The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will participate this Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. in the annual meeting held by the Cercle d’Economía in Barcelona. The head of the Executive attends one day after the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, ready to defend Europe’s strategic autonomy and showcasing Spanish growth.
In the long and intense third session of the trial against David Sánchez, a dozen witnesses addressed the three vertices of the case. The first refers to the allegedly nepotistic hiring of the brother of President Pedro Sánchez as coordinator of the conservatories of the Diputación de Badajoz in 2017. The second focuses on the alleged irregularities surrounding a modification of David Sánchez’s position when in 2022 he became director of the Office of Performing Arts. The third addresses the alleged favoritism of Luis Carrero, a friend of David Sánchez, as coordinator of centers and cross-border activities also by the Diputación de Badajoz in 2024.
Pope Leo XIV will also use Catalan in the blessing of the tower of Jesus of the Sagrada Família, at the climax of the Pontiff’s trip to Spain.
The PSOE has increased from 15,612 euros to 44,859 euros the payments that the socialist formation in Cantabria paid for communication consultancy to Leire Díez, investigated by the National Court in an alleged plot “to destabilize” judicial processes against Ferraz. In a document sent to the Madrid court that initiated the investigations, the party details the periods in which the so-called plumber of the PSOE provided her services as a freelancer and the amount of the corresponding invoices “in the interest of full cooperation” with justice. The document was sent on May 14, just over ten days before the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard entered the party’s national headquarters to request information under the orders of the National Court.
Pedro Sánchez undoubtedly has many problems to face amid the flood of legal cases involving his family and political circle. But one of these concerns, according to sources at Moncloa, is not the possibility that the PNV and Junts join a motion of no confidence promoted by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, with the indispensable votes of the far-right Vox, to try to overthrow the Prime Minister.
The Partido Popular has been pressuring Junts and the PNV for months to join their votes with those of the PP and Vox and support in the Congress of Deputies an “instrumental” motion of no confidence, with Alberto Núñez Feijóo as the candidate for the presidency of the Government. The motion of no confidence is a mechanism that the law provides to withdraw confidence from the president, in this case Pedro Sánchez, and yesterday Feijóo specified his offer to the two nationalist parties: the motion would be to accelerate the calling of elections and in the government appointed once he is elected president, Vox would not be included. But nothing guarantees that these two conditions – elections in the short term and a government without Vox – will be met. It is rather an act of faith that is asked of the two parties.
Turn in the trial against David Sánchez. Yesterday, several officials from the Diputación de Badajoz testified that they do not recall any irregularity in the hiring of the Prime Minister’s brother as coordinator of the conservatories in 2017. They also stated that David Sánchez was “very hardworking.” But today the tables have turned with the testimony of Cristina de Frutos, another candidate for that job: “A friend told me three days before the interview that the position was for David Sánchez.”
The Government of the Generalitat is in contact with the Archdiocese of Barcelona and assures that it “works discreetly” to try to include Catalan in the blessing of the tower of Jesus of the Sagrada Família, which crowns Antoni Gaudí’s basilica and makes it the tallest church in the world.
The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, speaks at the second day of the annual meeting of the Cercle d’Economia, which brings together business and political leaders to discuss current issues at a time when the leader of the Popular Party is trying to convince Junts and PNV to support a motion of no confidence against Pedro Sánchez to force an early election.
The secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, has challenged the president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to propose the instrumental motion of no confidence to remove Pedro Sánchez from La Moncloa and call general elections to the president of the party, Carles Puigdemont, in Waterloo.