What degree of imagination and mental alienation would it have required to maintain a couple of months ago that the future of the Spanish legislature would be decided in an office in Geneva with the arbitration of a Salvadoran mediator? How could we believe that the Secretary of Organization of a party and the representative of the fifth political force in Catalonia would resort to the secrecy of a non-EU enclave to ensure the amnesty and the process of self-determination in the presence of an expert in armed conflicts, crises terrorists, drug wars?

Did we ever think—or did he himself—that Francisco Galindo Vélez, the Salvadoran mediator, would be part of our lives, elevating Puigdemont's miserable criminal record to the category of a dispute between two states, in turn exposed in clandestine places? , outside the European Union and without the right to journalistic coverage?

The exaggerations with which the reactionary press classifies Sánchez—from a Bolivarian leader to Hitler—arouse a naive feeling of solidarity and condescension towards the President of the Government.. Makes you want to believe their lies. And to grant a margin of credibility to the upcoming legislature, no matter how much we have been taught by the aberrations of the previous one and that we have accepted the sadomasochistic regime..

Sánchez rejoices in the punishment and the citizens rejoice in the pain. It has become agreed that the socialist boss tightens the noose by exploring the compromise of the governed. And that paraphilias have acquired a routine dimension. One scandal covers up the next like a matryoshka game. And the resulting creature may end up becoming Godzilla, but Sánchez has four years to cushion the scandal.. Because it cultivates pain as effectively as amnesia. And because detachment from politics favors the impunity and immunity in which the Monclova leader operates.

It makes sense to evoke that cartoon from El Roto where a rich couple appeared emphasizing the resistance of the poor: “They say they can't make ends meet, but in the end they do.”. The same could be said of Sánchez's compatriots in the toads' diet.. They are getting bigger and more indigestible, but we end up swallowing them.

“Spain is not going to break… until it breaks” is the reflection of an incendiary slogan whose execution tests the sadism of the president and the masochism of his voters.. And it is not a question of avoiding the negligence of the PP in the management of the electoral flow, but at the same time the degradation of the system that the President of the Government cultivates and promotes is shocking..

Episodes that desecrate the separation of powers pile up. Attacks on institutional balance proliferate. Diplomatic crises worsen. And the absurdity of the amnesty is normalized in the context of an even bigger scandal: the furtive meetings in Geneva.

They were inaugurated this weekend with all the symptoms of a banana state. It makes little sense to solemnly inaugurate a legislature – this was done on November 29 – when a good part of its future is decided within the walls of a non-EU office.. It is there where Pedro Sánchez has humiliated the dignity of the nation. And where he has condescended to the mediation of an intervener who is euphemistically called “accompanying”. The nobility of the term conceals a political nonsense that enables Puigdemont's perverse prominence. And that emphasizes unacceptable conditions of secrecy and secrecy, as if Spain were not a responsible democracy nor worthy of its institutions.. Or as if the Swiss table were settling a bilateral problem between two States.

The Salvadoran mediator who has joined our lives, Mr. Francisco Galindo Vélez, offers his services to armed conflicts, terrorist crises and territorial disputes.. It is the sinister playing field that the escaped former president has chosen to carry out the blackmail and collect the ransom, among other reasons, because if he came to Spain, he would have to be arrested..

Sánchez has managed to turn the exception into the norm. The proliferation of anomalies relativizes its own effect, as if the doses of poison worked as the antidote… until collapse occurs.

And it makes you want to admit being wrong. Apologize to Sánchez. Recognize that he has a country model in his head, a far-sighted State project whose future requires overcoming certain obstacles and discomforts.. It makes you want to trust the President of the Government and attribute to him the leadership of the battle of good against evil, but it is impossible to do so from faith or from naivety because his personal emergencies and strategic decisions undermine the health of democracy meter by meter.. Let us shout “Long live El Salvador!”, since we are talking about great democracies.. “Long live El Salvador!”, Sánchez proclaims in the Moncloa with the same imposture that Defense Minister Trillo did after being confused with Honduras..

The front row of parliamentary benches usually make things quite clear. In the Madrid Assembly, in front of President Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Mónica García has been with her team for the last four years. At her side, her trusted man, Javier Padilla, who has gone with her to the Ministry of Health. Manuela Bergerot has taken over. And it is in that first row of the new bench where the one that is called to be its praetorian guard in the coming years is drawn..

At this stage there are two people who have gained weight in the organization and will have to cover the spaces that Bergerot does not reach, called to fight in the plenary sessions to emulate García and represent the alternative on the left to Ayuso. They are seated to his right and they are Emilio Delgado and María Pastor, both with the vitola of deputy spokespersons. They form the first circle of power in the parliamentary group at a delicate moment for the party: they must recover from the goodbye of their most visible face and return to focus with a new team.

Delgado and Pastor will play complementary roles. They have different profiles, equally differentiated discursive styles and will also serve as a draw for different voters, although always within the spectrum of the left.. While Pastor will focus on educational issues that can convince the niche of young, urban and progressive families; Delgado can do the same among the classic left-wing voter from traditionally working-class areas to bite the PSOE.

Delgado's profile can serve, as the party believes, precisely to reduce that gap between the results achieved by the party in the capital versus the regional periphery.. It can also be the spearhead to attack fundamental fiefdoms for the left such as the southern red belt or the Henares Corridor.. For its part, Pastor's profile can be especially useful to support the vote of that more urban and progressive Madrid native who in recent years found in the figure of García an option beyond the PSOE and without the stridency of Podemos..

