Irregular immigration breaks records in Spain this year with the arrival of 46,862 foreigners without documentation to the country until November 15, a balance driven by the skyrocketing numbers in the Canary Islands, which has received 118% more immigrants than last year.

The fortnightly balance released this Thursday by the Ministry of the Interior confirms that the Canary Islands have already exceeded this month the figure recorded in all of 2006 (31,678), the year of what is known as the cayucos crisis.. The 46,862 irregular immigrants counted until the middle of the month are 62% more than those registered in the same period last year.

The vast majority, 45,707, arrived by sea and their main destination was the Canary Islands, where 32,436 people have arrived this year in precarious boats, compared to 14,875 in 2022..

475 canoes and boats have been recorded in the archipelago, 42.6% more than in 2022 at this time, and an average of 10 boats per week. For their part, arrivals by sea to the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, 13,044, have increased by 11.5%. In the case of Ceuta, 60 entries by sea have been registered, half that of last year, and in Melilla, 167, 23% more.

By land, 1,155 arrivals have been registered in both autonomous cities, which represents a decrease of nearly 45%, mainly due to the drop registered in Melilla, from 1,167 to 151..

• Investiture of Pedro Sánchez, live | Feijóo shakes Sánchez's hand after his re-election, but insists: “This is a mistake”
• Pedro Sánchez, inaugurated president of the Government with 179 votes after granting an amnesty to the 'procés'

This Thursday, November 16, Pedro Sánchez has successfully overcome the most unexpected re-election to the Presidency of the Government of Spain. The socialist candidate has been invested in the first vote – for which, at least, an absolute majority was required – by 179 votes in favor and 171 against.. The PSOE has managed to attract Sumar (with the five Podemos deputies), ERC, Junts, Bildu, PNV, BNG and Canarian Coalition to the yes bloc, while Alberto Núñez Feijóo assumes his opposition role and leads the no bloc, in which Vox and UPN are also found.

As expected, tension continues in the streets of Madrid and this Saturday, November 18, there will be a new rally against the amnesty. It will be at 12:00 p.m. in Plaza de Cibeles and will be promoted by Mariano Gamo, creator of the Spain Civic Forum and former president of the Catalan Civil Society (SCC), which has been joined by more than 100 civil society associations..

Spain does not give up!! ️ Everyone to Cibeles on November 18 at 12:00 p.m.
Spain defends itself‼️ pic.twitter.com/4ldEUnD8Uv

— Natalia Arana (@NataliaArana19) November 15, 2023

📢In the face of the attack on the rule of law, the unity and mobilization of all Spaniards loyal to the constitutional framework is essential.

We join the citizen rally against the amnesty of November 18 in Madrid.

📍Plaza Cibeles, at 12 noon.#NoEnMiNombre

— Catalan Civil Society (@Societatcc) November 13, 2023

The president of Catalan Civil Society, Elda Mata, has considered that the investiture pacts “surrender national sovereignty, which resides in all Spaniards, to minority, exclusionary and supremacist nationalism”, according to a statement collected by Europa Press. SCC has assured that the unity of all citizens is essential, and has criticized that the agreements grant “privileges to the representatives of a perverse ideology that seeks the destruction of Spain, they represent an attack on coexistence and the principle of equality of all Spaniards before the law”.

Traffic cuts for November 18

Thus, the Madrid City Council indicates on its website the traffic cuts and incidents expected for this day:

• From 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., incidents are expected in Plaza de Cibeles, Paseo de Recoletos, Paseo del Prado, Alcalá and Gran Vía
• From 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. there will be traffic cuts on Alcalá Street and Puerta del Sol
• From 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., incidents are expected at Glorieta Puerta Toledo, Toledo, Pirámides, Marqués de Vadillo, General Ricardos, Paseo 15 de Mayo and Paseo Ermita del Santo.
• From 8:30 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. in Marqués de la Ensenada, Génova, Sagasta, Carranza, Alberto Aguilera, Princesa and Plaza de la Moncloa

On the afternoon of this Wednesday, the thirteenth demonstration took place on Ferraz Street, in which hundreds of people gathered against the amnesty and the pacts of the PSOE with the Catalan independentists on the first day of the investiture debate of the socialist candidate , Pedro Sánchez. Under a strong police force, like the one usually arranged in these concentrations, the protesters arrived at the corner of Ferraz and Marqués de Urquijo streets, carrying flags of Spain and chanting against the former Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont..

Of all the images that have been taken in the investiture debate of Congress, there is one that is very eloquent and that gives clues about the complexity that the future Government of Pedro Sánchez will face.. And we do not have to look outside, in the parliamentary allies, who have already warned that they will be very demanding. The bench shared by PSOE and Sumar has risen in full after confirming the re-election of the socialist leader, but there were four deputies from the coalition led by Yolanda Díaz who stayed seated while the rest of the left broke into applause.. They were the four from Podemos, Martina Velarde, Lilith Vestrynge, Javier Sánchez Serna and Noemí Santana.

