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

“Spain can only be governed if its territorial diversity is recognized”. After days of silence, Pedro Sánchez spoke yesterday about the pact with Carles Puigdemont to be re-elected on Thursday, November 16. Now it's time for pedagogy. The acting president and his ministers will have to put in a lot of effort if we look at the data provided by the IMOP survey in collaboration with El Confidencial: 63.8% of Spaniards would prefer an electoral repetition compared to 31.1% who declare themselves in favor of a coalition government led by the PSOE with the parliamentary support of Junts. That is, only three out of ten Spaniards support Sánchez's investiture under the current terms. Another reality that the figures reveal is the strong polarization that the investiture negotiation has entailed.. The majority supports the demonstrations in front of the PSOE headquarters in Madrid.

The data from the survey, which was carried out on November 8 and 9, when the details of the text signed by the PSOE and Junts in Brussels were not yet known, show how even within socialist voters there is an important division. The socialist electorate is divided in two. While 54% support governing, four out of ten consider that it would be better to return to the polls. It is worth remembering that the socialists' electoral program did not include the amnesty law, which during the campaign, and even after, was rejected as unconstitutional by Sánchez himself and prominent socialist leaders..

What must be interpreted from the position of those who, even voting for the PSOE, want the elections to be repeated, is not a “no” to their party governing, but to those who support them in Congress.. The former president of the Government, Felipe González, is a clear example. He voted for Sánchez, but condemns the fact that he negotiates the governability of Spain with someone fleeing from Justice. “The amnesty is not worth it for seven votes. “We have to go and win the elections,” he recently declared..

In the case of Yolanda Díaz's supporters there are fewer scruples. 74.1% of those who voted for Sumar are favorable. Only two in ten would be more comfortable if they voted again. The left-wing platform even proposed holding a referendum during the electoral campaign, although it did not specify under what terms, given that the Constitution expressly prohibits it.. The vice president has sought to establish herself as the bridge between Sánchez and Puigdemont. In fact, she was the first to go visit the fugitive in Brussels.. “Look, I take my daughter to school almost every day, and the mothers and fathers—it's a public school in Madrid—thank me because they know what I'm doing,” said the leader of Sumar..

The first place in the satisfaction ranking for the reissue of the government front with Puigdemont at the head is held by Bildu. 100% of the voters of Arnaldo Otegi's party subscribe to the alliance with Sánchez. The move to become preferred partners last term has borne fruit. There is no such closing of ranks in the other Basque party in Congress. PNV voters are more critical of the drift of their leaders. 49% support the investiture, 24% would prefer new elections and 27% do not speak out.

The answer is a good photograph of the internal situation of the party, where there are several souls. Its president, Andoni Ortuzar, has set the tone to remain at Sánchez's side to fight Bildu, while a sector closer to the Lendakari, Íñigo Urkullu, raises doubts about where the shift to the left is taking them.. The Basque regional elections, which will be held next year, will be a good gauge. They will also represent a milestone in the legislature, given that depending on the results and subsequent alliances in the Basque Country, the national board may also move..

And what do Junts voters think? 95% support the agreement with Sánchez. In the case of ERC, supporters add one more point. The data should serve Puigdemont to see his strategy endorsed. His fear during the negotiations has been to look like a “traitor” in front of his people.. That it be interpreted that the amnesty was a personal demand outside the independence cause. As in all formations, the voter is more moderate than the militant and, although the Junts bases will endorse the agreement, among the hardest-line there are already voices that feel “betrayed”. The former counselor, Clara Ponsatí, who fled with Puigdemont, has spoken of “betrayal of Catalonia” after the white smoke between Junts and the PSOE.

Depending on how many voices there are and how loudly they disagree, it will depend on how Puigdemont approaches his relationship with Sánchez in the next four years.. At the moment, the acting president has already accepted an international mediator of the agreements, to negotiate a referendum and to assume that there has been lawfare in Spain. This month the first meeting, outside our borders, of the verification commission is scheduled and it will be seen how much Junts is pushing to support the legislature. Socialist sources downplay the “wordiness” and consider two Budgets closed.

If Bildu's supporters flatly rejected the elections, those of the PP are on the opposite side. 97% ask to go to the polls again; 95% in the case of Vox. In Genoa they are willing to capitalize on the widespread discontent over the concessions to the independentists. Today they have called a demonstration in the Plaza de Cibeles that they hope will be massive.. It won't be the last. Protests over the amnesty law have been taking place in Madrid in front of Ferraz's headquarters. According to the IMOP survey, these protests have obtained a very wide resonance throughout Spain. 96.5% of those surveyed declare that they are aware of them. The protests receive the approval of the majority. 48.6% give them intense or moderate support compared to 41.3% who condemn them.