The Delgado-Pastor duo will cover, as Más Madrid sources specify, different areas, equally strategic for training. Just as in the past García pressured the regional Executive with the health issue, Delgado will work on neighborhood networks and “traditionally working-class” issues, while the defense of public education will be one of the strong points in Pastor's speech.

His style is also opposite: the media impact that Delgado has had in recent months, since an intervention of his in the Móstoles plenary session in front of Vox went viral, is contrasted with Pastor, who maintains a more sober profile.. However, the sources consulted highlight her capacity as a parliamentary speaker and the forcefulness of her arguments.. So far this term, they remember, he has already entered into parliamentary body to body with the Minister of Education, Emilio Viciana..

Héctor Tejero, a career scientist and star signing in the Errejón era, who is responsible for the group's Ecological Transition policies, will also play an important role.. Although he does not appear in the first step after Bergerot, as may be the case of Pastor and Delgado, no one is aware that the green voter is another of the axes of Más Madrid's success. This is where Tejero will have to play a role, as he has already had public projection in this sense in different events during García's time and who, likewise, is a member of the leadership of the parliamentary group managing a “strategic” area..

With all this, Más Madrid faces the challenge of maintaining the focus that they had in the Madrid Assembly at the time of the Ayuso-García duels and that benefited both, especially before their respective electorates.. The risk that the maneuver for Más Madrid has, however, is that the new team will not be able to retain focus and the position of alternative to the PP on the left will be diluted in favor of a PSOE with a rising figure, as is Juan Lobato.

“You will have several cups of democratic broth”. With these words, Alberto Núñez Feijóo announced that the PP will continue on the streets against the amnesty and “concessions” to Carles Puigdemont. There were doubts in the popular leadership about the capacity to mobilize for this third meeting in Madrid. The surprise was for the better and the “full crowd” of the Felipe II and Puerta del Sol calls was repeated, but the public was different, as recognized in the ranks of the formation.. “There are more and more PP militants and fewer people on the street,” say some of those who have attended the three calls.. Those who are already seasoned in the opposition warn that “not even 15-M could last mobilized” and consider that the leader must fold his sails to avoid a “puncture”.

Genoa is much more optimistic, because the data it works with validates its strategy of continuing with the mobilizations against the Government. Internal polls reflect the discontent of Spaniards with Pedro Sánchez's pacts. The first polls were carried out at the beginning of November and have been updated. In an electoral key, today they would manage to join with Vox and remove the PSOE from the Moncloa. They would score 156 seats. The conviction that Feijóo can become the reference for the new indignados is supported by the demoscopy: 46.8% of those surveyed are “very concerned” about the amnesty. Asked about the level of concern from zero to 10 (not at all worried or very worried), the average is 6.7. That is, almost seven out of every 10 Spaniards show reluctance towards the measure of grace for the independence leaders.

More than half of those surveyed, according to data provided to El Confidencial, define the pact with the sovereigntists as “blackmail”, “illegality” or as a factor of “inequality among Spaniards”. Barely 10% share the Moncloa slogan about the “reunion in Catalonia”. “The flame does not go out, because the Government adds gasoline,” they defend from the national leadership, where they prepare to supervise every movement. The first meeting in Geneva between the PSOE and Junts and the identity of the verifier is fuel for the PP. Even in the socialist ranks all the alarms have gone off. The wear and tear is increasing, as they recognize in the territories, where they demand “greater clarity” from the president. “I demand on behalf of this country that this nonsense stops,” said Feijóo, while delving into the controversy that the mediator is a Salvadoran diplomat who is an expert in guerrillas..

The popular ones will adjust their actions and their speech to the steps that Sánchez takes within the agenda that Puigdemont will set for him.. It is not expected that a new meeting with the fugitive will be held before the end of the year.. The PP has not set the calendar for mobilizations either, because it now assumes that Christmas will cause a political stoppage. After the amnesty, the verifier and the lawfare, the next focus will be on the inequalities among Spaniards that generate perks to the sovereignists in exchange for the investiture. This is also why the PP strategy team has asked. The results are devastating: 77.8% of those surveyed are against forgiving Catalonia 15,000 million of debt.

The Executive has announced that it will negotiate with the rest of the communities to reach similar agreements. In fact, he has tried to divide the presidents of the PP, leaking that some have already been interested in debt forgiveness. Here, the barons, as they already did in the Senate, will denounce the grievance for their citizens against the Catalans. They know that “Catalonia steals from us” is a mobilizing element. 62.1% of those surveyed are categorical in stating that the president's pacts with ERC and Junts harm their community.

The debate will soon be in the headlines, given that the Socialists now have to comply with those of Oriol Junqueras and hold a first meeting as they have already done with Junts. Here, in addition to the conditions for a referendum, they will have to put economic concessions in black and white. The majority of those surveyed do not even bless the transfer to the Generalitat of the management of the Cercanías trains. Almost seven out of 10 interviewed are against giving more powers to ERC. With public opinion dissatisfied, the president will try to counterprogram with social measures, such as increasing unemployment benefits. Street vs. BOE.

The PSOE and JxCAT travel to Geneva (Switzerland) with low expectations for their first meeting, which El Confidencial reported this week, under the mantle of a team of international verifiers specialized in mediating conflicts, according to political sources familiar with the events. contacts between both formations. The obsession of the participants is the secret and there are no photos or images of the appointment. A condition that is also imposed by the team of mediators.