The fifth is Ione Belarra, who occupied her seat on the blue bench of the Government, along with Irene Montero, who was not on the Sumar lists after the veto decreed by the leader of the formation.. A few hours earlier, the result of the consultation on the investiture called by the Belarra leadership was made public, which resulted in very high support for Sánchez's re-election.. And with the participation of more than 55,000 enrolled in the purple training. The massive endorsement of Sánchez has not been an obstacle for the leader of Podemos to have denounced that Díaz ignores the purple ones – “he hasn't called me since July” – and for Pablo Iglesias himself to have already taken the break with Sumar for granted. It is confirmed, as it seems, that yours will not be in the Government.

“Who can really put Podemos in the Government is Sánchez,” said a Sumar source a few days ago. He was thus referring to the possibility that the socialist leader intercedes for the purple ones to save himself a headache in a legislature in which the votes will be decided by very small margins.. The doubt will be resolved in the next few hours, although it is assumed that the decision on the magenta side of the cabinet remains in the hands of Yolanda Díaz. And in the published cabals there is no purple representative for the new Executive.

Iglesias is not the only one who already anticipates the possibility that Podemos and Sumar will go through a resounding divorce. The purple ones could leave the coalition, with the economic damage that this would entail, and join the Mixed Group. In the PSOE, they also talked about this possibility this Thursday and expressed that as long as this breakup does not occur, Ferraz's only interlocutor will be Yolanda Díaz, as organic leader of Sumar.. This information is not trivial if you take into account that Belarra showed her anger last Friday, when announcing the consultation, due to Sánchez's lack of response to her requests..

The discomfort within the coalition was not only present at the moment of applause for Sánchez, but also in how Belarra and Montero have quickly left the chamber. It is probably the last time that both use the blue chair of the Government.. Both were already protagonists on the first day of the debate, when Alberto Núñez Feijóo ironically about his presumed departure from the Executive. “Yes, you can,” said the Galician, who paraphrased the iconic slogan that the purples chant in their organic conclaves and rallies.. The holding of the Congress pointed at that moment to Montero, who stated with a gesture that ranged from resignation to mockery..

“What do we do with Podemos? Should we give it a ministry?” Feijóo joked.. But that is the question that must still be asked and, above all, the result of maintaining the veto. The five purple seats are key for the Government to carry out its legislative agenda, but in the purple leadership they do not feel appealed by the agreement reached between Yolanda Díaz and Pedro Sánchez at a programmatic level. The departure of Podemos from the coalition would force the Executive to add greater wear and tear to the negotiations to approve its laws, although it is true that the purple ones presented themselves under Sumar's electoral program and there should not be major programmatic differences..

The purple ones are not the only ones who have raised their voices about the way in which Yolanda Díaz is leading the coalition. Alberto Garzón already defended at the end of September that Sumar should move towards a formation more within a broad front, something that the acting vice president's team rejected. The organic conformation of the coalition still has to be forged, and that can be a distorting element for the new Government of Pedro Sánchez, who has once again shown harmony with Díaz in the two days of debate.

Dawn in the Oporto neighborhood, Madrid. It's nine in the morning and you can already see people in the bars, having a hot coffee for breakfast or buying some tobacco at the tobacconist's shop on the avenue.. It's Friday, and we have to gather strength. This corner of the city is now part of one of the fashionable districts, Carabanchel. A recent survey carried out and published by Time Out magazine awarded it the bronze medal in the ranking of the coolest places to live not only in Spain, but in the world.. But something doesn't add up: there are rats.

Just into September, the public health service of the Madrid City Council recognized that rodents had been detected in the Oporto sewer and in Valle de Oro, a children's park in the area.. The department in charge of pest management and prevention in common spaces warned of several rat burrows in the Carabanchel district. Especially in the aforementioned areas. In a statement, the municipal team clarified that these animals will be monitored and their presence will be treated according to prevention mechanisms.. What are they, and how long have they taken to take effect?

48 hours margin

It is the Madrid Salud service that acts against pests. Regarding the alarm in Carabanchel, after the summer sighting, they explain that, as a general rule, they have to respond to the warnings they receive in less than 48 hours. This is what they claim to have done with the rats in Porto. They do not know how they began to make themselves known, but on other occasions it has occurred as a result of environmental incidents that affected the sewage system or caused the appearance of burrows.. Both in those cases and in the latter, the solution is to redouble the cleaning and treatments until they are extinguished..

It is the vector control department that coordinates everything. The Madrid City Council responds to this newspaper that the amount intended to get rid of the pests increased from 1.2 to 2 million euros, although it does not detail from what date to what date the change occurred. But the residents of Porto, although many believe so, have not yet woken up from the nightmare of the rats. Consistory sources reported on Monday that “in recent days” a burrow has been detected again in the Valle de Oro passage, where they were also sighted months ago..

