J.P. Marín-Arrese | It is not surprising that on the eve of elections, government coalitions should be breaking up, with each partner distancing itself from its former allies in an attempt to improve its election results. What is surprising in our country is the deliberate intention of publicly banging each other’s heads together while at the same time pretending not to get out of the official car. It is understandable…
The Animal Welfare Law promoted by Minister Ione Belarra and approved in Congress with the votes of PSOE, Podemos, ERC and Bildu has introduced an important change in the Spanish Penal Code by changing the term ‘domestic animal’ to ‘vertebrate animal’. A vertebrate animal is any animal that has bones and an articulated skeleton or backbone. Now, under the new law, striking, injuring or killing a vertebrate animal will be…
The year 2023 is marked by the regional and municipal elections in May and the general elections in December. This fact is noticeable in the budgets dedicated by the Government to institutional advertising. The plan approved in the last Council of Ministers foresees an expenditure of €145.98 million in campaigns of all kinds. Since Sánchez arrived at the Moncloa, the number of institutional campaigns has not stopped growing. From the…
Mohamed VI’s approach to Pedro Sánchez tarnishes the High Level Meeting (HLM) between Morocco and Spain, which La Moncloa expected to be “historic”. The Alaouite monarch did not receive the President of the Government yesterday on his arrival in Rabat for a bilateral summit that had not been held in this way for eight years, and limited himself to dealing with diplomatic formalities via a phone call from Gabon. Over…
“Let’s talk in depth about what the two processes are that have led to the loss of purchasing power by the middle and working class in our country. The first process is that real wages have been falling for more than a decade”, the president explained yesterday in his debate with Nuñez Feijóo, leader of the opposition, adding that “big companies do not raise their employees’ wages by a single…
J.P. Marín-Arrese | When the Spanish elections in 2016 delivered a hung Parliament, Pedro Sánchez stubbornly challenged the only potential right-wing candidacy able to set up a minority Government. His resistance led to a protracted stalemate, leaving another fresh poll as the only way out. Fearing a crushing defeat in that bid, the Socialist party ousted Sánchez and allowed Mariano Rajoy to snatch the Premiership. Only a handful of loyal…
A total of 255 personalities have signed a manifesto against the government in which they criticise the recent reforms it has carried out to the Penal Code and the attempt to modify the system of election of the Constitutional Court, warning that the regime of freedoms could fail if this governmental and legislative dynamic continues. The manifesto calls on the PSOE to recover its historic project, which led it to…
The Council of State has had enough of Pedro Sánchez’s Government’s way of legislating and has issued a harsh judgement in which it warns of “unjustified urgencies” that affect the quality of laws and the “control of legality and constitutionality” and warns of “guarantees” that “suffer”. The highest advisory body demands “respect” for its function and the legal framework, in the face of an “absurdity” that comes close to being…
Although the annual rate of inflation moderated in November to 6.8 % – from 10.8 % in July – food prices are still at a record high of 15.3 %. That is why the government will today propose a third support package that will include the extension of some of the measures currently in force, which expire on 31 December, and other new ones, mainly related to the shopping basket….
In a scenario of unprecedented institutional crisis, the Constitutional Court agreed yesterday by a slim majority of its members (6 votes to 5) to paralyse the legal reform promoted by the Government parties in Parliament to change the functioning of both the General Council of the Judiciary and the High Court by express means. This reform allowed the Government majority to reduce the 3/5 majority required until now to appoint…