The Government of Pedro Sánchez passed the summer examination of the Congress’s Permanent Deputation this Wednesday without a numerical blemish. The official record will reflect a clean plenary session, with zero lost votes for the investiture bloc and the withdrawal by the PP of the request to force the president’s appearance, after Moncloa previously announced that Sánchez would appear on his own initiative. But the political storm has run through underground waters. Just weeks before a decisive political year begins, with the negotiation of the general budgets on the horizon and the call for elections increasingly close, the investiture partners have taken advantage of the parliamentary return to remind the Executive that what they granted at the beginning of the legislature is not a blank check.

The sale of the luxury penthouse acquired by the Community of Madrid has not quelled the controversy; on the contrary, it has fueled it. Every new detail about the purchase process calls into question the structure of the official narrative offered so far by the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The latest revelation places the origin of the operation months before the signing. According to El País, between January and March of this year, Planifica Madrid was tasked with finding an apartment between 250 and 400 square meters with “a large terrace” in Chamberí or its surroundings. At no point in that assignment was it specified that the property had to house offices or workspaces. The penthouse that the public company would end up buying on April 14 had been listed since January 31 for 6.6 million euros.