Carles Puigdemont, whom JxCAT always said would participate in the negotiations, has published a post on Instagram that does not predict a good result for this first meeting.. At least in theory. The former president talks about the weakness of Spain and an attempted coup d'état by the judges, whom he compares to General Pavía. Doesn't seem like the best prologue to a fruitful meeting.. Puigdemont travels to Geneva. He will be accompanied by the spokesperson for JxCAT in Congress, Míriam Nogueras and the general secretary of the party, Jordi Turull. On the socialist side there will be the secretary of organization of the formation, Santos Cerdán, who has assumed the dialogue.

The Henry Durant center neither confirms nor denies that it is part of the verification team for this meeting, as has been published in various media. JxCAT does not comment on the matter and the PSOE denies it and explains that “it is not closed”. At the end of this Friday, the two parties had not agreed on how they will communicate this first meeting after the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez or if they will explain anything, another sign that no great results are expected..

To preserve secrecy, the verifier has imposed a strict protocol, so that participants will only know where they are to meet at the last minute. It must be understood that this methodology is the usual one for armed conflicts. But nothing could be further from the real situation in Catalonia, where the majority of citizens have completely disconnected and are neither against nor in favor of the amnesty.. The two parties announced with great fanfare that they were going to meet outside of Spain when they signed the investiture agreement, but they have not given many more details.. Although this opacity is beginning to weigh on the socialists, since, no matter how much they insist on conveying that it is an appointment between parties, Ferraz is inseparable from the Government..

Wrong tool

PSOE and Junts agreed to “equip themselves with an international mechanism between both organizations that has the functions of accompanying, verifying and monitoring the entire negotiation process and the agreements reached between both formations”. Also with a “mechanism for support, verification and monitoring that has been provided, which will develop the negotiation between the parties. In that space, disagreements will be negotiated, agreed upon, and addressed, as well as any dysfunctions that arise in the development of the agreements,” as the pact literally announced..

JxCAT needed to air that it had achieved more than just the amnesty. But that put all the focus on a negotiation that Puigdemont's party always placed at a higher level than the dialogue table promoted by Pere Aragonès and Pedro Sánchez..

But announcing the existence of the negotiations is not consistent with the anonymity required by a verifier or a team of mediators.. The reality is that little can be agreed in Geneva, except for issues that have to do with the methodology or the meeting schedule.. In fact, socialist sources assure that the first meetings will be dedicated exclusively to that.. But for JxCAT, the objective is not to end the conflict, but to prolong it, because it is not an armed clash, but rather a political crisis that they also have to exploit in the face of the Generalitat elections, scheduled for February 2025. if Aragonès does not advance them.

Starting in 2025, it is likely that JxCAT and ERC, in their fierce battle for independence hegemony, will seek to distance themselves from the PSOE and destabilize the Government as a calling card to their voters.. As the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, already said, “when there are agreements they will be explained”. The fact that nothing is going to be detailed tomorrow is that neither party anticipates that agreements of any kind will be closed.. Moncloa does not hide in private that its purpose is to extend the negotiation as much as possible..

The figure of the spokesperson

The forecast is that soon, even this weekend, the name of the spokesperson who will explain how the conversations are evolving will be made public.. It will be the only novelty that will occur when everything has passed. In any case, there are doubts that the issues that were indicated in the investiture pact document can be negotiated at a table like this, as is the case of “a modification of the LOFCA [Financing of the Autonomous Communities] that establishes a clause of exception of Catalonia that recognizes the uniqueness in which the institutional system of the Generalitat is organized and that facilitates the transfer of 100% of all taxes paid in Catalonia”.

An issue of this significance goes through the Parliament and the Congress and also needs the Generalitat. A table between two parties does not seem like the ideal forum for something like this, no matter how much secret international verification is used to mediate the conversations..

One of lime and one of sand. After the reprimands of the Israeli authorities to Pedro Sánchez on Thursday, the conciliatory gesture arrived the next day. Benny Gantz, one of the most important ministers in the Government of Israel, called the head of the Spanish Executive by phone to give him explanations and try to allay his fears..

Sánchez stuck to his guns. He reiterated to his interlocutor what he has been saying about the war in Gaza since the investiture session on November 15. His Government avoided, however, deepening the diplomatic crisis with Israel.. He did not respond to the call for questions from the Israeli ambassador in Madrid, Rodica Radian-Gordon, withdrawing, in turn, the Spanish ambassador in Tel Aviv, Ana Salomón. Nor did he call to scold the number two at the Israeli Embassy.

Benny Gantz's call and Spain's refusal to respond to Israel suggest that the bilateral tension, which reached its peak last Thursday, has reached its peak.. That day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on the social network X that the Spanish ambassador was going to be summoned again to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.. Shortly after, his Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, went further and revealed that he had ordered Rodica Radian-Gordon to immediately return to Israel..

It is not every day that a minister calls a head of government and the head of government gets on the phone.. This is what happened this Friday between Gantz and Sánchez. It is unclear whether Benny Gantz took that initiative on his own or did so after consulting with Netanyahu.. Although he does not hold any portfolio, Gantz is not just any minister. He was one of the leaders of the opposition, leader of the right-wing National Unity party, until, on October 12, a coalition Executive was formed.

Not only is he now a member of the Israeli government, but he is also part of the small cabinet conducting the war in Gaza.. It is only made up of three people: Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Gantz himself.. Your presence in that decision-making body makes sense. He was general of the Army, chief of staff for four years and minister of defense for another two years.. When the Pegasus scandal broke out in 2021, he had to give explanations to some of the spied on governments, such as France, although it was his predecessor, Naftali Bennett, who authorized the export of that virus to countries like Morocco..

