Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight
And, lo, the hunter of the east has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light.
Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable – Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’.
Cosas de España/Galiza
The estimable Mac 75: Understanding Spain’s Designations of Origin
There’s a lot of anger in Galicia about the errors in the recent university entrance exams – previously called the selectividad, now the PAU. These seem to have been in 2 subjects – Technical drawing and Spanish History[!]. Instead of cancelling results and repeating the exams, the relevant body has decided it will apply ‘extraordinary grading criteria’ for these subject. Which will probably satisfy no one except the bureaucrats.
This is a shorter post than usual as I’m helping a lady get back her bag stolen from the table next to mine at midday, just after I’d told her Pv is a low-crime city . . .
The UK
‘Poisoned’ AI: The ChatGPT shopping scams that lead to fake websites. Buyers are ripped off after assuming online stores were genuine because they are recommended by an AI tool.
Europe
I thought I’d ask what the EU is seen to be particularly good and bad at. If interested, the full answer is at the end of this post. Here’s a reduced version:-
Good at:-
- Strategic/military power
- Peace & Stability [I don’t find this one convincing]
- Single Market & Trade
- Climate & Environment
- Economic fundamentals
- Social protection
The EU is widely seen as particularly good at maintaining peace and promoting stability, leading on environmental/climate policy, and wielding collective economic/trading power:
Bad at:-
- Strategic/military power
- Decision-making
- East-West divide
- One-size-fits-all policies
- Democratic engagement
The core weakness is often described as leaders’ inability to reconcile unity with national diversity, making coordinated action difficult.
The United States of Trump America
Quotes
- Trump honours D-Day heroes by praising himself. [Well, what did you really expect?]
- Stephen Miller is the only true ideologue in the Trump administration. The rest are there simply to please Trump.
I enjoy asking Perplexity questions such as this one: After the experience of Trump, what changes in the US constitution are being proposed? The answer:- [Spoiler: Zilch about gun laws and Article 2 . . .]
The main constitutional changes being recommended after Donald Trump’s presidency fall into 3 categories: removing presidential immunity, modifying term limits, and restricting pardon powers. However, it’s important to note that no amendment has yet passed Congress—all remain proposed bills that face steep ratification hurdles.
- No One Is Above the Law” Amendment
- Modified 22nd Amendment (3rd-term possibility)
- Modified 22nd Amendment (3rd-term possibility)
- Presidential Pardon Limitation Amendment
Other Frequently Proposed Amendments (less Trump-specific)
- Supreme Court fixed at 9 justices
- Congressional term limits
- Balanced budget requirement
- Abolish Electoral College (direct popular election)
- Expand/emplace Emoluments Clause to include president’s family/businesses
Why These Likely Won’t Happen
- Amending the Constitution requires:
- Two–thirds vote in both House and Senate
- Ratification by 38 of 50 states (three-fourths)
- Historically, few proposed amendments ever reach the states, and only the 22nd Amendment (1951, term limits) has restricted presidential power since the mid-20th century. Most experts say passing any amendment is “politically impossible” currently.
The most prominent recommendation—the immunity amendment—has strong moral support but no serious path to ratification given current partisan divisions.
What a country! A model for no democracy worth its name.
The Way of the World
Forget Left and Right: The battle now is between truth and lies.
Did you know?
The inevitable progress of madness . . . Pets can now have their own rooms and bathrooms.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/07/dog-cat-bathroom-pet-nook
You Have to Laugh
Finally . . .
The EU
The EU is widely seen as particularly good at maintaining peace and promoting stability, leading on environmental/climate policy, and wielding collective economic/trading power:
Strengths
| Area | What the EU excels at |
|---|---|
| Peace & Stability | Ended centuries of conflict among member states; fosters cooperation, democracy, human rights, and rule of law |
| Single Market & Trade | Free movement of goods, services, capital, and people; creates jobs, higher wages, and easier travel; negotiates trade deals as one bloc (largest trading partner for 70+ nations) |
| Climate & Environment | Global leader with stringent environmental regulations, renewable energy transition (40%+ by 2030), and clean technology innovation |
| Economic fundamentals | Lower public debt/deficits than other major economies; independent central bank (ECB) committed to price stability; strong patent output and STEM graduates |
| Social protection | Consumer protection regulations, environmental grants, cohesion funds reducing regional disparities |
According to a 2025 Eurobarometer survey, Europeans themselves view respect for democracy/human rights/rule of law (36%) and economic/industrial/trading power (31%) as the EU’s main strengths.
Weaknesses
| Area | What the EU is seen as bad at |
|---|---|
| Strategic/military power | Limited military independence; lacks unified foreign policy; constrained institutional capacity to act as strategic power |
| Decision-making | Diffuse political authority; excessive reliance on national politics; slow/unified action on crises |
| East-West divide | Persistent disparities between eastern and western members hinder common policy |
| One-size-fits-all policies | Uniform policies (e.g., agricultural) don’t suit all countries’ different economic/cultural needs |
| Democratic engagement | Low voting participation at EU level; rising right-wing populism |
The core weakness is often described as leaders’ inability to reconcile unity with national diversity, making coordinated action difficult.
My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.
The Usual Links . . .
