discretion”, in addition to avoiding going through “a dead end that leads nowhere”, while the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont has stated that he does not want to “turn the page” on the independence referendum and has recalled that tomorrow, October 1, marks six years of the unilateral consultation called within the framework of the process.

In the intervention with which he opened the National Council of the PSC this Saturday, Illa called on “all parties, especially the Catalans”, to “think more about the country and pay attention to what the citizens say”.

In clear reference to the pro-independence formations of Junts and ERC, key to the investiture of the socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez, he indicated: “Demonstrate a bit of political skill, a know-how, a due discretion to ensure that what the citizens said was ratify Congress”. And, in his opinion, the voters opted on July 23 for “a progressive government” and for “moving forward”: “Listen to what the citizens said,” he noted..

Some statements that come after yesterday, Friday, Junts and ERC redoubled their pressure on Sánchez by approving in the Parliament of Catalonia a resolution to condition his investiture to setting the conditions for holding a referendum, a position that the PSC has already categorically ruled out.

However, Illa considers that it is time for Congress to “ratify what the citizens said on July 23”, after the failed investiture of the popular candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, which took place this week.. If, on the other hand, the negotiations for Sánchez to remain in Moncloa fail, “the citizens will take note”, because “not listening to the citizens is never a good political recipe”, he said before recalling the poor results of the Catalan independence movement in the last general elections.

Illa has shown the PSC's willingness to see “what further steps can be taken” to channel the Catalan political conflict. “We are willing to do it, to explore it. But to do it coherently, not in fits and starts, and to do it within the framework of the Constitution. With great generosity, but not with naivety,” he added. And “no one can deny that things are better today” in Catalonia, he said the day before the six-year anniversary of the unilateral independence referendum..

In relation to the Catalan executive, now made up solely of ERC, he has regretted that it opted for the “bad path”, which is to “think more about the party than the country” and “externalize responsibilities”, among other reproaches.. This, he recalled, despite having had to “swallow” the “cordon sanitaire” against the socialists and has approved the Catalan budgets thanks to the favorable vote of the PSC. Thus, Illa has once again offered to “change things when the time is right”, since he has said that he is in no “rush” to become president of the Generalitat..

For his part, and in a message released this Saturday to the networks, coinciding with the negotiations for the investiture of the acting president of the Government and socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez, Puigdemont recalls that “for six years we have been firmly defending the independence referendum “. “There are those who would like us to forget, to let it be and turn the page. This is not our case nor that of many of you,” points out the leader of Junts..

The former president alludes to the events called tomorrow in Barcelona to remember that consultation on October 1, in which, he assures, it was decided “that that was our destiny, the majority will of the people of Catalonia”. “And everything we do must serve this purpose,” he concludes..

The National Police has arrested eight people and considers dismantled a criminal organization of Chinese origin, based in Madrid, that was dedicated to international drug trafficking through parcel delivery companies..

According to the Police in a statement released this Saturday, the investigation has proven the relationship of this organization with the shipment of 150 kilos of marijuana to Ireland, the Netherlands and Finland; kilo and a half of a coffee mixture with ketamine, MDMA and methamphetamine to Dubai; and 2.4 kilos of ketamine to Mexico.

Within the framework of this operation, seven searches have been carried out in homes and storage rooms in Madrid, Leganés and Humanes de Madrid and 150 kilos of marijuana, four kilos of synthetic drugs and three vehicles used by members of the organization have been seized..

In their first investigations, the agents detected the shipment to Ireland, from different storage rooms located in the towns of Parla and Humanes in Madrid, of three pallets that concealed a significant amount of marijuana buds inside..

Thanks to the collaboration of the companies that owned the storage rooms where the seized drugs were stored, several members of the group were identified and it was found that they had been making similar shipments for months..

After these first seizures, the group modified its modus operandi and began to divide shipments into smaller packages.. In addition, to make shipments he used foreigners' identity cards that had been stolen..

The agents were able to intercept six other packages of marijuana destined for the Netherlands and Finland and also thwarted the shipment of two packages containing synthetic drugs, hidden in coffee containers inside plates that simulated a double bottom..

One of them, destined for Dubai, contained one and a half kilos of a mixture of coffee with ketamine, MDMA and methamphetamine; and another, which was sent to Mexico, about two and a half kilos of ketamine. The investigation remains open to try to locate possible links between this group and other shipments of synthetic drugs seized abroad..

The wave of the new right that was inaugurated with Brexit and the triumph of Donald Trump is the latest example, and although with comings and goings, with moments of rise and decline, it has consolidated itself as the ideological force that challenges the greats. traditional parties. But, regardless of whether these formations make their way or not, there is the question of whether they respond to a change in mentality among voters and if new ideas are making their way.

A survey conducted last month by YouGov among Republican voters provides significant data in this regard. The survey was commissioned by the think tank American Compass, whose explicit goal is to reorient the conservative economic agenda toward workers, families, communities and the national interest and away from the blind faith in the free market that dominates that ideological sphere.. The mere existence of a think tank of these characteristics is already an anomaly with respect to the political visions of recent decades..