“I emphasized that, for the sake of Israel's security (…) and the restoration of regional stability, the Hamas terrorist group must be dismantled in Gaza,” Benny Gantz wrote on the social network Friday of his conversation with Sánchez. He thus ruled out a definitive ceasefire, as Sánchez requested, because the Israeli Army is going to conquer the entire Strip until reaching, in the south, the border with Egypt..

I spoke today with Spanish Prime Minister @sanchezcastejon.

I updated the Prime Minister on the war and regional developments and emphasized that for the sake of Israel's security, Israeli civilians' sense of security, and restoring regional stability – terrorist Hamas must be.

— Review – Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) December 1,

“Israel concedes great importance to avoiding, as far as possible, civilian casualties,” Gantz continued. “Hamas, on the other hand, continues to perpetrate horrible crimes against humanity, such as using children and women as human shields for its terrorist activities,” he concluded..

It should not have completely convinced Sánchez to judge, so the Spanish president wrote, in turn, from Dubai on the X network. “(…) I have reaffirmed that Spain considers the death of civilians in Gaza unbearable and that Israel must comply with international humanitarian law”. He once again made it clear that he was not doing it and that was why there were so many civilian victims.

The number of Palestinian deaths in Gaza since October 7 now exceeds 15,000, according to Ashraf al Qudra, the Strip's top health official.. The Israeli Army resumed its offensive on Friday and before night fell there were another 109 deaths caused by its aerial and ground bombardments..

I have spoken with Minister Benny Gantz, @gantzbe, to whom I have reiterated that Israel is a partner and friend of Spain.

Once again, I have condemned the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7.

Spain wants the immediate release of all the hostages.

Israel has…

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) December 1, 2023

Since the war began, 1.7 million Gazans have moved to the south of the Strip in an attempt, often in vain, to escape the bombings.. If Israel insists on invading the entire Strip and reaching the south, as can be deduced from Netanyahu and Gantz's announcements, there will be many more civilian victims.. Israeli ambassador to the EU, Haim Regev, acknowledged on Friday that “there is no clean way” to end Hamas.

Sánchez cushioned his criticism by describing Israel as “a partner and friend of Spain”. He condemned again, as he already did in each of the stages of his mini tour of the Middle East, “the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7”. He stated that “Spain wishes the immediate release of all the hostages,” still in the hands of Hamas.. He insisted, for the umpteenth time, that “Israel has the right to defend itself”.

The fact that Gantz called Sánchez highlights that the Israeli leadership is concerned about the intentions of the Spanish president.. The head of the Spanish Government has turned out to be the most critical of the invasion among EU leaders. He hopes that the Twenty-Seven will pressure to achieve a definitive ceasefire and, later, a peace conference in which the creation of a Palestinian State, alongside that of Israel, would once again be on the table.. Sánchez also announced, on November 22, that his Government will recognize the Palestinian State alone or, if he manages to convince them, in coordination with other European countries..

When Israel stopped, on Friday, criticizing Sánchez for his foreign policy in the Middle East, the Popular Party took over. It did so first through the mouth of its president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and then through that of its spokesperson in Congress, Miguel Tellado.. The first stressed that with his statements Sánchez “isolates” Spain from the majority position in the EU and NATO. It is true that the bulk of the Member States do not agree with the Spanish president, but there are also those that share his point of view, such as Belgium, Ireland or Turkey.

Tellado was more forceful. He accused the President of the Government of “having created an international crisis by making statements that are inadmissible and that have offended a country that has just been the victim of a serious terrorist attack.”. He added that it was not up to Sánchez to “determine whether he complies with international law or not.”. Sánchez, in any case, will have contributed to provoking a bilateral – not international – crisis with Israel although, formally, it was triggered by Netanyahu on Friday the 22nd when he summoned the Spanish ambassador in Tel Aviv..

He is not the only one who has questioned the Israeli Army's respect for international and humanitarian law.. They also did so from the liberal prime minister of Belgium, Alexander de Croo, to that of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, and Luxembourg, Luc Frieden, both Christian Democrats.. Outside the EU, the Norwegian Social Democrat, Jonas Ghar Stor, has expressed himself in some very similar terms to his Spanish co-religionist.

Little by little, people are becoming aware that breakfast is a fundamental part of the diet to be well nourished.. In Spain, with our schedule system, breakfasts have almost always taken a backseat. You had dinner late, you went to bed late and, the next day, there was no time to dedicate to breakfast (you ended up having coffee before leaving for work).

But things have been changing, to a large extent, thanks to the efforts of institutions such as the Spanish Nutrition Foundation (FEN), which has been trying to raise people's awareness for years about the importance of having an adequate breakfast..

The importance of breakfast

On the one hand, from a nutritional point of view. Breakfast should provide between 300 and 500 kcal in the case of healthy people (between 15 and 25% of the total daily energy, based on a 2,000 kcal diet). It should be varied, with different food groups that would cover, on average, 20% of the daily nutritional recommendations.

On the other hand, and this is something that I like to highlight, breakfast can also be a family meeting place, a reason for all family members to be together, especially children before going to school..

National Breakfast Day

The Spanish Nutrition Foundation organizes every year, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, an event dedicated to promoting healthy breakfasts: National Breakfast Day.