José Soriano was one of the neighbors who gave the notice. He is 35 years old and has lived in the neighborhood for nine years.. “It's getting worse,” he sums up his stay.. In his free time he manages a Twitter account (@PasaenOporto) in which he posts photos and reports dirt or other problems in the place.. On November 2, the statement in which Madrid Salud announced the presence of rats was echoed. Then he sent a notice as an individual and the response was a confirmation, more than any other addition.. Although he himself admits that he hasn't seen any in a while, he denounces that the neighborhood has other problems that worry him more: “Cleanliness, noisy gatherings in the square, or security…”

Summer among rodents

Although now they seem to be back, Porto is not the epicenter of rats in Madrid. According to the most recent official data, from 2018, Puente de Vallecas is at the top. Like Carabanchel or Arganzuela, this area also raised the alert in summer for rodents. Then several active outbreaks were detected, although in the Carabanchel neighborhood everything seemed like a bad dream: just a few months later, no one claims to have seen or known anything.. The Madrid City Council, however, confirms that an active focus continues in Porto that today may extend. The rats are still there, they're just underground..

“Really, rats?”, is surprised by Juan Carlos, an operator who works every day between Porto and Vítalegre.. He knows that asphalt well, and “neither before nor now” has he seen animals of this type running around there. something occurs to him. “Maybe someone in the big square knows something,” and points to the other side of the road.. Crossing the traffic light opens a small square that houses a small park, several stone benches and various businesses around.. It is without a doubt the nerve center of the neighborhood, where many begin and end the day.

Upon arrival, beer cans, garbage, chewing gum stuck to the floor or to the trash cans. A street cleaning worker who was working the morning shift that Friday laughed, ironically, at the mere question.. “Rats, I don't know, but liters of beer, as many as you want!” he exclaimed, looking out of the corner of his eye at various cans, bottles or crumpled posters under the trees or on the ground.. Carmen, that was her name, has been doing her rounds in that area for weeks and to date, although she had “heard something”, she has not seen a trace of animals coming out of the sewers.

In fact, one of the hypotheses that the City Council pointed out was precisely the accumulation of garbage as a possible origin of the rats. “We have found many belongings outside the bins and that favors the escape of rodents,” they say from the Madrid City Council. The way to act, removing prevention and cleaning, is based on placing “baits” and plugging the “sewers or nearby public channels”, or asking the communities of owners in the area for more prudence when leaving garbage in the area. view, for example.

The Government had a fundamental advantage when it came to explaining the amnesty in Brussels to European partners and community institutions: in general, non-Spanish people have a positive image and are somewhat indifferent towards the idea.. To many, it seems like a good thing if it helps a problem that they have been hearing about since 2017 disappear.. When last Monday the Financial Times published an editorial in which it assured that the amnesty was a “risk worth taking”, many in Spain put their hands on their heads, but the truth is that it reflected quite well what was I was thinking about Brussels and other European capitals.

But just on the day that the socialists presented the amnesty bill, the Government has seen how it has lost the initiative when it comes to explaining this measure at the European level: first through a very influential media outlet in Brussels, then with the offensive of the European People's Party (EPP) and Ciudadanos through the European Parliament and finally by the words of a former minister of Sánchez, Josep Borrell, current head of European diplomacy, who has been critical. The Moncloa has made its explanation permeate important sectors where hard power is found, in the European Commission, with which there has been a continuous dialogue for months that has made the Spanish Executive very clear which were the swampy areas that the legal text should not explore. In principle, the Government should not have serious problems with the institution. However, at a public and communication level, the Government has not given any type of explanation about the strategy behind the amnesty..

Everything was limited to the indoor strategy. The first time that Pedro Sánchez mentioned the word amnesty was at the press conference after the Granada summit, surrounded by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Charles Michel, president of the EU Council.. The implicit message sent by the acting president was one of internal consumption: that Brussels supported the idea. In the strategy, Europe played a domestic role. But the Government has not worked on everything that surrounds that hard power of the community capital, that entire ecosystem of journalists, opinion generators and politicians..

In the exercise of discretion in negotiation, the socialists have neglected the front of public opinion in Brussels. And it started to go wrong this Monday, at 7:12. The morning routine in Brussels is very marked from the moment you wake up: reading the daily newsletter from Politico, the leading European news portal, checking the Financial Times, having a coffee and greeting your partner.. In that order. From senior officials of the European Commission, ambassadors and diplomats, to interns and the latest arrivals in the community capital. And all of them this Monday morning woke up to a newsletter that harshly attacks the Spanish Socialist Workers Party and Pedro Sánchez..

The newsletter echoes the protests of judicial organizations and points out that “across the political spectrum, politicians, judges and intellectuals have warned of a constitutional crisis,” denying the socialist narrative that Junts abides by the Constitution through a denial resounding by Aleix Sarri, Carles Puigdemont's chief of staff, and directly and starkly attacks the idea of the Catalan quota, assuming that Barcelona would keep all taxes: “In Brussels, Sánchez urges rich capitals like Berlin to show solidarity by redistributing its wealth among the poorest. Don't let the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, find out that, within Spain, Sánchez is considering Junts' demand that Catalonia keep 100% of the taxes collected there.”.

