• General elections in Spain 2023: latest news, live
• Differences between blank vote and null vote in the general elections of July 23
• What exactly is the useful vote and what is it for? This is what you should know about the electoral system in Spain

The countdown has begun for the general elections this Sunday, July 23. The appointment of the polls with the citizens is already just around the corner, although a series of conditions must be taken into account in order to exercise our right to vote. It is estimated that almost 40 million Spaniards will come to deposit their ballots in this call.

The National Identity Document is used as an accrediting element that verifies that the vote corresponds to the person who deposits it. It is required in its electronic version for the request and the completion of the vote-by-mail process, but also at the assigned polling station in person.

In principle, there should be no problem presenting this expired document because it would continue to serve to facilitate identification. However, participation in the elections could be restricted if there is no official certification that verifies who is the person who is going to the polls.. In no case can a photocopy be considered valid..

Other options to vote on 23-J

If the DNI has been lost, there are other equally valid alternatives to be able to vote. The passport, residence card or driving license are certified documents that also allow the procedure to be carried out. Even after they have expired, their validity remains as long as an image of ours that clearly distinguishes us appears on them.

To vote by mail, the same requirements must be accredited, with the exception that someone other than you can deliver the envelope with your vote at the Post Office. If you need someone to send it in your place, you will only have to fill out an authorization so that the process can be carried out.

Although all official documents can be delivered even when they have expired and are valid in all the Autonomous Communities, whenever possible it is recommended to bring one that is up to date to avoid confusion and problems at the polling stations.

The United States ambassador to Spain, Julissa Reynoso, has asked the American singer Bruce Springsteen to perform in a small town in Guadalajara called Peralejos de las Truchas, who named the Boss his adoptive son.. In a video message broadcast from the official account of the US Embassy, Reynoso asks Springsteen if he has plans for October because he invites him to come to the town of Guadalajara, with 149 registered inhabitants..

“Hello, Bruce! I'm Julissa Reynoso, your ambassador in Spain. I was wondering: What are you going to do in October? I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse, Mr. Boss.. The beautiful town of Peralejos de las Truchas, here in Spain, awaits you,” the diplomat began in her message.

And he adds: “Did you know that you are his adopted son? They have even made a music festival in your honor! From an American from New York to another great American from New Jersey, from a small boss to the big Boss: Come to Peralejos de las Truchas “.

Hey @springsteen! Do you have plans for October?
Ambassador Julissa Reynoso has a message for you. 😉

Come to Peralejos de las Truchas, in Spain! #VenAPeralejos ❤️#PleaseBoss 🙏@GPeralejos #GreatingsFromPeralejos #LasBurbutrizes #TheTajoRiver https://t.co/Zzwq5PYQBi pic.twitter.com/ZSpod4js35

— US Embassy Madrid 🇺🇸🇪🇸 (@USembassyMadrid) July 20, 2023

Finally, the ambassador thanks “the people of Peralejos de las Truchas for showing so much love for American culture and the music of the great Bruce Springsteen.”. “We are going to see if we can convince him to come to Spain, please, Boss,” concludes Julissa Reynoso, who has been in charge of the US embassy in Spain since January 2022..

Alberto Núñez Feijóo arrives at the day of reflection exhausted. The electoral call was so sudden that there was no time to rest after the 28-M race. It has spent over 100 days on the road. Thousands and thousands of kilometers, dozens of cities, towns, gas stations, airports, bars. Now there are just over 24 hours left to know the outcome. Although an absolute majority was fantasized, that scenario is more than ruled out in Genoa. But the objective is still to cross the border of seats necessary to achieve “a Government of one piece.” No wallets for Vox. With the polls about to open, the PP signs a result that is around 155 deputies. To a twenty of the absolute. Enough, they say, to avoid the coalition.

If that forecast comes true, Feijóo would call the PSOE in the first place, “even if it bothers Vox”. But hope that the interlocutor is not Pedro Sánchez. With him, they say in Genoa, it would be impossible to negotiate. even less to agree. In the last days of the campaign, the leadership of the PP has added fuel to the thesis of an eventual replacement of the socialist candidate. In this case, they appeal to the baronies to move Sánchez's chair if he chooses to resist. The latest published polls suggest that the chief executive will lose the elections, but not too many seats will be left along the way. The night could end, according to the poll, in the environment of 110 seats. Only ten below his 2019 result.