IMOP asked those interviewed to express, on a scale from 0 to 10, their degree of support for these mobilizations, with 0 indicating the maximum rejection and 10 indicating the maximum support.. The most striking thing is the very strong polarization that they have produced in public opinion. Temperate attitudes are clearly in the minority and intense support and rejection of these events predominate in all political spaces.. In fact, the two scores on the scale that are most repeated are the most extreme: zero (25.1%) and ten (37.9%).. The violent nature that some demonstrations acquired does not seem to alter the meaning of the responses, perhaps because they refer more to the event that motivated them—the amnesty law—than to the development of the events..

Equally striking is the existence of a significant percentage of socialist voters (23.5%) who sympathize with the protests, to which we must add the 10.1% who do not speak out.. The followers of Santiago Abascal's party are the most supportive, with 97.6% intense support and zero percent rejection. The leader of the far-right party attended one of the protests in front of the socialist headquarters in Madrid and his party has refused to condemn the violent incidents. Yes, the PP has done it, whose voters sympathize 71.9% with these marches. In the case of the popular ones, there are almost ten percent who do not agree with demonstrating in front of the socialist headquarters.. IMOP has not asked about the marches called for this Sunday and next weekend by Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

In terms of political return, the majority of those consulted consider that it is Feijóo's party that benefits the most from this tension (38.5%). It is significant that 20.9% consider that Sánchez is the one who wins with the street protests. For Moncloa, the data can be encouraging given that the sectors that have been rising up against the pact with Junts have not stopped happening.. Judges, prosecutors, state lawyers, businessmen, diplomats, civil servants, professors… In politics there are those who maintain that the worse, the better..

Since 1992, Spain has been wondering if a crime can change a society, which answers the question. Not just any crime can do it, but one that meets a series of critical conditions can.. And the disappearance of Miriam, Toñi and Desirée, on the Friday night of November 13, 1992, when they were heading to a party in Picassent, was that unifying factor that changed the rhythm of a country.

It had only been a month since the Seville Expo had closed its doors.. The Alcàsser Crime was, and continues to be, the official crime of Spain. As Eduardo Maura relates, “the year of modernity and diversity ended with Felipe González receiving the girls' families on Christmas Eve”. In his book The 90s. Euphoria and fear in Spanish democratic modernity, explains the dispute between two forces, like a rope competition in which one side seemed to duel against another: modernity and the idea of progress on one side, fear and insecurity in other. In that very theatrical representation, on television, there was also a latent geographical dispute: although not verbalized, it was localized: the fury of Barcelona and Seville, daughters of '92, compared to the unease of Valencia, epicenter of the bad news of the supernova year (as defined by the writer Miqui Otero).

In her book, Maura rescues that episode in which one of the people appearing at the trial, Enrique Anglès – Antonio's brother – receives a reprimand from the judge when he confirms that he had given one version in court and in a television program, another.. “That's TV and this is a trial,” the accused replied with a revealing depth charge.. The staging of misery and base passions was “the loss of innocence” of an entire nation. A broken innocence, Maura writes, that spread “throughout the social and economic geography of the country.”. It can be found in the economic crisis, in the reopening of the Marey case, in the Amedo and GAL cases or in the Balkan War, but above all in two fundamental episodes: the torture, murder and rape of the Alcàsser girls and the controversy on the Bakalao Route”. Both, in the same coordinates.

In Maura's version, both episodes are a good example that between reality and fiction there are fewer meters of separation than we intuited.. “They represented and erected something that is part of what we were being and doing (…) The word that best allows this complex of representation is insecurity. In 1992, Spain is an insecure country in which the most important thing is to manage fragility.”.

In this context, the Bakalao Route, identified as a source of conflict and origin of the threat, is added as a key layer of that fragile state. The Canal + documentary in July 1993, in which Carlos Francino gives voice to many of its protagonists, ends up being the finishing touch. “Let them leave us alone. They oppress us too much,” Maura rescues about the testimonies of that program. “During the week I do what I have to. The weekend is mine and I want to spend it with people who give me good vibes,” is heard. Evasion against widespread dissatisfaction.

“With respect to the images produced by Who Knows Where, the route – says Maura – shows another type of attention to loss.. More than losing something very dear, what is at stake is losing one's own life, losing what makes it worth living.. With this a peculiar game of mirrors is operated: Spain searches for itself with Lobatón at the same time that the lost children strive to build common languages beyond the erosion of the reasons for living and the monotony of the week (…) I “I was twelve years old, I had never seen a disco in my life and I didn't realize it then, but now I see those people and I understand that they were shouting: but don't you see that young people don't fit in your Spain of the future!”.

If it were necessary to confine these two sides in geographical areas, it would be clear that the official story of the Spain of the future was dominated by Barcelona and Seville – and by Madrid, by administrative induction -, while Valencia was like those young people feeling out of place..

Obviously all this tension between reality and representation had consequences. We had to see them a few years later. But a territorial grievance had already ignited. It had nothing to do with identity issues, but with a failed fit in the model: the feeling of being left out of the party..