Shortly after, the EPP issued a joint statement from its president, the German Manfred Weber, together with the leader of the Spanish delegation, Dolors Montserrat, again charging against the amnesty.. The European Christian Democrats have agreed that next week, during the plenary session to be held in Strasbourg (France), a debate will be held on the situation of the rule of law in Spain. They have the support of the liberal group (Renew Europe) and the ultra-conservatives (ECR), as well as, perhaps, the ultra-nationalists (ID), so the issue would go ahead and be included on the agenda.. But even if one of them fails, it is up to the popular Europeans to choose next week's “thematic debate”, so they could also include it that way.. In summary: next week in Strasbourg the amnesty and the situation in Spain will be discussed, although said debate will have no legal effect.

The EPP is not alone in this hostile environment. This same Monday, ALDE, the hard core of the European liberals of Renew Europe, the continental formation led by Emmanuel Macron's party, has also issued a harsh statement. “The defense of the rule of law and an independent judiciary are non-negotiable in our European democracy. European liberals remain firm in their unwavering commitment to defend the rule of law,” explained Ilhan Kyuchyuk, vice president of ALDE..

It will be an aggressive debate, “Spanish-Spanish” as it is called here: probably dominated by Spanish MEPs from different parties who will engage in an exchange of accusations, but at the same time the Spanish parties will try to find a couple of foreign colleagues who manage to convey the message that the issue matters beyond the Pyrenees. Spain usually brings many national issues to the plenary session of the European Parliament, to the boredom and complaint of MEPs of other nationalities.. In fact, in March the situation of the rule of law in Spain was already addressed in a very angry debate. But this time is different. There is a less favorable environment for Moncloa and Borrell's words will not help the interests of the socialists either..

Borrell's coup

And on Monday it continued to get worse for the Spanish Executive. At the end of a Foreign Affairs Council, the high representative of the Union for Foreign Policy was asked about the amnesty and the agreements of the PSOE with Junts and ERC. “Everyone who knows me in Spain and knows my personal and previous political career can imagine what I think,” explained Borrell, who in his position as head of European diplomacy must be careful not to mix his institutional role and his personal opinions. and policies. “Without knowing it in detail I cannot comment, but I do know the political agreements reached with two pro-independence parties and certainly those agreements cause me some concern or quite a few logical concerns, on the other hand, because it is a complex and difficult problem about which “At the time, not now, I will express myself,” he assured at a press conference..

Shortly afterwards, asked about his words, José Manuel Albares, acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had been with Borrell all day, assured that no minister had asked him about the amnesty and that, however, many ministers had approached him. to congratulate you on Sánchez's re-election. But the reality is that the issue has been permeating, that it is increasingly talked about in informal conversations, in coffees and beers with friends and acquaintances, without this meaning that those curious about the situation are against the amnesty.. The Government wants to convey the image that the issue does not even exist outside of Spain. But the reality is that Borrell has not responded to questions from any Spanish media: it was the journalist from the French newspaper Le Monde who asked him for his opinion on the matter..

A hostile environment

The Government had a head start on this matter. Von der Leyen will always avoid having a confrontation with Sánchez, because she has always had a very good relationship with him, the Spanish Executive has always supported her and is a fundamental partner if she wants re-election.. And having Von der Leyen on your side is very important, because the German has unprecedented control of everything that happens within the European Commission.. On the other hand, Brussels was clear about its red lines, as it had shown in the past: respect the budget of the European Union, something it had already warned about when the reform of the Penal Code affected embezzlement, and any mention in the law that could raise doubts regarding the separation of powers, such as the mention of lawfare. The Government has been careful not to step on those two mines.

That has not prevented even so, with a very good relationship with Von der Leyen and a constant exchange with the European Commission, Didier Reynders, Commissioner for Justice, from sending a letter requesting more information about the amnesty law last Wednesday, a day before the agreement between PSOE and Junts. That letter infuriated the acting Government, which saw it as an interference. The very significant number of complaints that are being received, both from anonymous citizens and organizations and also from the Popular Party and also from the Citizens delegation in the European Chamber, but above all the unanimous positioning of judicial organizations of all political sensitivities, have caused Brussels to look with special attention at the situation.

But even so, Moncloa still has an advantage. The popular strategy largely involves getting the European Commission to intervene, and unless there is something in which it very clearly has powers, the Community Executive is not going to take action.. But the public environment is beginning to be hostile and that doesn't help at all.. Many Brussels residents will have received their first information on the matter with a very damaging newsletter for the Government this Monday morning, and many others will have seen the head of European diplomacy express his opposition that same day in the afternoon.. Next week's debate will be aggressive and harsh, and even without having any practical effect it will draw attention to the issue.

The narrative is just that: the narrative. You don't win or lose solely because of the narrative, but it is an important factor to take into account.. But the Government has lost the initiative when it comes to setting a narrative. Even the Financial Times editorial last week, which so well reflected the general image of the situation, was clear about one thing: they knew that the agreement is being made only to move forward with the investiture.. They did not believe that there was a strategy of underlying harmony. They simply argued that it was a risk worth taking, even if it was for the wrong reasons. What has happened in the last week and especially in the last few hours is that some wonder if politically it was really a bet worth making.