In Genoa they also point out that the PSOE will not drop excessively because these elections will feed on the vote located to their left. They believe that Yolanda Díaz does not raise her head and will not even be able to reissue the result of Podemos in the last generals. But they insist on the idea of a mutiny in the ranks of the socialists. “It would be inconceivable that someone who has been president of the Government and loses the elections remains in the opposition,” they urge. They see the continuity of Sánchez as a “risk” for their interests, especially if the party does not find a profile willing to start the mandate with a minimum of four years in the opposition ahead.

During the campaign, Feijóo has left countless messages in this regard. He already made quite a declaration of intent when he announced, during the presentation of the electoral program, that he would call the barons of the PSOE to negotiate an investiture and ask them to put pressure on Sánchez to force an abstention if he refused.. In his interview with El Confidencial, the president of the popular also highlighted the “close friendship” that unites him with various socialist presidents, such as Lambán or Vara. And he assured in El Español that he felt “closer” to leaders like Emiliano García-Page than to Vox.

In the PP he encourages in public and in private the idea of a “re-foundation” of the PSOE after 23-J. A party, they say, that recovers “the sense of State” and prioritizes stability over the blockade, even if it is not the winning force. During the face-to-face on July 10, Feijóo offered Sánchez to sign a document in which both promised to let the one with the most votes govern.. Now point out. “I have made that offer to the Socialist Party, not to Sánchez. I am certain that the PSOE is going to be rebuilt,” he insisted this Friday during the last electoral interview in COPE.

Whatever happens to your left, what the PP is also clear about is that, if a result of more than 150 deputies is confirmed, it would exhaust all avenues before signing an agreement with Santiago Abascal. “Vox is the last option”, they summarize in the party leadership. The a priori insurmountable scenario is that of a failed first inauguration —an absolute majority is required— and then seek the abstention of the groups in the second vote, in which the popular candidate would only need more yeses than noes to assemble a solo minority government..

As published by El Confidencial, Feijóo's intention, in case of victory on 23-J, is to sit down with all the groups that make up the parliamentary arc in search of support. The only exception is Bildu. That would mean that he would attempt an audience with the leaders of pro-independence forces, such as ERC or Junts. The ties with the PNV are closer and he will also seek an abstention from the Basque nationalists. The framework that he will present to the groups is to choose between “Feijóo alone, or with Abascal”. Electoral repetition is not an option. If they deny it an abstention, the PP would have the story that neither the PSOE nor the other parties have left it any other option than the pact with Vox, without closing the door on a two-color government.

They are not even good at capitalizing on events that really mobilize the citizen called to the polls. I am referring to the surprising lack of reaction of the candidates before the sporting feat of the twenty-something tennis player from Murcia, Carlos Alcaraz (Wimbledon, Sunday July 16), in the middle of an unsportsmanlike sack race whose outcome we will know after tomorrow night's count.

The overwhelming triumph of Carlitos in London enclosed (encloses) the jubilant proposal of Spain proud of having met. It went practically unnoticed by the campaign teams, probably because it caught them busy exploring new ways of stoning the adversary with yellowing photos, extemporaneous anti-Franco alerts, alleged conspiracies to alter remote voting to the detriment of the candidate and lying twinnings rhymed with a renowned assassin to the detriment of the incumbent..

The brand new winner of the Wimbledon tournament has campaigned for the daily Spain of millions of voters hungry for stability and aversion to fights. From which it can be deduced that the massive applause for the new world tennis star has dwarfed a political class entangled in gesticulating contests on the art of lying, the different versions of feminism, Sánchez's “falcon” or Yolanda's iron.

The already great Carlos Alcaraz rescued us from all that pond for a few days, as an athlete and as a person, as elegant in victory as elegant in some previous defeats. Few, it's true, that's why it's number one in the world.

It seems unbelievable that the gurus of Pedro Sánchez and Núñez Feijóo missed the opportunity to join —interestingly, of course— in the recovery of sensations experienced in the prodigious decade; the one that dazzled in various sports worldwide and from which we still have the unforgettable border of names like Andrés Iniesta, Fernando Alonso, Rafa Nadal, Pau Gasol, Alberto Contador, Carolina Marín, etc..

