<![CDATA[Ara Balears in English - shoemaker]]> 10 <![CDATA[Between 'lawfare' and post-truth]]> Since the Zapatero affair broke out, almost every day we are faced with a new surprise. Some, quite surreal. The feeling of disbelief is great even among those who for a long time put our heart and soul into the fight against corruption. But there are too many elements here that point to what has come to be called lawfare, the use of 'justice' to criminalize and bring down politicians, particularly progressives, through a lot of disinformation and little evidence. It happened with Lula in Brazil, and we have seen it in the Kingdom of Spain with the leaders of the Procés, the comrades of Podem, and a couple of years ago, with the case of our friend Mònica Oltra, who already warned us that we could all be, like her, victims of infamous maneuvers to civilly kill those who stand up to defend progressive values.

]]> <![CDATA[Gold bars and 12 luxury watches in the Mallorca home of the Dutchman investigated in Plus Ultra]]>

The Dutchman Simón Leendert Verhoeven, investigated in the Plus Ultra case for his loans to the airline through his gold and raw materials sales businesses, kept two gold bars, twelve luxury watches, and numerous jewels at his home in Mallorca, which was searched in October 2024. As stated in the summary of this case, Verhoeven, for whom there is currently an international arrest warrant for extradition purposes, acknowledged before the Geneva Prosecutor the ownership of three companies (Allpa Wira Trading UK, Wailea Investment LTD, and Valerian Corporation) and that through them he had made loan agreements in favor.

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The ruling by José Luis Calama against former president Zapatero is forceful enough that, at least, his supporters' message should be only what Justice itself dictates: to wait for the investigation to prove the facts imputed to him. That one is innocent until proven otherwise. The public defense by Patxi López and Mercedes Milá is blind faith and putting their hand in the fire for a figure who is everything among socialists. The fall of a totem, a moral compass, and all those cheesy and grandiloquent expressions, which are, on the other hand, true.

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