A large display case dedicated to Star Wars presided over the gaming room that the young man had set up in his parents' house.. The closest thing to a geeky altar in which stood out a complete suit of an imperial soldier that was surrounded by multiple models of the George Lucas saga. And at its side, a multi-screen computer system and numerous computer file storage devices. This was the operations center of an alleged pedophile whose National Police seized “several tons” of compromised images that he kept at his home in Almería.. One of the 121 arrested in one of the most important investigations carried out in our country against this type of crimes.

Sources close to the case explained to this newspaper that the capture of this individual was the outcome of a long period of work that began with a notice from the FBI liaison unit at the United States embassy in Madrid.. The agents received data from their data center that identified a significant number of people in Spain who were “sharing, uploading or downloading” pedophile audiovisual material from the Internet..

This information, which had been compiled and made available to the authorities by a North American NGO against child exploitation, marked the beginning of a global hunt to which the Group VI of Technological Crimes of the Judicial Police Brigade of the Police Station joined. Provincial of Almeria. The information sent to the agents of this unit pointed to a person who had allegedly distributed four files. “In that world, when someone has uploaded four videos, the most likely thing is that there are really 400,000,” comment the sources consulted, who added that the operators were asked for data that would allow the exact location of the suspect..

The police investigations led to a property located in the La Rambla area of the capital of Almeria. A couple and their son lived there, who had apparently returned to his parents' home after a period of living alone. The guy didn't do much of a social life. It was known that he had a job related to computing and that “he spent a lot of time at home.” A lifestyle that complicated investigations.

When the agents entered the house with a court order, the suspect showed some surprise because “he was not expecting it.” It is something that did not surprise the researchers. What's more, it is a common response. “They think they are smarter than us and they think they will never be discovered.” But they are wrong.

The search of the house focused on the gaming room in which the individual apparently spent many hours of the day.. There, among expensive collector's items, such as a Nazgûl helmet from The Lord of the Rings, or an AT-AT vehicle like those first seen in The Empire Strikes Back, they discovered a series of storage devices that amounted to “several terabytes” in which extremely hard pedophile material was discovered. “Sexual assaults on babies and recordings of minors with animals,” they describe.

These recordings served for the judicial authority to order the person under investigation to be placed in preventive detention, although those responsible for the case took “several months” to analyze all the material that was seized from him.. The amount of files he accumulated was such that it was not a relief that he was “meticulous” and had organized them by folders and keys for identification according to the subject..

The result of this study work was a judicial report that was sent to the court. The aforementioned sources recall that the arrested man “went off” when he was detained, but “he never broke down.”. “He was silent”.

Operation Cíclope, as this case was called, has been one of the dozens and dozens carried out by the National Police within a general investigation that – after years of investigations – has resulted in the capture of 121 pedophiles in different parts from the country.

In the 125 searches carried out, 368 hard drives, 114 USB flash drives, 100 DVDs, 60 computers and other computer equipment were seized.. 500 terabytes of extremely hardcore pornographic content starring minors.

The uncertainty about whether Nadia Calviño will finally be the new president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) makes it difficult for Pedro Sánchez to form the Government, now that the agreement with Junts has completely cleared the investiture. At Moncloa they counted on the fact that at this point it would be more than clear that she was the chosen one.. The process has been delayed and although his candidacy has had the support of Germany in recent hours, Sánchez may be forced to decide on its continuity, without having the EIB chair completely tied..

In just one week, there will be a new Government. The plenary session for the president to obtain the confidence of the Chamber will be held on the 15th and 16th, this Wednesday and Thursday, and has a sufficient absolute majority to be appointed president in the first vote. This means that the inauguration before the King would be on Friday and that he will immediately focus on the composition of the new coalition Executive.. The ministers would be sworn in that same Monday, if Sánchez acts as he did four years ago.

The decision about Calviño is crucial. The president must decide whether to remain in the Government and in January, once it has been clarified whether he will go to the EIB, he makes a new adjustment to his Cabinet. Or if he directly leaves her out, confident that the future of his vice president is in Luxembourg, especially now that the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has guaranteed his support, in a bilateral meeting with Sánchez during the congress of European socialists in Malaga.

The vice president's purpose has always been to remain in the Executive until the end of the year, to complete the Spanish presidency of the EU, and then leave for the Investment Bank. Government sources assure that it has been agreed upon with the president. But internally, both in the Government and in the party, it is not fully understood that she will be ratified as head of the Ministry of Economy in mid-November to leave the position in just a month and a half.. “It is not known whether the vice president herself repeats or not” and that causes “several alignments in the air,” say the sources consulted..

“The great name”

The importance of Calviño's position is not only due to the relevance of the economic area, but also because it affects the distribution of vice presidencies.. She now occupies the first position, but whoever replaces her can only be a minister and thus return to a political vice presidency (as in the period of Carmen Calvo), for which the one who sounds the most strongly is María Jesús Montero.