The Murcian Alcaraz is the sample button of the generation that as a child was dazzled by the aforementioned and now can be the pioneer of a new wave of winners. Who did see it was the King. The image of Felipe VI, a visible figure of Spain that survives the cycle changes in national politics, was associated with the rush of everyday Spain through the graphic impact of his embrace with the tennis player at the end of the match..

It happened in London on the eve of a general election, while the millions of Spaniards who turned their votes into seats on Sunday vibrated with the victory of Carlos Alcaraz over Novak Djokovic.

In a time of reflection, the official time of the campaign having expired, it is time to dabble in the political-media pools that feed on expectations and sensations, inevitably interested on both sides of the wall.. I mean expectations and sensations and not proposals contained in programs that nobody reads.

The last scoring installment was the “three” debate televised last Wednesday night. wet gunpowder. We knew in advance that the three (Sánchez, Yolanda, Abascal) were losing. What we didn't know is that they were so boring. Even the dangerous far-right Santiago Abascal was unexpectedly temperate. “More than fear, it was a pain,” wrote Soto Ivars, who is a virtuoso of literary orality.

Pedro Sánchez has had to deal in recent hours with his statement that the Government did not want to return to the toll motorways, although it had sent the proposal to the EU. The controversy lasts for more than a week and has surprisingly had a notable Catalan role. The PSOE has an unexpected ally: JxCAT.

All the leaders of JxCAT, as soon as they saw that the issue was radioactive in electoral terms, have chosen to keep quiet.. A thick veil has been spread. But there it is on page 47, point VI of the electoral program: “Implementation of the pay-per-use system on all roads, a new intelligent and socially and environmentally sustainable mobility system, based on a European Directive and on the principle of whoever uses and pollutes, pays. This system should serve to avoid grievances. Additionally, the resources obtained must be able to be managed by the Generalitat and be allocated to the maintenance of the entire Catalan road network”.

The PP assures that it is against returning to tolls. The PSOE, which has rectified, is negotiating with Brussels to remove this condition for European funds. ERC has always opposed it and at the time it was at the origin of the protests against the No vull pay tolls in 2012. But there is a party that now does defend the tolls. It's JxCAT. He has left it in writing. And he has not commented on it at any rally.

And that the scandal began in Catalonia. It was the general director of Traffic, Pere Navarro, who confessed on TV3 that the initiative was underway despite what Pedro Sánchez had assured in the debate with Alberto Núñez Feijóo. When the PP detected the declaration, the Government forced Navarro to rectify. And then, when the documentation appeared in Brussels, it was accepted that the position had been changed.

JxCAT not only wants to impose tolls “on all roads”. It also demands in its electoral program “assuming ownership of the road network that is currently managed by the Spanish State and that presents a great variety of types and forms of management (with or without tolls, concessioned or directly managed, with annual or multi-year maintenance contracts)”.

The end of tolls

All the parties flagged the end of the tolls, although the end was because the concession ended. In practice, it has been a disaster. A key infrastructure that crosses Catalonia from north to south, the AP-7, has become a kind of giant bike lane since it was built. Traffic jams are the common currency.

And that without talking about the dead. According to the Servei Català de Trànsit, the number of fatalities has been reduced by 56% on the AP-7, with seven deaths registered in the first six months of this year compared to the same period of the previous year. Despite the decline, it is still the road with the most fatalities. To reduce the tragic figures of 2022, the Generalitat reduced the speed limit in many sections and what was a highway became a highway.

But there are still tolls in Catalonia. They are licensed by the Generalitat, such as the Túnel del Cadí or the Túneles del Garraf, which connects Barcelona and Sitges, for example. And since it is that administration that receives the benefits, there are no mobilizations in this regard. As in the case of JxCAT and its electoral program, when Madrid cannot be blamed, the issue is not discussed.

These are times of possible political change and therefore of reflection on the most advisable changes in our tax system. It is not the objective of this brief article to go into detail about the feasible modifications, but to identify three important areas for improvement.

