In recent weeks there had been a tense calm in the Plus Ultra case. Since José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero testified as the alleged leader of an influence peddling scheme on June 17, things began to move. He denied everything, distanced himself from any management in favor of the airline. He left the responsibility, in any case, to Julio Martínez Martínez. The businessman’s position was compromised and he had two options: to acknowledge his dealings with Plus Ultra, the creation of an offshore company in Dubai, and that his relationship with Zapatero was limited to paying him for consulting, as the former president claimed; or to follow the path of the corrupter in the Mask case, Víctor de Aldama, admit the facts, at least in part, and let the big catch fall.

Carlos Garaikoetxea, the first lehendakari after Francoism (1980-1985) and a key figure in the recovery of Basque self-government, has died at the age of 87 due to a heart attack, according to the Basque public television portal Orain.

The flood of ongoing legal cases against the political and family environment of Pedro Sánchez – from his wife, Begoña Gómez, and his brother, David Sánchez, to the former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and the last two secretaries of organization of the PSOE, the former minister José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán – keeps all Government action overshadowed and increases political pressure from both the opposition and the partners and allies of the investiture. But the head of the Executive insists on contrasting his management with the political, media, and judicial “noise” in which he is increasingly involved. He already argued last Wednesday from Rome, after meeting with the Pope, that this whole succession of open investigations, in his opinion, “does not at all challenge” the Government’s action in these eight years of mandate, which he also intends to push forward until the legislature is exhausted.

La Casa del Rey has made an unprecedented gesture with Ceuta on the day of the autonomous city amid the very serious migratory crisis it has been suffering since July 30. On its X account, the Zarzuela Palace has published an image of the flags of Ceuta, Spain, and the European Union in the audience hall of the headquarters of the Head of State.