That Calviño's future is not clear, they recognize in the game, is a “problem”, because Sánchez is expected to make a “clean” in his team. “New stage, new Government,” they point out. The feeling that there will be many changes is widespread in the Executive and in the PSOE. And it is very possible that it will also affect the spokespersons in Congress and the Senate.. It is sensed that the replacement “will be important” because, and there is also great unanimity on this, a Government “with more political capacity” is needed.. “We need bigger people”. But “the big name,” they say, may be the person in charge of Economy.

In large companies and in the financial sector, possible replacements for Calviño are beginning to be heard.. The one who sounds the most is José Luis Escrivá, Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. The vice president's current number two, the Secretary of State for the Economy, Gonzalo García Andrés, is also seen as capable..

Although in the financial sector it is considered that there could be traffic between Plaza de Cibeles (Bank of Spain) and the ministry. The mandates of the governor, Pablo Hernández de Cos, and the deputy governor, Margarita Delgado, expire in the middle of next year, so they might not frown upon occupying the economic portfolio.

De Cos seems complicated, because he was already related to the possible PP Government, and Delgado has a very banking profile. There could be a third option, the advisor of the Bank of Spain Soledad Núñez, who held top economic positions in José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's team.. Sánchez will also have to think the other way around: who he places at the Bank of Spain in a few months, for which similar names such as Escrivá and Delgado are being considered..

Calviño's candidacy for the EIB has taken longer than expected. When the economic vice president announced her intention to compete for the position, on August 11, the result was expected to be known at the European summit that took place in mid-September in Santiago.. However, the decision has been delayed meeting after meeting of the Economy Ministers (Ecofin), to the point that the Belgian Finance Minister, Vincent van Peteghem, has urged Germany and France to opt.. Germany has just done it and the interpretation in the Government is that Scholz has not taken this step without first discussing it with Paris.

Despite this, to obtain this position the support of 68% of capital is required, for which the support of the large shareholders is essential (Germany, France, which has not yet made a statement, Italy and Spain) and, furthermore, that 18 of the 28 countries approve. So German support is important, but not definitive. Therefore, although the process can be resolved in the extraordinary Ecofin at the end of the month or in the already scheduled one at the beginning of December, in the financial environment it is not ruled out that Germany's support will not be sufficient and the process will be delayed until 2024, although implies an extension of the current president of the EIB.

With one scenario or another, Calviño's plan is to continue until the Spanish presidency ends. The vice president has led the negotiation of the future fiscal rules of the EU, which is now entering its final phase. Calviño would like to close the file, the main one of the Spanish semester and which will mark a milestone in the history of the club's economic governance. The agreement before the end of the year will determine the success or failure of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU in economic aspects.. If the pact is not closed before December 31, 2023, the calendar will begin to accumulate delays and it will be difficult to complete the reform in this European legislature.

Although the technical work is being led by Carlos Cuerpo, Secretary of the Treasury, there will be a given moment, between the last weeks of November and the first half of December, when the matter will require political involvement.. That would be the moment in which Calviño, or the person who occupies the Ministry of Economy, should get involved.. The last fringes are always the most difficult to close. And in these negotiations the personal aspect matters a lot: that the minister in charge of the presidency knows his colleagues personally, that he knows if the German minister is bluffing or if he is serious, that he knows how to build consensus and understand the dynamics of what happens in the room. That would be an even more difficult job for a newly elected minister. Some factors that will surely be on the table when Sánchez designs his team.

We are in the hands of the jailer. We depend on the satisfaction with which Puigdemont observes the progress of the destruction of democracy, just like a retiree in front of a construction site.. It is up to Demoliciones Sánchez to exterminate the separation of powers. And to submit to the humiliating criteria of international arbitration, precisely because we will witness a legislature intervened and bribed by the extortion of Carles.

The conditions of the kidnapping are impressive, because the exiled president has managed to have the agreement between Junts and the PSOE announced by Santos Cerdán in a hotel in Brussels. It was the sinister way of bowing to Puigdemont's conditions.. And to recognize that the future of the Spanish Government has to be resolved in exile. Both for the trance of the signing of the pact of shame and for the prominence that the international observatory acquires. We look like a parliamentary monarchy… banana.

And not only because of the recognition of political crimes or because of the emergence of foreign rapporteurs, but because Sánchez himself has degraded democracy and has managed to bring the members of the CGPJ and all the associations of judges into agreement—against—. They have been infuriated by the meekness with which the President of the Government compromises with the idea of the politicization of Justice and with the urgency of subjecting the courts to the control of the parliamentary investigation commissions..

Spain degenerates into a banana nation because Sánchez threatens the rule of law and because Puigdemont has imposed the deployment of blue helmets. It is about verifying the terms of the elastic and reinforced amnesty that Sánchez has granted in exchange for seven coins, although the most sinister passage in the Brussels document consists of the admission of the deep differences that separate the PSOE and Junts.