One: quality and stability

For the higher quality and stability of tax regulations. In the movie Interstellar, the protagonist, after avoiding the loss of his spaceship thanks to a complex maneuver, exclaims: “Okay, for the next trick!”. It is the same feeling of many prosecutors after the approval at the end of last year of Law 38/2022, of a lamentable technical level, pending the next government nonsense. Tax regulations determine an economic sacrifice for citizens and therefore need special moral, legal and economic foundations..

It should not be possible, therefore, that, as has happened with that law, the public information process is fraudulently stolen from citizens, the reports of expert bodies (such as the Council of State) are blinded, or new taxes are introduced like paratroopers in the process of amendments (this has been done with the solidarity tax of great fortunes)..

In the future, our public decision-makers must, of course, avoid unlawful and uneconomic occurrences.. But in general, they will have to provide the tax system with the greatest transparency and legal certainty, avoiding its continuous changes; facilitating general interpretative provisions of the most difficult regulations; resolving tax inquiries completely, accurately and on time (and with the staff of the General Directorate of Taxes, without “loans” from other institutions); focusing on Prior Valuation Agreements (Advanced Pricing Agreements or APA) for complex operations, agreed between taxpayers and the Administration, subcontracting specialized personnel if necessary; and once and for all developing “cooperative compliance” (relationship between the Tax Administration and large companies in which, in exchange for their greater transparency, the AEAT helps the entity to correctly determine their tax contributions). In general, it is a matter of establishing effectively the preventive actions, which for this will have to be conveniently included in the objective plans of the Tax Administration..

Two: fiscal pressure

Due to the reduction of the fiscal pressure, generating favorable expectations, while moderating public spending. Taxation means a deprivation for citizens and distorts the proper functioning of the economic system. Therefore, given that taxes are essentially an instrument for financing public spending, it is fundamental ab initio that this be the minimum necessary to meet the objectives of providing public services and income redistribution.. Talking about the level of taxation without first proposing a prudent level of public spending is another of the usual “tricks” of certain public powers.

It is surprising to see that Component 29 (“Improving the effectiveness of public spending”) of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan prepared by the Spanish government to receive European funds, does not contain any reference to the moderation of public spending in the future. Hence, it could not be less, Component 28 of the Plan (“Adaptation of the tax system to the reality of the 21st century”) states that our fiscal pressure (ratio between tax and Social Security collection, and GDP) must be equal to that of neighboring countries.

But if in Spain we have lower per capita income and we believe in the progressivity of the tax system, our level of taxation should also be lower for this reason.. In addition, according to the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF), tax pressure has increased significantly in recent years.. Furthermore, the increase in taxes would make us lose international competitiveness (because of the transfer to prices and the lower foreign investment) and would encourage fraud.. The tax reduction that some propose is reasonable, deflating the general income tax rate, to avoid the trap of “cold” progressivity. In 2022, the collection from this tax, the one with the highest collection capacity in our system, increased by 15.8% (almost 15,000 million euros), mechanically due to the salary increase (+2%), even though it was below inflation (+8.4%). Thus, real wages have been reduced (-6.4%, due to the difference between the previous figures, -5.3% according to the OECD), citizens losing purchasing power, and yet the higher nominal wages have determined a higher percentage of tax.

Furthermore, one must be cautious in tax reduction approaches until the level of public spending is subject.. It would be interesting, in terms of public marketing and the generation of favorable expectations, to issue signals representative of that philosophy, of moderate collection cost, such as the reduction in some points of the general rate of Corporation Tax (today 25%), graduated over two or three years; or as the 100% recovery of the exemption of dividends and portfolio capital gains in that same tax; or as the improvement of the treatment in the IRPF of the capital gains obtained in the medium or long term.

Three: R+D+I effort

For the most determined effort in research, development and innovation (R+D+i). It has been said that “the future must not be foreseen, it must be invented” (Alan Kay). If we believe that the embryo of the best future can be found in R&D, there is no other way than to aim resolutely from the public sector at that objective.. At the moment in Spain we are not doing well. According to the recent European Innovation Scoreboard 2023, we continue to sit in the van of the mediocre European Union, as a “moderately innovative” country, in 16th place out of 27 Member States, below the European average (we are at 89.2% of that average, and well below some indicators, such as “innovation in SMEs”)..