To be healthy, this meal of the day must incorporate different food groups: dairy products, fruits and cereals and derivatives such as bread.. It is also advisable to consume some proteins, for example, York or Serrano ham (not necessarily pure acorn-fed Iberian ham). Additionally, you can add some jams or honey to sweeten..

And natural juice. Currently, the variety of juices available is exceptional, beyond the traditional orange juice and other types of citrus.. Many times, they are combinations of fruits and vegetables that add vitamins and minerals to the nutritional composition of breakfasts..

Have breakfast in Madrid

In Madrid, the breakfasts offered are becoming more and better. At least, it's something that happens to me more and more frequently..

This has led to a wider range of options and, in many places, it has even become the star dish.. From hotels to restaurants and cafes, whether in the form of buffets or a la carte breakfasts.

Breakfast in hotels

I want to highlight the effort that some hotels are making to make breakfasts unforgettable.. This is the case of QÚ by Mario Sandoval, at the JW Marriott hotel.

There is also the extraordinary breakfast at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz hotel, offered between 7 and 11 a.m., under the gastronomic direction of Quique Dacosta. And, of course, that of the NH Madrid Eurobuilding hotel.

In many cases, it is a large buffet with all kinds of food. Intercontinental hotel breakfast is almost like a brunch.

You can have a very good breakfast, more simply, at the Santo Mauro hotel, where they have several breakfast options: a more complete one and three intercontinental breakfasts, to choose from.. The same at the Four Seasons in Canalejas, on its terrace, and at the Rosewood Villa Magna hotel..

If you leave more or less late, around 10:30, breakfast can also serve as lunch.

At the OD Madrid hotel, in its Mar Mía restaurant, you can start the day with homemade croissants, muffins and toast, eggs, cheeses, Iberian sausages, natural juices….

In the lobby of the Bless hotel, they serve à la carte breakfasts, with varied options such as toast, croissants, and fruit or açaí bowls..

The Only YOU Atocha hotel and pastry chef Oriol Balaguer joined forces to open Breakery, a new bakery concept located in the hotel's busy lobby..

Restaurants

And there are already many restaurants that open early in the morning so that people can enjoy having breakfast.. An example of this is Ultramarinos Quintín, from Grupo el Paraguas, which offers breakfast from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m..

Another place is El Gran Café Santander, from the Cañadío Group, where you can taste their famous tortilla.

At the Bareto restaurant they also offer the option of breakfast, with traditional churros, Iberian toast, potato omelette, bikinis, pastries and coffee.

L'Ambassade in Robuchon Madrid offers artisan pastries and bakeries, combined with Robuchon's own specialties.

Coffee shops

Of course, there are cafes or traditional spaces, as is the case in Mallorca, with a large selection of artisan pastries; o San Ginés and its chocolate with churros. Café Comercial, with a very complete menu of coffees accompanied by churros or porras, has been an ideal place to have breakfast since the last century; o Bar el Brillante, famous for its batons.

Finally, the experience cafeterias, which allow you to discover the best raw materials and, therefore, enjoy breakfast time. Among others, Toma Café, Osom Coffee Atelier, Acid Café, Hola Coffee, Natif Coffee & Kitchen and Neutrale.

The Andalusian Parliament demanded this Thursday the complete transfer of the State Cercanías service to the Board. At the last minute, Juanma Moreno's PP supported two resolutions presented by the left for Andalusia to request the powers, with the intention of portraying the PSOE and fighting the “battle” over the “grievance” with Catalonia. However, this transfer, which had been ruled out until now by both Andalusia and the majority of the communities, is subject to an injection of 6,000 million euros, the same amount that Pedro Sánchez has agreed with ERC before completing the transfer of the service..

Sources from San Telmo clarify that the Board would only accept this transfer if the State guaranteed significant financing to improve the state of the network, as they have been demanding for years.. In the case of Catalonia, the Government has committed a million-dollar investment in the Rodalies to end up being managed by the Generalitat. “If you guarantee us the 6,000 million euros that you are going to give to Catalonia to take over the Cercanías, I will sign it tomorrow morning,” said the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, during the debate on the state of the community..

The PP supported two resolution proposals that raised the claim of the service, contemplated in the statute of autonomy. The first, from Por Andalucía, asked to convene the Joint Transfer Commission to demand from the State the “comprehensive transfer” of the service “throughout the legislature.”. Despite the vote in favor from the party, the sources consulted conclude that the request for this call is not on the agenda of the autonomous government, at least “for the moment”.

As they explain, the objective of the PP was to portray the PSOE in the vote of the autonomous Chamber and demonstrate that “it denies in Andalusia what it gives to Catalonia”. The vote in favor of the PP disconcerted the Andalusian socialists, who abstained and, at the end of the session, did not offer details about their decision.. Later, the socialists would send a statement asking for “rigor” from Moreno, who has not “formally” requested the transfer and now “votes in favor blindly and without giving information about it.”.

The Andalusian president worked hard in the debate on the state of the community, where every year he takes stock of his management and resolutions are proposed to urge the Andalusian and Spanish governments to apply them.. During the more than ten hours that the two sessions lasted, Moreno recognized the problems of Andalusian healthcare and defended his measures, after months in which the opposition had been demanding a monographic debate dedicated to this matter..

