Local

The last campaign of the municipal elections, in May 2023, was immediately followed by another, the general elections that Pedro Sánchez unexpectedly called the day after the vote. In that second electoral race, with the election of the mayors already decided and the baton of the Catalan capital in the hands of the socialist Jaume Collboni, the name of Josep Rius was already circulating as a possible candidate for Junts in the next contest. Three years later, that scenario that was being drawn up in the gossip circles of the post-convergent is closer to becoming a reality.

Two weeks ago, the owner of the historic Soriano flower shop on Gaudí Avenue received the latest offer to leave and make way for another store crowded with souvenirs. His gladioli enjoy privileged views of the Sagrada Família temple. “And this time it really was a good offer – admits Xavier Soriano himself –. The truth is that I have been holding on for a few years because of my father and my grandfather, because my father and grandfather dedicated their lives to this flower shop, because my family has been here since 1940. But it has been a long time since I made a living with other businesses, because selling flowers here makes very little sense, because on this avenue there are only problems… I would have accepted this offer, I admit it, and let them start selling souvenirs, but…”.

The National Police have carried out the expulsion from Spain, in application of the Immigration Law, of 21 foreign citizens with numerous police and judicial records for various serious crimes against property and persons.

The streams of Maresme face a critical future. The Master Plan for Actions for the Integrated Management of the Streams, funded with European Next Generation funds, was approved in February 2026 by the county council and outlines a critical scenario, both due to the number of people exposed to flood risk – about 104,000 residents – and the losses, which could exceed 3.4 billion in cases of extreme events.

That Mónica Oltra’s landing in València was hopeful for the left was never in doubt. Nor was it that her arrival could provoke some internal reluctance. At the first opportunity, the seams of the coalition have already been strained. The virtual candidate for the Mayor of València (something that no one denies despite everything) ultimately did not attend the extraordinary executive meeting of Compromís in the city that had invited her this Wednesday to talk about her candidacy.

Rosa Peral, the media-savvy inmate protagonist of the Urban Guard crime, allegedly devised a plan to assault one of the prison officials who guarded her module, according to Diari de Tarragona and confirmed by La Vanguardia.

The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, presented this Monday her 40-40 Residential Plan, which foresees the construction of 40 new residences and 40 day centers in the region, which will have 8,000 new places, nursery schools and 300 supported homes integrated into at least five plots and more technology “to better care” for residents and users. Given the high demand for public places, Ayuso has announced this plan, which she has called “very ambitious”.

Doctors and medical professionals from the Community of Madrid resume this Monday the third week of an indefinite strike called to show their rejection of the Framework Statute agreement reached between the Ministry of Health and several unions and to demand their own text for the collective that recognizes the singularities of these professionals.

During the second legislature of the Botànic, the three left-wing parties (PSPV, Compromís, and Unides Podem) reached a preliminary agreement with Ciudadanos to reform the Valencian electoral law of 1987. The four groups totaled 70 deputies (two more than the two-thirds necessary to modify a regulation protected by a reinforced majority). It was an ambitious proposal that not only lowered the electoral threshold from 5% regional to 3% of valid votes – it proposed the obligation to achieve this percentage in each of the three provincial constituencies as well as in the Valencian Community as a whole -. The reform also introduced important novelties such as the possibility for the elector to show their preference for up to three candidates from the same list, the obligation to hold debates on Valencian public television, or to increase by 5% the amount of the electoral subsidy for those candidacies chosen by primaries.

The president of the Business Confederation of the Valencian Community, Vicente Lafuente, expressed this Monday his rejection of migration policies based on the concept of “national priority” defended by Vox, while warning that this approach should not become an obstacle to the approval of the regional budgets.