Beyond the relevance of public spending to promote research, there is a consensus on the potential effectiveness of tax incentives for R&D, since they are immediately accessible to any company that meets the legal conditions for it.. In particular, the deduction for R+D+i activities allows to reduce the Corporate Tax quota —also accessible to individuals in personal income tax— or to monetize the incentive (that is, to recover it directly as a tax refund) under certain conditions.

Once again, in this particular field, legal certainty is greatly lacking. The conditions of application of the incentive are the usual object of tax verification, from criteria that are often excessive. The so-called “motivated reports”, issued by specialized public bodies that certify the innovation and that must be respected by the AEAT, are not obtained within reasonable time limits and only cover the qualification of the innovation, and not the specific amounts applied to it (researcher salaries, consumable costs, etc.). On the other hand, it is very difficult to obtain an APA if it involves investments in R&D of not such a high amount.

All of this needs to be reviewed immediately so that, at least in the field of tax advantages, research momentum is not lost..

*Salvador Ruiz Gallud, managing partner of Equipo Económico and former director of the Tax Agency

The PSOE pivoted from pessimism to a spirit of comeback after the first interviews with Pedro Sánchez in media considered not related and the push of an unapologetic José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to puncture the “sanchismo bubble”. The failed face-to-face debate, in which Ferraz placed all his hopes to reverse the polls, once again sank the mood of the party. The strategic change in the middle of the campaign and the control of the conversation, the attack against Alberto Núñez Feijóo, made the formation recover some pulse to plant itself in the final sprint with the belief that “there is a game”. “everything is open. Now the blocks are almost even and if the progressive trend continues until Sunday we will turn it around,” say sources from Ferraz.

The brake on the transfers from the PSOE to the PP that Ferraz's internal tracking detected last weekend, beginning a trend towards recovery since then, has helped to recover spirits. Added to this, they have detected several seats at stake with the right, for only a handful of votes, in eight medium-sized and small constituencies. To be conquered, pay the “surprise” this 23-J. To a tie in the small provinces that these same sources place at two by two for each of the big parties, instead of three for the PP and one for the PSOE that the polls indicated at the start of the campaign.

To do this, they have improvised the organization of rallies in Huesca and San Sebastián, in addition to promoting an expensive programmatic campaign on social networks aimed at voters in these territories.. In addition to Huesca, Guipúzcoa and Lugo, where Sánchez has held a rally these days, the latest surveys published prior to the legal blackout, such as the one in this newspaper, suggest that the left is playing key seats with the right in Burgos, León, Soria, Pontevedra, A Coruña and La Rioja.

The fight for the undecided in the center, who are considering voting for the PP, but are “ashamed” of their pacts with Vox, and the fight against the demobilization of their own have conditioned the final stretch of the PSOE campaign. At this time, in Ferraz they hold a participation figure of around 75%, which would benefit them and demonstrate the mobilization of the progressive electorate. Even Sumar would be “permeating” in abstentionist sectors of the left. In the PSOE he has launched a mobilizing message with a mass bath at the campaign closing rally. In the city of Getafe, one of its strongholds that was historically called the red belt of Madrid.

The socialists speed up the mobilization between the epic of winning “against all odds”, the thermometer of the rallies and the guide of the numbers that they handle in Ferraz. Taking advantage of the prohibition of the electoral law to publish polls in the last week of the campaign, the parties transfer their own, always interested, to condition public opinion.

The dilemma drawn by the Socialists is that of a PP that reaches the end of the campaign “absolutely devastated”, with Feijóo “losing by default”, starting with his absence from the four-way debate on RTVE, and “we are going back”, they say in the party. A comeback, they argue, that “is not philosophy or desperate”, but would be based on “data”. In Ferraz they believe that the PP has been losing control of the campaign during the last week, with the focus on Feijóo's “lies”, his relationship with the drug trafficker Marcial Dorado and the final firecracker of the PP agreements with EH Bildu in the Vitoria city council to distribute the commissions and what the popular have finally renounced after the PNV complaint. “Feijóo reaches the end of the campaign, his credibility does not,” they sentence from the socialist campaign committee.