The former leader of Unió Valenciana – later a member of the local PP, after the phagoticization of the regionalist party – showed with tremendous crudeness the feeling with which his party took advantage of that time. He said in 2007: “I remember until the end of the nineties a Community that was self-conscious wherever I looked: everything important always happened far from Valencia (Seville Expo, Barcelona Olympics, etc.) (…) Then we considered our neighbors better and more prepared than us and the most serious thing is that we had arguments for this derived from historical apathy and from some short-sighted and accommodating politicians, without strength in the decision-making centers. Today, after twelve years of government by the Popular Party, we are the envied ones, we have become a reference for the rest of Spain, and in Europe they know of our good work throughout the global village.”.

Also from football – the usual Canarian in the mine of society – the then boss of Valencia, Paco Roig, traced the growing form of the grievance: “In Valencia they have not built the highway for us, they have not helped us expand the Mestalla field, They don't give us Olympic Games.. Someone should say about the anthem, Valencians en peu alcem-se: here everyone stays seated and whoever gets up they cut their throat,” he responded in 1997 in a legendary interview with the newspaper Levante..

It was the hangover from a party in which Spain had rehearsed its modernity. A rave to which, unusually, Valencia had not been invited. On the contrary, it was the one identified as the origin of fear and dissatisfaction. The years of grievance began.

The Canary Islands have registered the arrival of more than 1,500 migrants in an irregular situation in one week and have already reached the figure of more than 32,200 entries in 2023. The latest entries occurred this past Thursday, when a cayuco arrived at the port of La Restinga, in El Pinar (El Hierro), with 80 migrants on board and one person deceased, according to sources from 112 Canarias..

This boat was located in the south of the island by a Civil Guard patrol boat and the migrants have been treated at the dock by members of the Canary Islands Emergency Service and the Red Cross.. Likewise, on November 7, two cayucos arrived at the Canary Islands. The first, with 35 migrants, arrived in the waters south of Tenerife, while the second, with 49, required to be transferred to the island hospital..

However, the largest entry of migrants to the Canary Islands in recent days occurred last weekend, when 739 people arrived in El Hierro during the early hours of Saturday aboard four cayucos, including four dead.. In addition, twelve were transferred to the island's hospital, according to 112 Canarias..

Late on Saturday, Salvamento Marítimo rescued a canoe with 106 sub-Saharan migrants when it was sailing about nine miles from Gran Canaria, as reported by Salvamento Marítimo. The health device, made up of the Red Cross and the Canary Islands Emergency Service (SUC), assisted the occupants and, as reported, it was necessary to transfer three people to health centers for different pathologies..

On the other hand, on Friday, November 3, 188 migrants arrived in two irregular boats to the islands of Gran Canaria and El Hierro.. Thirteen people had to be transferred to various hospitals for different pathologies.. Subsequently, 70 arrived on a new boat to El Hierro and two of them had to be transferred to the hospital due to moderate dehydration..

Furthermore, on the same day, Salvamento Marítimo intercepted a new irregular vessel with 13 sub-Saharan men when they were sailing about six miles from Punta Rasca (Tenerife)..

Finally, last Thursday, 138 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands at the port of Los Cristianos, in the south of Tenerife, and 49 at La Restinga, in El Hierro.. Maritime Rescue also rescued a boat with 34 Maghreb migrants when they were sailing about 13 miles south of the island of Gran Canaria.

Exceeds 2006 figures

This year, the Canary Islands has already surpassed the number of the cayucos crisis, in 2006, when a total of 31,678 people arrived to the Canary archipelago irregularly, since to date it has recorded more than 32,200 arrivals.

According to the balance of the Ministry of the Interior as of October 31, 2023, until that day there were 30,705 migrants who had arrived to the islands, which was 111.2% more than the same figure from the previous year..

In total, 44,404 migrants have arrived in Spain irregularly so far this year, which represents an increase of 57.5% (16,208 more) compared to the same period last year..

Juanma Moreno expressed his capacity for dialogue in the last legislature. With a minority government, depending on the balance of the coalition with Ciudadanos and the support of Vox from outside, the president of Andalusia carried out three budgets in three and a half years. And along the way, he built an image of moderation and spirit that led the Andalusian PP to achieve the best results in its history..

After achieving the absolute majority, he wanted to maintain the formula for success and not fall into the errors of the PSOE. This legislature should be the one “of dialogue”, he repeated again and again during his investiture session, in which he renounced a “roller” that, with the passage of time, is increasingly difficult to avoid. For the second consecutive year, their budgets will have amendments to the entire PSOE, Por Andalucía and Adelante Andalucía, three of the five groups represented in the autonomous chamber. Furthermore, Moreno will have a difficult time gaining the support of Vox, which already voted against last year and with whom the relationship is increasingly tense..

