The week of May 18th looks to be key for the budgets and, by extension, for the legislature in Catalonia. The Govern and Esquerra Republicana are finalizing the last aspects of what will be the first accounts to be produced since 2023. Monday will be a key day: it will start with the seal of the pact to develop the orbital railway line and, at 5:30 p.m., the republicans will convene their national council – the highest body between congresses – to assess whether they give the final yes to the budget project.

“This can only be unlocked from Catalonia,” Alberto Núñez Feijóo told Josep Sánchez-Llibre, the president of the large Catalan employers’ association Foment del Treball, after his speech at the annual conferences of the Cercle d’Economia. That phrase, directed at whom it was directed, was full of intent. Sánchez-Llibre is one of the few representatives of Catalan civil society with notable interlocution and capacity for influence over the leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont. So Feijóo was seeking help to convince the former president of the convenience of favoring a no-confidence motion that would unseat Pedro Sánchez. Both the socialist and the popular leader sent messages to Waterloo, but in very different tones and content. Junts has made it clear from the beginning that their votes are in exchange for demands, so it’s about knowing what Sánchez and Feijóo offer to potential allies. Well, both have made it quite clear this week in Barcelona.

When in June 2024 the Amnesty law came into effect, some jurists pointed out that certain judges would apply “delaying tactics” so that the promoters of the procés would not benefit before serving a large part of the disqualification imposed by the sentence, a…

León XIV will visit the Brians 1 prison, in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, on the same day he will go to the Montserrat abbey and bless and inaugurate the Jesus tower of the Sagrada Família, on June 10. This is the penitentiary center that houses people from the Barcelona area who are in preventive detention, awaiting trial. Specifically, there will be a meeting with the women of one of the modules, and this event will take place after the recent visit to the Bata prison during the Pope’s trip to Equatorial Guinea, just a few weeks ago.