It is the context in which it makes sense to ask why Pedro Sánchez then gives the key to the investiture and the legislature to his greatest antagonist.. And why the governability of a polarized nation depends on the 1.6% of votes that Junts obtained in the 23-J elections.

The minority extorts the majority. And it raises a state of general distress that cannot be caricatured either with the folkloric-violent manifestations of the extreme right or with the hyperbolic categories in which popular leaders operate.. They do well to mobilize the indignation of citizens and to argue with the left about the hegemony of the street, as happened this Sunday in the Spanish streets.. And they are wrong to allude to the dictatorship (Díaz Ayuso) and to mention 23-F (Feijóo), no matter how much they are tempted by populist impulses and Abascal's verbiage..

The agreement on impunity for the investiture describes in itself the seriousness of things. Puigdemont avoids jail and Sánchez continues in Moncloa, although the personal reasons that identify the pact do not contradict the extreme depth of the collateral damage. The principle of equality between citizens before the law has been broken; the equity regime of the autonomies has been corrupted; the separation of powers has been desecrated; disaffection with the system has been aroused and the danger of anomie has been raised, and an amnesty has been introduced that humiliates the State in the recognition of its guilt against those who have transgressed the laws in a resounding and multifaceted manner, including the street terror of the CDR.

Ten years of impunity and immunity contains the amnesty, although the most incendiary symptoms of the PSOE and Junts agreement concern the precariousness with which Spanish democracy is characterized. There already exists – and thank goodness – a supranational framework where the bodies and institutions of the European Union operate, but Sánchez has granted Carles Puigdemont the anomaly of an international observer whose role both challenges the space of community guarantees and emphasizes the aberrant idea of an international conflict that clearly raises the idea of the oppressive State and that compares Spain to the Republic of San Marcos.

This is the name of the Caribbean country that Woody Allen invented in Bananas (1974), the unequivocal title of a parody whose innards summon and evoke the round bed of Sánchez and Puigdemont.. “You have the opportunity to die for freedom…”, Espósito's character tells Fielding Mellish (Woody Allen). “Freedom is wonderful,” he replies, “but being dead is a tremendous inconvenience for sexual life.”.

The remunicipalization of the management of the M-30 will have to wait. The Madrid City Council, led by José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has not included in the 2024 budget project any item or plan to change the model of Calle 30, the company in charge of the maintenance and conservation of the ring road, currently mixed capital. Sources from the Works and Equipment Area, on whom the entity depends, detail to El Confidencial that the measure is still being studied, but will not be applied in the short term.. “It will not take place before 2025,” they explain, once the municipal accounts for the next year have been presented..

The initiative has been going on for several years.. First it was the Government team of Manuela Carmena, driven by the alleged irregularities in the agreement with the private partner, and later the Coalition Council between the PP and Ciudadanos. The Cibeles Plenary Session approved a motion last legislature, supported by all the groups with representation (PP, Más Madrid, Ciudadanos, PSOE and Vox), to begin the procedures for the Administration to assume its ownership one hundred percent.. Almost two years after the mandate of the Municipal Chamber, however, the proposal has not materialized.

The Madrid City Council, which has been studying this possibility for more than two years, considers that it is not yet the time. The current contract, signed in the time of Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, ends in 2040, but allows changes to be made in 2025. That year, therefore, is presented as key for the future of the entity. Calle 30 now operates with a mixed model, where the public Administration controls 80% and the remaining 20% is the responsibility of Emesa, made up of ACS and Ferrovial..

The rest of the parties were not too happy with remunicipalization at this time either.. Más Madrid, the first opposition party and promoter of the measure in the 2015-2019 mandate, brought a question to the branch commission regarding the reasons for assuming management before 2025.. The doubts pointed to an alleged benefit for the private partner, something that has always accompanied the company. The PSOE, in fact, also showed its reluctance after the Plenary mandate, when the City Council launched a working group with the rest of the political forces to address this issue.. The formation now led by Reyes Maroto, as this newspaper reported at the time, denounced that in the assumptions raised “Emesa always won”. The project was paralyzed.

The municipal government, however, in no case rules out this project.. Sources from the Works and Equipment Area detail that the measure is still being studied, mainly focused on assessing the cost and payment of possible compensation to Emesa.. “The possible change in the management model is being studied, as indicated by the delegate in the October commission,” they warn, after pointing out that there is no longer a working group as such..

Controversial project

Remunicipalization is a controversial issue that has raised important controversies in the Madrid City Council. Especially during the mandate of Manuela Carmena, who had among the axes of her government to assume ownership of outsourced services or with public-private collaboration.. He did it with the funeral home or the company that manages the city cable car, but he did not finish the plan for Calle 30.

Now Madrid (Más Madrid since 2019) also promoted a commission of investigation into the alleged irregularities in the agreement signed around the M-30, after a report from the Chamber of Accounts that pointed to the lack of transparency in the process and some irregularities, such as the responsibilities of each party on the electricity bill, systematically paid by the City Council despite being an obligation of Emesa. The commission, which was approved with the votes of Ahora Madrid, PSOE and Ciudadanos, concluded that the contract represented a loss of 1.2 billion euros for the public coffers..