The PP is on track to approve the accounts this week with its large majority, 58 of the 109 deputies, despite repeated attempts to convey an image of consensus. The popular group has Moreno's order to do everything possible to add the support of the rest of the formations. In addition, the president himself maintains initiatives to foster understanding with the opposition, such as the round of contacts he carries out with the leaders of the groups at the beginning of the political year.. In September, he proposed a great agreement to demand recognition of the uniqueness of Andalusia in Brussels, although without success..

However, the opposition denounces a change in attitude since Moreno has established himself in the absolute majority.. From the PSOE they give the processing of budgets as an example: if last year the Minister of Finance spent two hours explaining the bill in detail, this year “there has been no dialogue”. According to what they point out, it was “15 minutes” in which the technicians handed them the documents without going into depth or seeking “consensus.”. “Deep down they don't want to agree on anything,” say sources from the socialist group, which has been promoting a general debate for months on the state of Andalusian healthcare without finding support from the PP..

Furthermore, the lack of understanding with its natural partner, Vox, is increasingly notable.. If after the departure of Macarena Olona, those from Abascal were looking for their place, the last electoral cycle has ended up throwing them off.. Moreno was the first popular baron to blame them for the failure in the national elections, in a speech in the regional Parliament in which he accused them of mobilizing the vote of the left by questioning the rights of homosexual people or “setting fire to” Catalonia.. After the summer, the start of negotiations with the Government of Spain to unblock the Doñana conflict would mean the definitive distancing: the PP abandoned the irrigation law that it had processed together with Vox despite receiving criticism for its processing even from the European Union.

For some time now, the right-wing parties in Andalusia have not agreed even on the amnesty. Vox intends to promote a general debate, of a monographic nature, on the grace measure, although it does not achieve the support of the PP, without which the session cannot go ahead.. Popular sources criticize the ways of Abascal's team, who have not spoken with them before presenting the proposal, and clarify that the times of each match are different. “If at some point we want to propose it, we will propose it,” they admit privately..

The debate on the entire Budget Bill will be held in the Plenary Session of Parliament next Thursday. This Friday, before presenting its amendments to the entirety, the PSOE described the accounts as “unfair, false and wasteful” and denounced the “creative accounting” of the autonomous government by including 1,656 investments from the Government of Spain and 700 from the EU that did not have been executed this year. For Andalusia, he defined them as a “fraud” and also pointed out the lack of budget execution and Adelante Andalucía believes that “they keep Andalusia in dependence and on the periphery.”. For its part, Vox called on the president of the Board to “choose” between “the arrogance and the roller of its absolute majority”, or “the outstretched hand of Vox” during the processing, in which this formation plans to present partial amendments. In all likelihood, the PP will have to remain alone in its absolute majority.

With this temperature in the streets, we are too close to a disaster occurring. It is likely that the riots have not peaked yet, that they will continue into the next week and that a fatal event may occur.. Here we are playing with fire and there is a great need to reclaim serenity.

The necessary conditions are in place for the strong episode of unrest that we are going through.. The deception is evident because the truth was stolen from the Spanish people during the electoral campaign. The seriousness of the situation is obvious because those who plan to destroy our democracy never dreamed of having as much power as they now enjoy.. And the consequences will be severe because the Socialist Party has made a historic mistake that could put the country in which we grew up at existential risk..

Add to the above the frustration experienced by the conservative electorate after the result in the last general elections.. Add the competition between the PP and Vox for the cultural hegemony of the right. Incorporate an objective fact: images of violence do not harm Sánchez, they benefit him. And add the most important thing: the objective of preventing alternation in power. Faced with a landscape like this, there is no one who can argue that social protest is controlled. Right now it's out of control.

Those who feel loaded with reasons to express their discomfort would do well to combine their response from intelligence and not from blindness.. And that means always keeping in mind that the difference between democrats and non-democrats is resolved in respect for democratic values and principles..

Democracy does not function only as a game of balance between powers, it is also a space in which perimeters matter and must always be respected.. In civilized countries, Parliaments are not surrounded, party headquarters are not besieged and citizens' representatives are neither singled out, threatened, nor attacked..

These practices, which have revolutionary resonances, are simply incompatible with democratic and, therefore, patriotic behavior.. And, it should go without saying, they directly leave without reason anyone who might have had it before..

It took us a lot to achieve a society in which politicians could walk down the street without an escort.. It would be nice if any of the current ones could walk this weekend without having the fear they have now.. And it would also be desirable that we never see riot police vans at the doors of any party headquarters..

It is not easy to combine political unrest on the streets in an intelligent and responsible way, but it is essential in circumstances as painful as the current ones.. We must draw on the civic maturity that we must transmit to our children so that democracy can prevail.

One must never forget what the political subject of democracy is, because that is precisely where its strength lies: it is not the people, it is not any group, it is the individual.. The masses depersonalize us, alter our chemistry, make our reasoning difficult.. We must not allow it if we want to be free. Getting carried away by rioters, in song or action, is tantamount to personal defeat.. Individual judgment must be kept safe at all times, always.