What we already know

Some clearly recognizable elements appear in the survey. The most obvious, and the one that has a direct translation in Spanish politics, is the one that places cultural issues among the priorities of the Republicans: the rejection of transgender activism, the links between large companies and the dissemination of woke ideas. and what they call “racial indoctrination” are among their main concerns. Illegal immigration also appears as one of the main challenges they usually face..

Some of these issues were not present a decade ago, others were, but in all of them there is an important qualitative nuance. His speeches are not conveyed to his voters as a radical opposition to specific practices, but are drawn as a fight against excesses.. It happens with illegal immigration, an expression where they put emphasis on the second term: they are not against immigration per se, but against illegal immigration.. This framework is systematically repeated, and from there concepts such as “racial indoctrination” arise: it is the first term on which emphasis is placed.. Each cultural issue that is addressed by these rights insistently formulates this excessive position: they do not claim to confront the fact itself as much as they confront exaggeration or abuse..

A candidate like DeSantis, who was chosen by the party as an alternative to Trump, has placed himself in this culturalist position.. At the moment he does not seem to be taking off in the polls enough to get closer to the former president, whose clearly anti-system narrative (see the profit he got from the image of his arrest) gives him a lot of advantage in the Republican sector.. In any case, the emphasis in this ideological corpus is the one that Vox uses in Spain (with which it hopes to grow in the medium term and the one that Meloni has used in Italy).

What we don't know

The most significant changes, according to American Compass, are not taking place in the cultural field, but in the progressive abandonment by Republican voters of the typical way of understanding the economy: “They have abandoned the traditional approach of the Republican Party on deregulation and free trade”.

Specifically, there are three aspects that move away from the thinking that has dominated the right-wing framework in recent decades.. The most significant is the notable support that Republican voters give to protectionism: 77% support tariffs and understand that domestic manufacturing should be promoted. In some areas, they also support state action: 78% say they are in favor of the government providing support to ensure that the United States is a leader in advanced technologies such as semiconductors..

In addition to protectionism, there is a change, not resounding but significant, regarding the role of finance. 57% believe that “Wall Street investors are getting rich by doing things that weaken our economy”; They no longer believe that they strengthen the country, but that they have become a problem. The percentage of voters is not very high, but it marks an enormous difference with the past, when support for finance was notably majority..

Another door that has opened is the work one.. 41% believe that unions “are a positive force that helps workers and reduces corporate power”. This is striking because, even though the percentage is lower than that of those who maintain the opposite position, it is a very unusual figure for “a party that has been unconditionally anti-union for decades.”. This change is also perceived when analyzing the American moment: 85% consider that employers' complaints about labor shortages “are a good thing, because it will force them to offer better jobs and pay higher wages, which that will spread prosperity”. Since the other option for obtaining labor is more immigration, they much prefer that employers raise wages.

New and old right

Likewise, there is greater concern among conservatives about the standard of living, as they perceive the middle class to be very weak, and even more so at times like this.. 90% believe that the cost of necessary goods and services has become much higher, while wages are not growing enough.

Where the old beliefs are maintained is in the rejection of taxes, which are very high, as well as direct aid from the government, even in cases where it involves birth support.. In European countries, some right-wing governments have used this route to transfer income to their citizens, which basically means introducing social democratic policies through a different door.. The Republican voter, however, is not in favor of these measures: they do not like increasing public spending.

With this data, American Compass experts conclude that there is a clear division between what they call the new and old right: the first, which makes up 40%, gives preference to issues such as globalization, financialization and the power of workers, and the second, 30%, continues to emphasize the free market, finance and global trade: “On many key issues, Republican Party voters have adopted positions that directly oppose the market fundamentalism that is still common in the main conservative institutions”.

In this gap, a peculiar variable also appears: among the voters of the old right, upper-class men predominate, but women from that same social stratum prefer the new right..

The Spanish case

This profile, however, is not present in Spanish politics, partly because the territorial variable marks the national agenda through confrontation with peripheral nationalisms, partly because that conservative economic mentality oriented towards the community and the national interest has not penetrated in Spain. The liberal framework that reigned during the global era, that of free trade and free circulation of capital, taxes and low wages, is deeply rooted in the right.. Vox has incorporated some element of the new conservatism that it describes in its American Compass study, such as its defense of energy sovereignty, but it is far from it, and the PP is anchored in old positions of global liberalism, as was proven in the program described by Feijóo in the investiture attempt.

The change in mentality noted may only be the product of a moment linked to specific difficulties in the US economy, but it is more likely to reflect a modification in the mental framework on the part of conservative voters.. Many of the European right, in the government or in the opposition, are turning towards protectionist positions, which cannot fully work if they do not raise the income level of their populations, either through transfers to promote birth rates, such as Hungary and Poland. , either because they encourage policies of national withdrawal, like the French one, or because they include directly social democratic measures in their program, as does the Slovakian Robert Fico. At this time of upheaval in the international order, the gaps for new developments to appear are becoming larger, and perhaps this is one of them.