Política

The political course begins this Tuesday with a meeting of the Council of Ministers, marked by the urgency of the national current events and the recent climatic damages.

Almost thirty days ago, when the Ceuta crisis broke out, the president of the autonomous city, Juan Jesús Vivas, requested the appointment of a single authority capable of managing all aspects of the humanitarian drama that he already sensed was going to devastate his city. Vivas’s request fell on deaf ears, among other reasons because the Government expected that the more than 70,000 people who crossed the El Tarajal fence would return the way they came. Minister Marlaska or Minister Albares limited themselves to not angering the Moroccan neighbor in the belief that if they kept the door open and Ceuta gave nothing to those who had entered without permission, the crisis would end. But it was not so.

The First Vice President and Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, has announced two new decisions that the Government will take to try to alleviate the crisis that occurred in the autonomous city of Ceuta after the influx of immigrants from Morocco who crossed the border almost a month ago. On the one hand, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has convened a National Security Council in which a single command will be decreed in the hands of the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, who will be responsible for coordinating the crisis. And secondly, Cuerpo himself has offered the President of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, an extraordinary expansion of the Comprehensive Socioeconomic Development Plan of the City of Ceuta, designed in 2022, with the aim of addressing the economic consequences that this crisis is causing, especially in the commercial and tourist fabric of the city.

The Partido Popular has demanded this Monday the immediate mobilization of a large number of immigration technical staff to work in three shifts – “morning, afternoon, and night” – in Ceuta with the aim of speeding up the return and expulsion files of “all” immigrants who have arrived irregularly in recent weeks. The conservative leadership focuses on the immediate return to Morocco, completely rejecting any debate about the reception of minors on the peninsula: “We are talking about return, not distribution,” they state categorically.

The Public Health Commission (CSP) meeting this Monday has agreed to send up to 15,000 doses of MMR vaccine and 10,000 doses of diphtheria-tetanus, chickenpox, and polio vaccines to Ceuta “to respond to the extraordinary prevention needs of potential diseases” in the autonomous city.

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has convened the National Security Council to an extraordinary meeting tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. to analyze the migratory crisis that Ceuta has been experiencing since July 30. This is the highest body to which the head of the Executive must attend in matters of national security policy direction. This meeting comes 26 days after an avalanche of nearly 80,000 migrants crossed the border to reach the autonomous city, where about 8,000 could still remain.

Junts per Catalunya and Esquerra Republicana have demanded explanations from the Ministry of the Interior this Monday for the charges carried out by the National Police against Barça fans before the match against Elche, in which ‘estelades’ were confiscated. For their part, the post-convergents have submitted a series of questions regarding this action; while the republicans demand an investigation of the facts and have requested the appearance of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.

“The apartment is for sale, so goodbye fish.” Isabel Díaz Ayuso has tried to close the controversy over the purchase, for more than six million euros, of a luxury penthouse in Chamberí by a public company of the Community of Madrid and for a use that has not yet been explained. After weeks of shaping various justifications and when the arguments presented by her Government have not even convinced the president of her party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the Madrid president has chosen to downplay the matter in an attempt to close the case before the start of the political season.

The political course that begins after the holiday break is crucial for Junts, both because of the possible return of its leader, former president Carles Puigdemont, and because of the 2027 municipal elections, in which the party wants to build a firewall against Aliança Catalana, whom the polls predict will see significant growth in the next electoral cycle.

It has many names: the bystander effect, the spectator effect (literally), or the Genovese effect after the widely studied murder of Kitty Genovese in 1960s New York. It is a psychological phenomenon that indicates that a person is less likely to help…