To consummate the comeback to which they appeal, in Ferraz they are aware that they need Yolanda Díaz's party. That Sumar ensures third place against those of Santiago Abascal. In the debate this Wednesday, to which Feijóo did not attend, a casting of roles by the Sánchez-Díaz tandem was staged to allow Sumar to grow for the left-wing abstentionists, while the Socialists launched themselves for the undecided center.

The PSOE's strategy has been adapting to expectations and the tandem with Díaz gives some credibility to the feeling that they transmit in Ferraz's engine room about the options of the progressive bloc. They do not only seek to save the furniture at the cost of growing for the space to their left through the useful vote. Both PSOE and PP have gone from looking askance at the battle for third place, between Sumar and Vox, to interfering in it. A battle that will have weight in the balance of the blocks that come out of the polls to configure majorities.

The popular ones have increased the attacks against Díaz in the final stretch of the campaign. As if it were an attempt to unmask the friendly profile of Sánchez's electoral ticket, the PP leader opened fire this Thursday with a play on words about the “make-up” of the vice presidency and the “made-up employment data”. The Faes Foundation, chaired by José María Aznar, went a step further this Friday, to describe Díaz in an editorial as “a neo-communist costume made in haste with Dior scraps and mediocre self-help literature.”. Likewise, the popular Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo reproached him as a sexist for “vindicating the woman who irons” for being “retrograde” and that “he did not see from the NODE”. The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has questioned that “she does not even know where she has the iron” and, following the line set by Faes, has ironized that “since she does not have a wardrobe, the poor thing goes all day with the same clothes”..

The expectations of the PSOE, according to the surveys, are frankly moderate, but in the party they have conspired to transmit the message that “the party is open” to stop the demobilization. For the same reason, the popular ones have wanted to lower expectations in the last days of the campaign, although they take a “loose” victory for granted.. The Socialists refuse to talk about the blockade, although they do refer to “preventing the PP and Vox from governing”, which without a sum from the progressive block that no survey has detected, except that of the CIS, would lead to an electoral repetition.

The first cultural measure of the new Torrent City Council, governed by PP and Vox, has been to remove the name of the Valencian musicologist Vicent Torrent from the town's auditorium. The founder of the folk group Al Tall, in the mid-70s, is one of the most relevant recoverers of traditional Valencian music of the 20th century and should be a name of consensus in the cultural heritage of the community. Precisely, in the house of Toni Pep Rodríguez, the group of Torrent, Miralles, Gil and Lledó was baptized as Al Tall.

Toni Pep Rodríguez (Valencia, 1950) began playing the piano at the age of four. He trained as a pianist at the conservatory, in the circle of teachers Leopoldo Magenti and Daniel de Nueda, and in his early youth he played with Els 4Z, Nino Bravo and Bruno Lomas.. The day Franco died, on November 20, 1975, he founded the music promoter La Taba, one of the first Valencian initiatives that could be considered an incipient native music industry: “Before, I had worked as a worker in the warehouse of the legendary Edigsa music label, in Barcelona, and that contact served to link the innovators of Valencian folk music with the industry”.

In 1975 there were no labels or recording studios in Valencia. In a meeting at Toni Pep's house, Al Tall was born. “Vicent Torrent, Manolo Miralles, Manolo Lledó and Miquel Gil decided to name themselves Al Tall, ruling out using their last names, in the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young style, which was their initial idea”, recalls Rodríguez, “I was the producer of that debut, recorded in Edigsa, and I looked for professional studio musicians to accompany the group. Al Tall were composers but they did not yet possess the proper technique”.

The Barcelona record company promised to publish six more albums with other Valencian artists such as Cuixa, Els Pavesos, El Sifoner, Valldecabres, Ximo Pere & Cia and Humo, but they did not fulfill their agreement. “Al Tall continued with Edigsa, and I took the rest to the Movieplay label, from Moncho Alpuente, in Madrid. The Pavesos of Joan Monleón and Lluís El Sifoner sold 450,000 and 300,000 cassettes and records, respectively. An outrage at the end of the seventies ”, says the veteran promoter.