The above requires separating ourselves and those who seek violence, or display symbols that do not belong to everyone, or proclaim frenzy.. But also, do not allow yourself to be exploited by those who make the discomfort of many their own political business..

The current mobilizations are not the property of anyone, much less Vox, which is looking for a branch in current emotions to grab in its fall.. I will never get tired of repeating that if we are where we are it is because Abascal decided to campaign against Feijóo instead of against Sánchez.

In the same way, it can be taken for granted that Sánchez will never tire of watching over Vox. They need each other. I don't know if one day right-wing voters will be able to internalize that there is only one way to oust Sánchez: an absolute majority of the PP. There are no more options.

Civic maturity demands exemplarity and intelligence. Know that police repression is not always graded based on objective criteria. And assume that political power will always look for a way to reduce the dimension of the contestation, to caricature it and, as far as possible, to apply the infallible noun: “radicals”. That is the word that all the powerful use to delegitimize all those who protest. Behind it, different adjectives are already hanging (here: “extreme right”, “nostalgic for Franco's regime”…).

Are those who are mobilizing these days radicals? The vast majority does not seem like it. However, it is clear that the violent minority is better organized, and that allows it to package the entire group in the communicative framework it needs to victimize itself, legitimize itself, and apply the smokescreen it is applying to hide its submission to Puigdemont. and company.

In the thermometer of citizen response, the degrees are not rising in a regular and predictable way. The history of social movements shows that ascent works in three phases: first there is a long period of accumulation, then the critical ignition temperature is reached and then combustion spreads rapidly throughout the stored combustible substance.. Now we are practically between the second and third point.

All it takes is a bad wind of chance for anyone to end up burned.. That is why I consider that today it is not enough to call for serenity and maturity. At this point I want to specify that the polarizing agents are the intellectual authors of any calamity that may occur during the next few days.. No social combustion is spontaneous. All this impounded fuel is the result of a long poisoning process that will take us a long time to overcome. We will do it, it won't be easy. But if we hold on to democracy, we will overcome it. Freedom, without anger. Without anger, freedom.

A little over a decade ago, austerity policies and the feeling of lack of an economic future led to the outbreak of a left-wing insurgency. A part of this felt that the institutions had failed them, that they had cheated and that it was necessary to show indignation towards them in the street and with a certain degree of aggressiveness.. From there emerged, in 2011, the 15-M and, in 2012, Surround the Congress. From there, clashes and routine confrontations between the police and protesters arose.. From there arose the feeling that some conflicts could not be resolved within the institutions because they were blocked.. It was a cycle that lasted until the 2015 elections..

Today, a part of the right wants to become a similar insurgency. He believes that the amnesty is a humiliation for the State and the Spanish people, he believes that it will overcome all procedural obstacles (Cortes, Constitutional), he believes that this will be a demonstration of the limits of institutional politics and he believes that all of this will show the systemic failure of Spanish democracy. And it will be proof that perhaps the Constitution was not so well thought out: if treason can be constitutional, he will point out, what does that say about our legal framework? Consequently, that part of the right will consider the street a legitimate resource not only to express its opposition to the amnesty and the subsequent left-wing Government, but also to make up for the inability of the institutions.. The protests of recent days in front of PSOE headquarters, and even around Congress, are just a sample and, surely, only the beginning.

Capture a movement

Whenever a movement of this type breaks out, political parties try to turn it into an electoral platform.. After 15-M, UPyD tried to take it over and failed; Izquierda Unida hesitated and missed the opportunity; Finally, Podemos turned it into its origin myth. The PP has already given up taking over the most aggressive part of the movement against the amnesty. It is an obvious decision: the PP cannot have a relationship with protests in which individuals shout against the head of state or the police as left-wing radicals did 10 or 12 years ago.. And these demonstrations with calls for insurrection clash with the political culture of the Spanish right-wing establishment: since when do liberals and conservatives intend to win in the streets what they lose in the State's institutions?

But there is a part of the right that seems destined to try to take advantage of this movement or even lead it: Vox and its powerful media environment. Since 2017, the moment in which Santiago Abascal explicitly stated that Vox was the “alternative right”, it has experienced a profound dilemma: does it want to be a conservative, law and order party, framed within the liberal tradition, or a anti-establishment party whose goal is to disrupt the system through anti-elite theories and calls for insurrection? That dilemma has been the source of almost all the ideological swings that have occurred since then.. But after his mediocre results in the elections last July and the disappearance of the possibility of joining a government coalition with the PP, he seems to have made up his mind: he has renounced his traditional conservative soul — that is why he got rid of Iván Espinosa de los Monteros —and he has given himself over to the anti-establishment discourse—which is why he has given more power to Jorge Buxadé—. In part, because it wants to differentiate itself more from the PP. In part, because he must try new things to see if he can stop or reverse his sustained electoral decline.. Given his statements since the beginning of this movement that wants to channel irritation against the left through provocative street and media tactics, it is likely that he has made the strategic decision to be the institutional face, and only slightly moderator, of the right-wing 15-M.

