The air on the seventh floor of number 42 Reina Street in Valencia had not moved since the postwar period. It was not simply stale: it was a dense, almost solid mass that swallowed sounds and exhaled a smell of camphor, old dampness, and rancid sweat

La estación de Murcia stopped operating in 1974, in 1992 a land transfer agreement was approved, and in 2026 the tracks are still there. On April 13, the residents of Alicante woke up expectant because the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, was in the city to present, together with the mayor Luis Barcala and the president of the Generalitat, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, the long-awaited Central Park project. Days later, Puente himself announced the tendering of a contract to advance another key project: the Torrellano variant.

While the Mediterranean corridor is being built, Madrid’s strength remains intact. The destination that all territories long to connect with and which, in the case of Castellón, is only possible by bus or car and takes more than 4 hours of travel. That is why the Generalitat Valenciana announced yesterday that the Castellón Airport (Aerocas) will “soon” put out to tender the drafting by a company of a technical report justifying the declaration of the Castellón-Madrid route as a Public Service Obligation (PSO).

It is not easy in any business to reach half a century, especially in the book sector and with a firm commitment to literature and production in Valencian. An anniversary that Xàtiva will celebrate next weekend as part of the Música i Lletra (MiL) Festival program with a grand tribute event to Llibreria La Costera, a benchmark of critical and Valencianist thought that has become over the last 50 years a driving force of cultural life beyond the borders of its region.

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…”.