The US commentators I follow, all on Podbean and/or YouTube for free:-
- The Daily Beast Podcast/Video
- Inside Trump’s Head Podcast*/Video*
- The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent Podcast
- The Rest is Politics US Podcast/Video
- The DSR Network Podcast
- The Politics Girl Video. Amusing
- The Daily Show Video. Very amusing
You can get my posts by email as soon as they’re published. With the added bonus that they’ll contain the typos I’ll discover later. I believe there’s a box for this at the bottom of each post. If you do this but don’t read the posts, I will delete your subscription. So perhaps don’t bother if you have other reasons for subscribing . . .
I no longer post on Facebook. But I can be readon X at Thoughts from Galicia. And on Substack here
For new readers: If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.
If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you.
Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain 
Democracy platform-world Democracy foundation:Sweden/worldpres
Democracy-humanregıhst,
What to Know About Türkiye’s Deepening Democratic Crisis
Riot police stormed the headquarters of Türkiye’s main opposition party on Sunday to evict its ousted leadership, testing the country’s fragile democracy.
Tear gas and rubber bullets were fired inside the headquarters of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) in Ankara, where party officials and supporters, including leader Özgür Özel, were holed up for days. Footage from local media showed police breaking through a makeshift barricade.
The standoff between the CHP and Turkish police comes days after a court nullified Özel’s 2023 election as chairperson of the party, in what the Human Rights Watch has claimed to be an attempt by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government to “sideline the main political opposition in ways that profoundly undermine civil and political rights and Türkiye’s democratic process.”With Özel as leader, the CHP massively outperformed Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the 2024 municipal elections. But the opposition has since faced a political crackdown, including the arrest of a key Erdoğan rival, and the suspension and detention of CHP-affiliated local government officials.
The opposition similarly claimed that the court intervention and its subsequent violent enforcement at its headquarters were a politically motivated attempt to undermine it. “We are under attack,” Özel said in a video message he posted on X, as Turkish police forced their way in. The CHP claimed their only “crime” was besting Erdoğan’s and becoming the leading party for the first time in decades.
Özel later emerged from the building and led a march with CHP supporters toward the Parliament building, some 6 km (4 mi) away. “We will take back our headquarters, of course, we will take back our paternal home,” he told the supporters, according to local news agency T24. “Until that day, we are in the squares, we are in the streets.”
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Here’s what to know about what’s happening in Türkiye.
What triggered the standoff?
On May 21, a Turkish appeals court made a rare move to overturn the results of an internal CHP leadership election in 2023 that Özel had won. The court annulled the CHP’s 2023 Congress, overturning a lower court’s verdict last year against claims of irregularities surrounding Özel’s election.
The ruling suspended Özel and members of the party’s executive board, and it provisionally installed Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, 77, who led the CHP from 2010 to 2023.
Under Kılıçdaroğlu, the CHP failed to win national elections. Kılıçdaroğlu’s string of election losses prompted Ekrem İmamoğlu, a prominent CHP figure and Istanbul’s mayor who was seen as a key rival to Erdoğan, to lead a change in party leadership. İmamoğlu backed Özel, who was elected the party’s leader in November 2023. But former and current members within the CHP opposed to Özel’s leadership questioned his victory, and prosecutors alleged that Özel secured his victory by buying votes.
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Following the ruling, Kılıçdaroğlu, in a statement on social media, said that the CHP was “not a battleground for personal ambitions” and that the ruling “should not be an occasion for division, but an opportunity to unite.”
Özel and his party allies said they will appeal the court ruling, which threatens the CHP’s chances of defeating Erdoğan, who has been in power for more than two decades. After the ruling, crowds reportedly gathered outside the CHP headquarters, and members held meetings about a way forward. A presidential election isn’t due until 2028, but Erdoğan can call for an early one.
Özel and Kılıçdaroğlu’s factions were due to meet on Sunday to iron out differences, but representatives for Kılıçdaroğlu wrote to Ankara’s police seeking intervention. In a copy of the memo to police that local outlet Medyascope obtained, Kılıçdaroğlu’s representative requested the police carry out “necessary procedures” to enforce the ruling and make the Özel-led faction vacate the CHP headquarters. The provincial governor approved the move.
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As Özel left the party headquarters, T24 reported that chanters outside yelled, “Fallen Kemal,” “Traitor Kemal,” and “Kılıçdaroğlu is the hope of the AKP.”
The CHP’s role in Türkiye
The CHP is a center-left socialist party first established in 1923 by Türkiye’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. A military coup in 1980 closed down several political parties, including the CHP, but after the ban was lifted, the CHP was reopened in 1992.
The CHP, which was unpopular in the 1990s but improved its image in recent years, owing largely to the administrative performance of its affiliated local government officials like Istanbul’s İmamoğlu, has posed a threat to Erdoğan’s AKP after edging it out in local elections in 2024.
İmamoğlu, who was nominated via a primary to be the opposition candidate in the next presidential election, has been imprisoned since March 2025 and is on trial for corruption charges. If convicted, he could receive as much as a 2,000-year prison sentence. İmamoğlu’s arrest sparked widespread protests, which the Erdoğan Administration similarly suppressed.
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