The president presented the “Andalusian way” as a government model based on reaching pacts with other parties and wanted to showcase the “spirit of Doñana” in the debate on the resolutions, accepting more than 30 proposals from the opposition.. Among them were those who requested the transfer of the trains, which meant a change of position in the PP with respect to what was defended until now in San Telmo.. The Board has been demanding management of the intercity, although it only intended to set “decent” schedules and frequencies. Like most communities, it had ruled out requesting the comprehensive transfer of the Cercanías trains as it is a service that has a significant investment deficit..

The position has not changed, “for the moment”, unless the State commits prior financing like Catalonia. Sources from the Department of Development recall that, with the more than 6,000 million that have been agreed with the pro-independence parties, the Mediterranean corridor could be promoted in its coastal section, Almería-Granada, and in its central section Algeciras-Bobadilla-Antequera; undertake new investments in high speed; or the Motril-Granada railway connection, the Costa del Sol coastal train, among other infrastructures. From the Andalusian Government, which has been demanding a revision of the Andalusian railway map, they promise to fight the “battle” so that “the General State Budgets do not finish consummating the insult to our land”.

The Andalusian PSOE, after its abstention, sent a statement to urge the Board to claim powers, although it asked to justify that request “with all the information” in the regional parliament.. The previous Minister of Development, Marifrán Carazo, has already raised the possibility of requesting some powers to expand frequencies between capitals through these concessions.. There is currently a feasibility study underway, not yet completed..

AI and automation are surpassing human capabilities by leaps and bounds and surprising us in areas to which we thought they did not have access, such as art or personal care.. It is evident that technology is reaching new stages. Leaving aside long-term dystopias, what employment impact can we expect from these advances and how can we prepare?

The fact that technical innovations eliminate jobs does not imply that they reduce their aggregate volume since, simultaneously, they facilitate the creation of new ones.. There is no historical correlation between technical progress and aggregate job loss. However, as with international trade, technical progress produces winners (consumers and innovative companies) and losers (companies that do not adapt and workers whose skills are devalued).. Overall, the net effect is positive and, therefore, it would be possible to compensate the losers by redistributing a part of the benefits obtained by the winners.. However, this type of compensation is not usually implemented, which explains why – despite increasing global wealth – technical progress and international opening raise fears and encourage populism contrary to their advances..

Although technical advances are usually specific to specific industries, a common characteristic of AI and robotization is that they are all-purpose technologies, that is, they allow increasing productivity in almost all activities.. Hence its great expected impact, which will not mean so much the complete disappearance of jobs, but rather the elimination of a good portion of the tasks carried out in each of the existing positions.. Thus, according to the consulting firm McKinsey, 30% of the tasks corresponding to 60% of occupations worldwide could already be automated with the technologies currently available.. All in all, it is estimated that more than 8% of the jobs that exist today in Spain will have disappeared by 2030..

From a regional and national point of view, the impact of these technological advances will depend on the speed with which we prepare and adapt.. If we do it relatively quickly, our companies will gain markets with respect to their competitors and salaries will grow more than in neighboring countries.. If we wait to see the cracks in the walls before reacting, our companies and workers will suffer to maintain income.

At the moment, various indicators place us in an intermediate position within the EU. For example, according to Eurostat, the percentage of companies that use AI in Spain is 7.7%; only slightly lower than the EU (7.9%), as shown in the graph. However, this apparently comfortable position in some indicators should not mislead us.. It is essential to implement substantive policies in multiple areas. I will mention three in which it would be very negative to neglect.

First of all, it is crucial to advance training. And this at three levels: at school, at the university and during professional life.. At school, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills must be improved and young people introduced to the rudiments of digital technologies in order to, on the one hand, lay the foundations for deeper learning in stages later and, on the other hand, enable an informed and critical vision of the environment that surrounds them. Sometimes humanistic training is contrasted with the need to provide young people with technical knowledge about programming and new technologies..

This contrast makes no sense since our young people will only be able to confidently face the social, political and informational challenges (fake news, etc.) of the coming decades if they have a basic knowledge of, for example, how the data stored in their devices is processed. mobile phones to identify their inclinations, increase their consumption and manipulate their interpretations of what is happening around them. At the university, it is necessary to increase the offer of studies related to new technologies and introduce these contents in the rest of the degrees, since they will be tools commonly used by all professions (note that two of the areas in which a greatest increase in productivity as a consequence of AI are health and law).

The main obstacle to this evolution will be the enormous inertia and bureaucracy that characterize the Spanish public university.. Both the central and regional administrations have the capacity and responsibility to establish incentives and make decisions to break these inertias.. Regarding training during professional life, the periodic updating of knowledge will be key, both at the initiative of companies – which must increase their investment in human capital – and of the workers themselves..

A second area that requires decisive actions is that of institutional improvement. It is necessary to modernize the Public Administration, reorganize the Autonomous State and increase the efficiency and equity of the tax system, among other issues.. For example, regarding this last issue, before considering the establishment of taxes on robots – as some have proposed, in order to slow down their introduction – it is advisable to reduce the excessive relative tax burden borne by labor income, including security. social, which arbitrarily makes the use of the labor factor more expensive.

This will require shifting more load to other sources.. Unfortunately, the necessary reflection on how to distribute tax burdens has been replaced by downward tax competition without further criteria and there is hardly any public debate on the need to continue modernizing the country.. After the democratic transition and the economic reforms that accompanied it, most of the subsequent institutional transformations have been carried out reluctantly and forced by the European Union. Without pressure from the EU we would not have, for example, a National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) independent of the government, nor an Independent Fiscal Responsibility Authority (AIReF), nor a Transparency Law.

