Spain

A political corruption probe has taken a judicial turn as reports suggest the prosecution blocked an initial complaint into the governing party's so-called 'sewers' and allowed the scheme to persist for another year. Meanwhile, the judiciary and the government continue to trade papers: the Guardia Civil confirmed the Interior Minister called a judge after a private email from the Prime Minister’s wife was leaked, while a different judge decided not to summon the former party organizer for questioning until after the November elections.

Those elections are currently a matter of lists and narrow margins. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is facing internal friction over his decision to parachute ministers into regional party lists, while the far-left Podemos and Broad Front have managed to agree on joint candidates for most regions except the two that usually matter most, Madrid and Barcelona. A fresh look at the polling data suggests the two main parties are now in a technical tie.

The Constitutional Court president has noted that only the Supreme Court is left to apply the amnesty law for Catalan separatists, adding that even a future repeal of the law would not undo its current application. Elsewhere, the search for a 12-year-old boy missing since a recent storm ended when his body was found at sea near Sitges, and two elderly residents in Málaga died after their care home elevator collapsed.