In 1976, Toni Pep founded the Café Concert, on Marqués de Caro street in the El Carmen neighborhood. Despite the fact that its first intention was to be a rehearsal space, it functioned as a cultural bar for poetry recitals and as a concert hall until 1979, and all the Valencian political intelligentsia of the time and artists such as Toti Soler, Pepe Rubianes, Jordi Sabatés, Al Tall or the Cuban Carlos Puebla passed through there.. “That ended when the 26th Police Brigade raided El Carmen and began the degradation of the historic center. Drug addiction and crime took over the neighborhood. I closed the cafe and found a place on Maestro Gozalbo street. Later I found out that a member of the 26 opened a new business in that bass”, comments the pianist. What was the Oggi nightclub became the Nou Café Concert, the musical nerve center where the musicians of the Movida would pass.

Between 1979 and 1982, Nou Café Concert (NCC) crystallized as the essential venue for the most representative national and local bands of new youth sounds. “When we began to reform the false ceiling of the old Oggi, hundreds of syringes appeared. This was the Valencia of 1979. We set up a stage, added a grand piano and started programming. I was a friend of Moncho Alpuente and the Mariné brothers, managers of the music distributor Pancoca, which allowed me to bring the Madrid and Galician groups of La Movida closer to the NCC”, recalls Toni Pep. Siniestro Total, Golpes Bajos, Alaska and Los Pegamoides, Pistones, Aviadro Dro, Paralisis Permanente or Derribos Arias, played for the first time in the heart of Valencia.

That place between Ruzafa and the Ensache was a meeting point for the tribes of punks, rockers and mods of the Valencia of the Transition. It also energized the local scene by giving its opportunity to groups such as Seguridad Social, Interterror, Sade, Cómplices, Betty Troupé, Scooters, Comité Cisne or Blue Moon, among many others.. “The Permanent Paralysis concert was the best I did, without a doubt. Eduardo Benavente was the son of the owner of the Hotel Bristol Valencia. I had to move heaven and earth to get what I asked for or I wouldn't leave the hotel, but I had friends even in hell. The sound that night was resounding, Pepe Sena, the irreplaceable Valencian sound technician, managed 4,000 watts for a 300-square-meter ring”, explains the musician.

The pioneer of the Valencian industry acknowledges that the Galician Siniestro Total were always his personal favorites and that he forged a good friendship with Germán Coppini, “they came through here three times and during one of the concerts, Julián Hernández, who was the drummer, between songs listened to a transistor to find out how Celta de Vigo was doing, who was playing at the same time as the gig.”. We hear him shout the goals”.

In a city still without conditioned auditoriums to attract big names (Pachá opened its doors in December 1983), Toni Pep dared to produce concerts by James Brown, Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés, at the Bony de Torrent. “I was always a better cultural promoter than an event manager, although no NCC concert was in deficit until the catastrophe with Alaska and Los Pegamoides came.. The Valencian punks did not want it and the normal public did not come either. We sold 23 tickets and we had to pay them 250,000 pesetas. They did not spare a penny. She returned to Madrid, but Nacho Canut stayed here for the two nightly dance sessions on the weekend until we collected the collection. The planned budget for performances at the Nou Café Concert ended that night in 1982. Alaska and Los Pegamoides emptied the box at the Nou Café Concert in Valencia. That's where our concerts ended”, concludes the Valencian promoter.

With these elections not only ends a legislature. It can also mean the end of a literary genre. Because anti-Sanchismo went from being a political strategy to becoming a worldview a long time ago. And win or lose Sánchez, the anti-Sanchismo could come to an end on 23-J. As Sánchez has to leave Moncloa, he will leave the left devastated, but not only. Poor orphans of anti-sanchismo. They too would suffer a huge void. The consummation of all revenge drags the resentment of bitterness in the hole left by hatred.

It could also be, it still could be, that Sánchez stays in Moncloa. Or because the right does not add up to the extreme right or because the left wins with the support of the independentistas. But the end of anti-Sanchism could also occur if Sánchez wins. At the very least, it should be dismissed as an electoral argument if it is shown to be useless. This campaign there have hardly been any proposals that clarify to voters what the parties are going to do to fix the country's problems. It is not that the Interrail and the tickets to the cinema of the last campaign were going to fix much, but they have even been missed. In recent weeks almost everything has revolved around sanchismo and anti-sanchismo in the most self-referential campaign in history.

