Las pescaderías Yunes in the central market of Ceuta are selling far below usual on a Saturday at nine. “Normal, elderly people no longer go out to shop or walk in the afternoons,” says a stallholder. Fátima is a security guard at the University Hospital, the only one in a city whose patience determines the governability of Spain. “My 20-year-old daughter does not go out after dark for fear, and in Ceuta life was on the street.” Third warning: Mercadona, Almadraba neighborhood, soldiers at the doors, carts overflowing. A couple of Muslim Ceutíes: “This is not going fast, when the cold arrives they won’t be able to sleep outdoors and hunger is very bad.”

“The change is getting closer, but it is not done… and we cannot think that everything will fall like forbidden fruit.” With the general elections increasingly present, although they still have no date, memories of 2023 remain very alive in the Popular Party. Alberto Núñez Feijóo wanted to start his speech at the beginning of the political season in Madrid from there. Even before confronting Pedro Sánchez, the popular leader warned his followers of the risk of becoming complacent and called for an extra effort to maintain tension until the polls. Because the goal is no longer just to win. It is to do so with enough margin to remove Sánchez from La Moncloa “without the investiture pacts” frustrating his plans again.