If that is so, it will expose our politics to immense risks. But also striking paradoxes. The left will adopt an institutional discourse according to which politics is made in Congress, and not in the streets. This right that Vox will try to ride will claim the street as a source of legitimate power. The left will demand respect for the forces and security bodies of the State. This right will denounce his violent abuses. The left that will grant an amnesty to those accused of street riots will affirm that the law must fall with all its weight on those who now provoke altercations. This right will affirm that decisions by the Executive should not be followed when they are manifestly unjust. The left will demand order. This right, insurrection.

All of this responds to the peculiar political circumstances of our country.. But he also has underlying reasons that go beyond him.. Those who, in much of Europe and the United States, took to the streets 12 years ago were leftists who later—like 15-M through Podemos, Occupy Wall Street with Bernie Sanders, Syriza in Greece or Jeremy Corbyn's Labor in the United Kingdom— They decided to operate within the institutions. Today, the real insurgents are the new anti-establishment right, who seem to have followed the opposite path: first, they entered the institutions; Now, they rely on street movements – such as the yellow vests in France, the Querdenken in Germany or, in the extreme and different case of the United States, the Capitol attackers – to carry out massive agitation..

Since 2011, we have seen many things in Spain. A right-wing 15-M was one of the few that we were missing. But everything indicates that we already have it here.

A judicial setback for Isabel Díaz Ayuso that also represents a defeat before the Government of Pedro Sánchez. The protection that the Constitutional Court gave to the tax on large fortunes that the Government approved last year has forced the popular leader to recover the wealth tax, one of the taxes that are the paradigm of the fiscal policy defended by the president of the Community of Madrid. So much so that Galicia and Andalusia, two communities in the hands of the PP, followed the steps inaugurated by Esperanza Aguirre two decades ago.. From the Ministry of Finance, they do not hide their joy at what they consider a “political victory”.

Díaz Ayuso was ahead of Juanma Moreno in the court battle against the tax on the rich, despite the fact that María Jesús Montero announced the creation of this tax after the Andalusian announced his bonus in assets. The tax is designed to collect from fortunes exceeding three million euros. With that objective, it collected 623 million, according to the data that the Ministry of Finance made public last September, with the settlement of a tax that is intended to be made permanent, as established by the agreement between the PSOE and Sumar to form a new Government.. Most of this collection occurred in the Community of Madrid and, to a lesser extent, in Andalusia and Galicia..

On Tuesday, in the Senate, Montero criticized Díaz Ayuso for now trying to manage something that he had “demonized”. According to the popular leader, it had a confiscatory objective and also invaded the powers of the autonomous communities.. The latter is relevant, since the argument used by the Madrid Government is that the new rate overlapped with the wealth tax, transferred to the autonomous communities.. This transfer is precisely what allowed the Executive of the Community of Madrid to bonus it to 99%, that is, eliminate it de facto. That is why it was striking that Díaz Ayuso, after the setback of the Constitutional Court, announced that he intended to demand the management that he had previously criticized..

The obstacle for Díaz Ayuso's plans is that the new tax is state and the Government of Pedro Sánchez has no intention of transferring it to the communities of the common regime. Euskadi, which has its own tax regime, like Navarra, demanded its management at the beginning, but the idea has been frozen. This blockade only left one way out for the Madrid president and she revealed it on Wednesday in the Assembly. His intention is to reactivate the wealth tax whose elimination he was calling for, which the Ministry of Finance and Public Function considers a “success from a political point of view” after the offensive of the popular baroness through the Constitutional Court.

But the celebration in the department of Montero does not stop there, since they defend the “technical success” that the failure of the Community of Madrid's appeal represents.. Those responsible for preparing the tribute had to work hard to avoid this overlap with heritage, something they have achieved with their victory in the TC. “And it is also a success in the sense of fiscal avant-garde at an international level,” they explain from the Treasury, despite the fact that the income has remained at 58% of the initial forecast, estimated at 1,500 million euros.. In total, 12,000 taxpayers (0.1% of the total) paid the tax with an average fee of 53,000 euros.

The fight with Sánchez

The so-called tax on the rich is one of the main fronts between the Community of Madrid and the Government of Pedro Sánchez. In addition to the judicial battle, Díaz Ayuso promoted a tax deduction for investors from abroad, of up to 20% of the amount disbursed in personal income tax, conceived as a “counterweight” to the tax promoted by the Government.

The starting point is now similar. The law announced by the popular president, which will be registered in the Assembly in the coming weeks, aims to collect again from the large assets registered in the Community of Madrid and then revert it to the taxpayer in new tax reductions, although the regional Executive has not detailed even if there will be any measure in that sense, apart from those already presented.