• PP demonstration against the amnesty, in Madrid: last minute of the protests this Sunday, November 12, live
• What is an amnesty, how many have there been in Spain and differences with pardon
• Schedule of the November 12 demonstration in Barcelona: these are the streets blocked

Spanish politics has many problems. But most of them are not only here.. They are shared by most Western countries.

Before Hamas committed its atrocious attack, for example, the Israeli Government's priority was to reduce the autonomy and powers of judges, especially those of the Supreme Court, which it accuses of playing politics with its rulings.. In Sweden and Finland, governments led by traditional parties also depend on radical partners that generate constant instability. In Belgium, the difficulties for the parties to reach an agreement delay the investiture processes: on one occasion, 589 days were spent with a government in office. In the United States, a senator named Joe Manchin is considered “the most powerful man in Washington,” because he is decisive in the approval of laws and always demands that they provide some concrete benefit for the small state he represents, West Virginia (1.8 million inhabitants), which ends up being more decisive, for example, than California (40 million).

In many ways we believe we are unique, well, we are just like everyone else.. The true anomaly of Spanish politics is the enormous number of parties with representation in Congress that oppose the Constitution to a greater or lesser degree and the degree of influence they have over the Executive.. In that, we hardly have any comparison.

A complicated distinction

In many countries there are parties that oppose the constitutional order. In the British House of Commons, for example, two large parties that want their territories to become independent from the United Kingdom are represented, Sinn Féin and the Scottish Nationalist Party, but they are almost irrelevant in national politics (they add up to just over 7 .5% of seats). In most countries, parties openly contrary to the existing order are prohibited: in Germany, for example, the Communist Party is banned, as well as several neo-Nazi parties..

Italy and France have also banned formations contrary to the Constitution, but not the League when it was an independence party or the Corsican Nation Party. Perhaps a case comparable to the Spanish one is that of the nationalist New Flemish Alliance party, which promotes the progressive self-determination of Flanders and participated in the national government of Belgium.. But as Ignacio Jurado, political scientist and professor at the Carlos III University, reminded me, most situations of this kind are ambiguous: perhaps only the pro-independence parties can be considered totally contrary to the constitutions, to the extent that they deny the “demos”, the people, to whom the Constitution says correspond.

In any case, four pro-independence parties are represented in the Spanish Congress of Deputies that are actively working to end the Spanish Constitution (ERC, Junts, Bildu and BNG) and perhaps nine (those grouped in Sumar plus the PNV) that oppose central parts of it, such as the monarchy or the territorial organization. Together they account for more than 15% of the seats, all of them are necessary for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and for the approval of relevant laws such as budgets, and Sumar will direct several ministries.

Liberal or ungovernable?

This makes Spain one of the most liberal countries with dissident opinions, to which it gives institutional representation without any hindrance and whose role in the government it has fully normalized.. Spanish democracy has innumerable problems, but no one can accuse it of not being one of the most representative and open in the world..

But that, as we now see to a greater extent than at any other time in the recent past, also generates constant institutional instability. A relevant part of democratic representatives do not consider that the head of State is legitimate, they do not swear to abide by the Constitution when assuming their positions and they seem to consider that their institutional responsibilities are tools to erode institutions.. It also produces a justified feeling of grievance: some territories obtain disproportionate benefits because they have nationalist parties, but this does not happen due to electoral chance, as in the case of Senator Manchin of West Virginia, but rather it has become something structural.. In many countries there is a strong polarization between rival parties, but this always occurs within the system: even the most radical formations of the German, French or Italian parliament abide by the constitutional order..

In Spain, on the other hand, there is a double polarization: the one that confronts the parties that support the system, and the one that confronts them with those who want to end it.. The usual thing is for democratic parties to take for granted the biggest thing – the form of the State – and argue about the smallest thing – the concrete political measures.. In Spain, it happens the other way around. As we have seen in the pact that the PSOE and Junts have signed, even system parties buy anti-system stories to achieve power. Contrary to what some socialists say now, that is not irrelevant or circumstantial.. It has become structural. Those opposed to the system have become essential for this.

Contrary to the worst temptations – sometimes expressed by Vox or Isabel Díaz-Ayuso – the solution is not to reduce the great ideological permissiveness of the Spanish system and prohibit parties that oppose the Constitution from participating in legislation.. It is democratically good to preserve that situation. The challenge is to allow these parties to freely represent the citizens who vote for them and exercise their influence in the system, but stop being anomalously essential in it..

The PSOE, however, has decided to reinforce its structural character in the government. His speech is that there is no alternative: not only for Pedro Sánchez to retain power, but for Spain to be a truly inclusive country.. It's false. And, consequently, the question is: how to ensure that Spanish institutions continue to be impeccably representative, but that does not lead to the collapse of the system? The PP must give part of the answer to that question. But the PSOE must begin by recognizing that it is the biggest question we face. And then try to answer it credibly..