Third, it is foreseeable that new technologies will lead to a concentration of benefits and greater wage polarization. It is in the interest of coexistence and collective well-being to offset this trend, for which it is necessary to strengthen redistributive instruments and social guarantees..

In short, AI and automation offer extraordinary opportunities to improve our well-being, but they require decisive action on multiple factors whose reform may take time to bear fruit.. Meanwhile, the world moves inexorably. It's not about being the first, but it is about avoiding being left behind..

*Francisco Alcalá is a research professor at IVIE (Valencian Institute of Economic Research). He has been a professor of Economic Analysis at the University of Murcia until 2020

The examination by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) regarding the suitability of the attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, to hold the position was not about the amnesty law, but the amnesty was there. In the position adopted by the eight members who pushed this Thursday for the body's decision to declare him unsuitable, the fear weighed that the closeness to the Government attributed to him would become the battering ram that the Executive needs to defend the application of the pardon to those those who seek to benefit.

A good part of the CGPJ has no doubt that the attorney general will row in favor of Moncloa, which has just renewed him for a four-year mandate, which is already outlined as one of the most complicated in memory.. Once the law comes into force, the position defended by prosecutors will be key. The most logical thing is to assume that guidelines for unifying criteria will be given from the leadership, either in the form of instruction or under another format.. The amnesty was not mentioned during the plenary debate, but it hovered over it at all times.

The amnesty reaches hundreds of people accused of a multitude of crimes and, despite all the efforts of the law to protect it as much as possible from being effective, the reality is that the decision on whether those investigated or convicted for crimes linked to the independence processes come out unscathed corresponds, exclusively, to the judges. Before ruling on this matter, the different courts involved must notify the Public Ministry for a report.. Among the causes is that of the process, where the team of four prosecutors once defended a conviction for rebellion for Oriol Junqueras and the others and the criminal prosecution of Carles Puigdemont for the same crime..

García Ortiz has been, so far, very cautious about his future steps. On the occasions in which he has referred to the issue, he has avoided taking a position on the law and has argued that he must maintain “a public position that reinforces the principle of impartiality.”. He has suggested that the Prosecutor's Office will assess the norm “once it is part of our system after its publication in the Official State Gazette”, but that positioning “will be carried out through statutory channels” and will be “in all cases technical-legal.”.

Control the rebels

In the Council – and also outside it – they consider that the role of the attorney general will be to control possible attempts at rejection that may occur in the ranks of the Prosecutor's Office.. The members of the race have been mostly critical of him in recent weeks. To such an extent that the conservative president of the Association of Prosecutors even asked him to resign in a public event in which both of them agreed.. At least for now, what he is criticized for is his lukewarm stance towards lawfare accusations.. The prosecutors of the process even asked him to defend them in a letter. “He will act as a facilitator,” indicates a member consulted.

The censorship of his ability to hold the position evident today also allows him to be labeled as partial and helps any position he adopts to be seen through an even more critical prism.. The main reason for the Council's decision, which resembles a disapproval, is that García Ortiz does not comply with “the requirement of impartiality that the assumption of such high responsibility implies” and his career creates “an appearance of connection with power.” executive”. That was written a year and a half ago by José Antonio Ballestero, Ángeles Carmona, Nuria Díaz, Juan Manuel Fernández, José María Macías, Gerardo Martínez Tristán and Carmen Llombart. In this Thursday's plenary session, Wenceslao Olea's rejection was added, which was definitive. The progressives were left with one less member, who abstained.

The appointment policy

The secondary reason is also linked to the “lack of neutrality” that critical members see. He has demonstrated it – they say – through his appointment policy. One of his first decisions was to promote Dolores Delgado, who had been his boss until her resignation for health reasons, to the highest category.. Just a few days ago, the Supreme Court overturned that decision and also noted that it had been adopted by making abusive use of its power.. The permanent confrontation that it maintains with the Fiscal Council was also valued, which now has a majority of the opposite sign to its own.. Some speak directly of “contempt”.

In July 2022, the most critical of the Council already alleged that it had demonstrated “links” with the executive branch by participating in PSOE events, then referring to its presence in a socialist debate in Galicia.. His hug with another Galician, the vice president of the Government Yolanda Díaz, during the opening of the legislature at the doors of the Congress of Deputies, was, perhaps, the definitive push to make him the first unsuitable attorney general of democracy.

There is still a lot of water to flow and a few organic processes to be held so that the electoral competition between Jorge Azcón, current president of Aragón, and Pilar Alegría, since Tuesday Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports and spokesperson for the Government of Aragón, can be reissued. Spain. In 2019 they faced each other for the mayor of Zaragoza and the most voted was the socialist candidate, who obtained 10 councilors compared to the popular candidate's 8.. Although it was Azcón who occupied the mayor's office by agreeing with Ciudadanos and Vox.

Pilar Alegría thus began her political periphrasis, which took her to the Government delegation in Aragon and, in 2021, to the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, the one that her mother did not believe, as she confessed in her recent inauguration in the that added new responsibilities and reinforced it to take the leadership of Aragonese socialism in the future..

The two opponents now have greater tasks than when they ran for mayor to replace the episodic Zaragoza en Común and mark the future of Aragonese politics. Of similar age (Azcón, 1973, and Alegría, 1977), both have been in politics their entire lives. Graduates from the University of Zaragoza, one in Law and the other in Teaching, they joined their organizations from a very young age and along the way they have experienced the honey and ice of long militancy..