Ayuso's plan involves reactivating the regional tax for assets exceeding three million euros, the same limit established by the state standard.. That is, in no case does it free the taxpayer from that payment, but it simply goes to the coffers of the Community of Madrid and not the State.. “We are not going to stand still,” said the regional president herself this Tuesday, after announcing the measure. The question now is to specify how it intends to reverse the tax increase that, de facto, will occur when the patrimony tax is reactivated..

In Sol, they have been focused on torpedoing the tax for months. The Community of Madrid considers that this and other Pedro Sánchez policies are a threat to growth and job creation. According to calculations by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, headed by Rocío Albert, they estimate that it would have a negative impact on investment of up to 1.2 billion euros. If they recover it now, it is because they assure that 90% of what is collected is done in the Community of Madrid and, therefore, it is preferable to manage it directly and then be able to return it, although that idea has remained in the air and represents a step backwards with respect to to the commitment to suspend assets that he defended until now.

Hours before closing an agreement with Junts, once it finally seemed to Carles Puigdemont that the text of the amnesty law accommodates his claims, the socialist leadership did not make any dent in Felipe González's suggestion that the best political exit is a new electoral call. Ferraz reminded him that “the elections have already been held” and that the PSOE “is going to create the Government that the Spaniards asked for” on June 23. “Progressive and reflection of a plural Spain”, they emphasize.

The former president of the Government, totally opposed to the amnesty, maintains, in statements through his foundation, that “I really tell all citizens, starting with my colleagues, that it is not worth it”. The solution he proposes is “to go and win the elections, if they are repeated”. “Changes in the party's position are not justified”. Unlike Pedro Sánchez, who bases the results of the elections on the need to make “necessity a virtue” and give in to this claim of the independence movement, González rejects that the “seven votes for an investiture” deserve the approval of this law..

His criticism of many of Sánchez's decisions has been so frequent that the former socialist leader has lost popularity in his own party, which increasingly takes his opinions into account.. The process of detachment with González is very similar to that which a very relevant part of the PP had with José María Aznar due to his permanent public opposition to Mariano Rajoy's management.. Like Aznar, the former socialist president also intends to make himself heard.

Socialist sources maintain that “he does not forgive Pedro for winning against Susana [Díaz] and for not calling him to consult him”. The relationship between them is bad, despite the fact that there have been several attempts at rapprochement.. Although not everyone in the PSOE censures his attitude. González was the one who opened the ban against the amnesty, but other leaders such as Alfonso Guerra, Joaquín Almunia, Ramón Jáuregui and Elena Valenciano have followed him.. “He only says what he thinks he should say to the Spanish. As he has always done”, highlight those who defend his intervention. “He feels under that obligation and his explanation is brilliant,” they add..

González also contradicts the reading that leads Sánchez to maintain that there is a mandate from 23-J. He believes that the Spanish have not voted for the continuity of the blocs, but rather, by casting two out of every three votes on the PP and PSOE ballots, what they are demanding is a “space of centrality” that puts an end to political polarization. Despite not being in line with Ferraz's speech, the former socialist leader assures that he “defends the party's positions”. “It bothers me that my colleagues consider that I do not support the party,” he says.. But “supporting a party is not supporting what is decided one day or another”. “I say what I think and I think what I say,” he highlights.

However, the organization was surprised that he made these new statements just after the members had spoken.. Sánchez decided to ask the bases for endorsement of the negotiations he maintains with Junts with a consultation, which was initially only going to ask about the government agreement with Sumar. The general secretary of the PSOE achieved very broad support, 87%. Socialist sources pointed out that, “just after the militancy vote”, the former president's demonstrations “are not without their merit.”.

“It's the same thing that Feijóo says”

The affection that González is not given in the PSOE is granted in the PP. Your words are not only shared, they are also celebrated. At a time of maximum political tension, and with the country divided by the agreement between Sánchez and Puigdemont, in Genoa they understand that all voices opposed to the amnesty are “more necessary than ever”. And even more so that of the former president of the Government, whom Feijóo described at the time as “the most important figure of the PSOE”. “I know that his only interest is for Spain to do well.”. “He has no other,” said the popular leader himself in an interview with El Confidencial..

“It's brutal,” summarize several well-positioned sources in the party.. But that joy is mixed, in part, with resignation. Nobody in the PP believes that Felipe González's reflections are going to have any effect, at least not a “determinant” one.. “Sanchismo has no conscience or conscience. They are just greedy for power,” they add.. It is already common in Genoa to use Felipe González as a disruptive example within the socialist ranks to oppose, from within, the investiture pact with Sánchez. And on this occasion, the PP leadership subscribes point by point to the position of the former PSOE leader.. “It is the same thing that Feijóo says,” they add..