If it were a meteorological phenomenon, anti-sanchismo would be the fog. The one that allows the perfect excuse for each other to cover what is necessary and avoid giving explanations. To the Government of Sánchez, the idea of a victim of anti-Sanchismo has armed the entire campaign. Very opportune to not recognize the errors of the legislature that have distanced him from part of his electorate. And for the PP, anti-Sanchism has been the main campaign argument to the point of saving it from defending a country project, as well as the excuse to justify any pact with Vox that it needs.

A good part of the voters who will go to vote on Sunday are convinced that the biggest problem this country has is Sánchez. Not unemployment, inflation or corruption. Not even politicians in general. Only one: Sanchez. They give the figure of the president a superpower only at the height of the great supervillains. So, if Sánchez is defeated on Sunday, they will feel the relief of their life. The question is whether they know what to do the day after the sanchismo is repealed or they will already believe that everything is settled.

But a good part of the voters who are going to vote on 23-J will do so for Sánchez, convinced that his big problem has not been his mistakes but his anti-Sanchism. As if the embezzlement reform, the repeal of sedition and the pacts he made betraying his word had not angered a good part of his 2019 voters.

However, if Sánchez won the elections, or even losing them, he managed to remain in the Government, anti-Sanchismo would also be very affected.. A lot. After all, he would have been defeated by La Pija and La Quinqui. Attendance at this youth podcast is considered within the PSOE one of the great successes of the campaign, which says a lot about how the campaign has been. So erratic for the PSOE that he began betting on doing a tandem with Vice President Calviño and cornering Yolanda Díaz, to end up on the back of the pink convertible in a successful meme in which Barbie is the leader of Sumar and Sánchez “it's only Ken”. Perhaps it will convince some undecided, who knows which way. These are strange times in which Barbie has become a feminist icon and Perro Sanxe has ended up being a socialist slogan.

#DebateFinalRTVE #YolandaManda #YolandaPresidenta pic.twitter.com/wCt3hjz8DG

—William Zapata. (@gzapatamadrid) July 19, 2023

In the previous day of reflection, just a couple of months ago, we asked ourselves here if the day of reflection made sense after a campaign with so few proposals. So the question was whether it would be good for democracy if we reflected on what we had seen done in the previous campaign. On this occasion we will have to reflect, above all, on the proposals that we have not seen because of how much anti-Sanchismo bulges.

“We hardly have a stock of finished homes” and “more than 95% are sold off-plan”. Neither the increase in temperatures, nor touristification, nor the problems caused by inflation. The Spanish coast continues to attract foreigners and there are many who seek an opportunity to invest in the Levante area, the Balearic Islands, the Costa del Sol or the Cadiz coast. Operations that in a high percentage are resolved with a single payment and behind which are families who want to acquire “a second residence to spend their future retirement”.

The British developer Taylor Wimpey Spain is one of the companies in the sector that has experienced a year-on-year increase in bookings, data that has been accompanied by a 25% increase in contacts from potential clients during the first three months of the year..

The brick “continues to live a sweet moment”, they pointed out from this firm, which remarked that “we hardly have a stock of finished homes”. The demand, taken over —in his case— by foreign clients, is so high that 95% of its transactions are carried out off-plan.

The “international appeal” of the Spanish Mediterranean coast is evident in the fact that the promoter has reserved properties for people of 42 different nationalities. Only 11% of the operations of this firm on the Costa del Sol were carried out by Spanish buyers, while among the majority foreign clientele are the British —14%— and Belgians —10%—, as well as French, Iranian, Russian and Polish —who represent 7% each of them—. The “unique” and emerging markets: “the Latin American countries”.

Sources from this international company pointed out that this phenomenon transcends the limits of the Malaga coast and expands throughout all its areas of influence, such as Palma de Mallorca, the Costa Blanca, Cádiz or Ibiza.. The recurring profile is that of “foreign families who buy as a second residence” and who have retirement on the horizon, but there are also those who see an investment possibility in these transactions. “Their purchasing power is medium or high” and a large percentage face the operation in a single payment.

Foreign clients usually look for, “mainly”, apartments and townhouses located in quiet areas.

The aforementioned sources specified that there is a significant increase in housing reserves compared to 2021, “although the record figures of last year have not yet been reached”. This circumstance could be due to the fact that these “materialize later, when foreign clients have availability to visit the house and the area”.