The one who has the route expeditious and with several lanes available is Jorge Azcón: at the same time that Alegría was promoted, he completed his first hundred days of Government with a few duties passed cleanly, an unquestionable leadership on the Aragonese right – with a firm vocation for regroup it – and become a regional baron. Although it was difficult for him to be invested and form the team, in a few weeks he has launched the budgets for 2024, more expansive than those of his predecessor, Javier Lambán; It is focusing on large projects –Amazon or Microsoft, which came with a tailwind, or its Pyrenees plan–, and has promoted the first promised tax reductions: deflate personal income tax, raise the minimum exempt from Patrimony and improve Inheritance and Donations.

La Romareda, 20 years of headache

It has also unblocked conflicts such as urgent medical transport and has compromised the direct participation of the Aragonese Government in the reconstruction of the Romareda, a headache that Zaragoza residents have suffered for more than 20 years.. Even, little by little, in the same way that it has integrated the three families into which the PAR broke out, it dedicates special attention to its largest partner, Vox: that its extremisms remain below the management.

And if the Aragonese president has dedicated his energy to something, it is to be one of the voices of the Popular Party in defense of equality before the law, with the rejection of the amnesty, and of the resources of the Autonomous Communities against the concessions that may be made. do Pedro Sánchez to Basques and Catalans in exchange for the support they have given him to become president.

Thus, in addition to speaking out at every step of the process, he has promoted the convening of the Conference of Presidents in the Senate, thus reinforcing the role of this chamber, in which the PP, from its majority, will play all the available cards.. The Conference will give the regional leaders the opportunity to institutionally stage their demands and their rejection of unequal treatment. And Jorge Azcón is going to be one of the spokespersons from his speech that the pacts “dismantle the Autonomous State” and leave “first and second class communities”.

“An Aragonese woman, spokesperson for the amnesty”

And that the Aragonese president expects Pilar Alegría as a rival was a good example of her statements after being appointed spokesperson. Although he wished her the best, he added: “It saddens me that an Aragonese woman is going to be the spokesperson for the amnesty.”. And that will be precisely Alegría's challenge: that this role in the face of such an unpopular measure does not hinder her career.. For the moment it will not have to be used electorally in Aragon, since all the indicators indicate that, barring surprises, Jorge Azcón's cycle will be long since the votes that won the Government, from the PAR to Vox, add up to a large majority, with 36 of 67 seats. Although it is forgotten, the PSOE governed because the PAR supported it.

First it will have to be used to replace the general secretary of the PSOE Aragón. It is the Aragonese bet of Pedro Sánchez, who is not going to forgive Javier Lambán's free verse position of recent years. In fact, a few days after the Federal Committee of the PSOE supported Sánchez's pacts and the amnesty, Lambán once again demonstrated against. Of course, the rest of the party in Aragon was either in favor or remained silent, in a clear symptom of the change in leadership that is coming..

In that horizon, Pilar Alegría has two challenges. On the one hand, survive the cauldron of the Government spokesperson, with Puigdemont returning and agreeing to compensation. That backpack can be very heavy for a community like Aragonese, especially sensitive to the inequality of treatment with respect to Catalonia.. Internally, everything can be easier. As soon as the federal congress of the PSOE is held and gives way to the regional ones, everyone hopes that the new majorities will be favorable to the president of the Government.

Also in Aragon. With the departure of Pignatelli, Lambán's PSOE has lost the power of prescription that the Government gave it to hold. The PSOE only retains the Provincial Council of Zaragoza, an institution that has welcomed several senior officials as advisors, including the spokesperson for the Teruel City Council.. And the silences after the Federal pro-amnesty express the jibarization of the dissidence, which indicate that the Aragonese socialist planet will turn towards the sun Sánchez.

The question that floats is whether Pilar Alegría can combine the spokesperson of the Government (yes with the ministry) with the general secretary of the PSOE. Experience says that spokespersons do not last the entire legislature; In fact, Spain has had six presidents of the Executive since 1977 and 23 spokespersons, of which only three have exceeded three years: Rosa Conde, Teresa Fernández de la Vega and Soraya Saénz de Santamaría.

As the Azcón era is expected to be prolonged, that would make it easier to combine both responsibilities. In taking control of the party, the PSOE of Huesca and half of Zaragoza will help him, while they give time for the other half to move with the help of Sánchez Quero, president of the Provincial Council, and turn Teruel..

Make opposition with 43 PIGAs on your back

Meanwhile, Javier Lambán will finish his term as regional secretary and public officials are trying to position themselves. On the one hand, facing the effects of national decisions. On the other hand, given the difficulty of making opposition in crucial aspects such as the installation of renewables – which will be the subject of a Commission of investigation in the Cortes – or given the profusion of PIGAs (Aragon General Interest Plan); Lambán signed no less than 43 of these a la carte agreements to facilitate the installation of companies, some of them, such as the requalification to expand Plaza, have been questioned by the Accounts Chamber.

The changes in positions in the face of a need such as reforming the Romareda and in which PP and PSOE are tied for failures, do not help them either. Yes, the socialist parliamentarians are active in the face of the profile of Azcón's parliamentary appearances, criticisms that are of little concern in the PP given what they interpret as an interim period similar to the one that afflicted them in the not too distant past. What is clear is that the future of Aragonese politics already belongs to another generation whose leaders begin with A. De Azcón, one of his closest collaborators, who had long said that he would be mayor, president and minister. He already has two of those positions. Joy has started with the Ministry.