Not in vain, one of the mantras most repeated by Feijóo in recent weeks is to request a repeat election – which would be held on January 14 – so that Sánchez puts himself in the mirror of the citizens before approving the decriminalization of the process.. They also understand that the amnesty and the deal with the independence movement will deal a blow “of no return” to both the division of powers and equality among Spaniards: “We are not talking about coexistence, but about convenience.”.

But, beyond the desire of González or Feijóo, nothing points to new elections. After the protests in front of the socialist headquarters in recent days, organized and instrumentalized by far-right groups, Sánchez indicated this Monday that they demonstrate the need for the investiture pact to go ahead and for there to be a new Government led by the PSOE.

The CUP has prepared a bear trap in the Parliament of Catalonia. For bears who are traitors to independence, specifically. While ERC and JxCAT negotiate the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and assure that the result will bring Catalonia closer to independence, the parliamentary group headed by Carles Riera defends that this is false. And to demonstrate it, he has presented a motion to the plenary session of the Catalan Chamber to promote a referendum law, which will be debated tomorrow, Thursday.. The maneuver is seen from afar and both ERC and JxCAT are already studying how to avoid this vote, at a time when something like this could derail the talks with the acting Government, in a very delicate phase..

Sources from ERC and JxCAT did not want to reveal the meaning of their vote, when the motion will be submitted to the plenary session of the Parliament.. But both groups explain that they are studying ways to avoid this plot by anti-capitalists.. The formula that is being considered at this moment is that each party or both of them as a bloc abstain, in such a way that the initiative declines with the lowest political cost for the sovereigntist forces..

The referendum has emerged as an object of negotiation. The investiture depends on the amnesty, not on the consultation, placed as a long-term wish. “The need for the agreements reached as a political result of the dialogue to be endorsed by citizens, which will allow a pending issue to be closed, contribute to meeting a broad, solid and transversal demand maintained over time and favor a consensus on the future of Catalonia”, points out the agreement between ERC and the PSOE, which has been made public. It is the only official reference to a consultation in the investiture pacts.

The CUP proposes to launch a presentation drafting a referendum law in which the door is left open to unilateralism. According to Carlos Carrizosa, from Cs, it once again exceeds the limits of the Constitution, which is why, in the opinion of the orange party, the Table should not admit this motion for processing..

For the anti-capitalist formation, the motion is proof that the pact that JxCAT and ERC are negotiating with the PSOE implies the renunciation of independence. The CUP considers that this presentation will be “the basic proof of this dejudicialization that is talked about so much in favor of political dialogue”, an expression that has been used on numerous occasions from the socialist ranks.. “The time has come to do the pertinent check,” they say..

Cornered by his speech

Cornered by their speech for years, ERC and JxCAT find themselves in a bind. Their voters would expect them to vote for the initiative. The political pragmatism of the investiture pact, the priority would be to agree on an amnesty. It already happened at the end of September, when a proposed resolution was voted on after the general policy debate that conditioned support for Sánchez on the holding of a referendum..

That decision outraged Salvador Illa and at the time the leader of the PSC already warned that attitudes like that could ruin the negotiation for Pedro Sánchez to renew his position.. And, if there is no investiture, there will be no amnesty law, there will be no transfer of Cercanías, or anything that the independence movement is obtaining these days.

Maximum discomfort

The discomfort is so much that ERC and JxCAT are wondering if it would not be worth burying the initiative in the Parliament's Table, which meets this Wednesday. That would mean accepting the reconsideration proposal that Cs has presented, like in the old days of 2017. And it would also compromise the role of the new president of the Parliament, Anna Erra. The resolution of the motion passes from one to another, aware that the important thing is not to have it in your hand when the music ends.

One way out would be to not make any decision and send the motion to the Constitutional Court so that it can decide whether you can vote or not.. Which would distance the initiative from this Thursday's plenary session and from the investiture negotiation period.. The question is no longer not to vote, but to avoid the bear trap.

The Provincial Court of A Coruña has rejected the request for a reduction in sentence presented by the defense of a man sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting his son. According to the court's opinion, the new legislation known as the 'only yes' law does not favor the accused, since it imposes more rigorous sanctions for crimes of this nature..

This ruling, recently released by the Superior Court of Xustiza of Galicia (TSXG), indicates that the current legal reform entails harsher penalties for cases such as that of the convicted person, involved in a continuous sexual assault.. Additionally, the court stressed that the defendant's defense strategy, based on a reinterpretation of the proven facts, is not applicable or appropriate in this context..

Refusal to modify the sentence

As a result, the sentence of 15 years of imprisonment is confirmed and he is deprived of the right to exercise parental authority, guardianship, conservatorship, custody or foster care over his three children.. This verdict underlines the firmness of justice in the face of crimes of sexual assault, especially in cases involving minors..

Over the course of the current year, the court in A Coruña has processed 54 requests to review sentences based on the application of the aforementioned law.. Of these, 37 requests were rejected and only on 17 occasions was the requested review granted, demonstrating the rigor with which this new regulation is applied in cases of sexual assault..