9May
The return of Moreno unleashes a crisis in the newsroom of El País for fear of a new ERE and the departure of the entire leadership

The decision to replace Soledad Gallego has come directly from the Board of Directors of the Prisa group.

Javier Moreno returns to the direction of the newspaper 'El País' after six years.

“During Tuesday the 9th, the director of The country, Javier Moreno-Barber, severely pressured and threatened several editors so that they would not leave the information they had prepared unsigned. The withdrawal of signatures was a protest against the presentation by the company of an ERE that affects 149 people (a third of the workforce)”.

“Following orders from the president of Prisa, Juan Luis Cebrian, Moreno exerted his pressure directly and through the deputy directors and chief editors. That performance by Moreno has caused an irreversible divorce between the Editorial Office and its director. Therefore, the template The country considers that Javier Moreno Barber has been disabled to exercise the position he holds and requires him to present his RESIGNATION immediately”.

This communication from the Works Council of The country It is dated October 11, 2012 and occurred a month before the last three-day big strike (November 6-8) carried out by the workforce in protest at the only ERE that has been carried out in The country and that he took with him a third of the staff. Never before had they asked for the resignation of a director in what is a good barometer to measure Moreno’s terrible relations with part of his staff.

A traumatic ERE that the writing of The country It took years to digest, but now returns like a cloud to hang over their heads after knowing the imminent return of Xavier Moreno to the direction of the newspaper, six years after he left.

The newsroom sources you’ve talked to invested they speak of “absolute surprise and great concern”. The problem is that the contrasts are very large. Two years ago the appointment of Soledad Gallego Diaz was interpreted with a nod to the wording and now the completely opposite effect is produced with the return of Moreno, who did not leave the best memories in his squad.

ERTE in ‘El País’

Those who knew him do not hesitate to describe him as a cold, cerebral professional who fulfills his objectives methodically and calmly. In fact, during his more than eight years at the helm of the newspaper (2006 to 2014), replacing the historical Jesus Ceberius he was always accused of being an executor of the decisions of Juan Luis Cebrianat that time almighty president of Rush. The common denominator is that he has always been close to the directors of the group.

The sources consulted indicate that the jug of cold water caused by the exit of Galician Sun It has been accompanied by a feeling of fear about the adjustment measures that the newspaper may take in the future. Nobody doubts that the current situation of the economic slowdown generated by the Covid pandemic is the most serious in the last two decades and even worse than the 2010 press crisis.

Soledad Gallego-Díaz in a file image.

Soledad Gallego-Díaz in a file image.

The parallels are evident and the most veteran of the squad immediately returns to the head of the 2012 ERE. Officially Prisa agreed with the staff of The country not make layoffs until December of this yearbut as of January 1 all stages are open.

One of them is to perform another ERE and Moreno’s arrival does not help to calm down a squad who has always seen him as an executor of the plans of Prisa’s management and its managers. Maruja Torres, who left the newspaper precisely with Moreno and who had returned as a collaborator three months ago with Gallego Díaz described him this Monday as “the child of the ERE”, a feeling that runs through the entire newsroom.

On the main floor you are not calm either. The first to leave the ship has been Joaquin Estefania, until now attached to the management, who leaves his executive responsibilities in the newspaper. In the same way, the three key pieces of the Sol Gallego organization chart could leave their positions shortly: Borja Echevarria, Jan Martinez Ahrens Y Monica Ceberio.

Editorial support

The three responsible for the newsroom have not taken the departure of their director well either. In the leadership of the newspaper they do not understand that Prisa has decided to replace Gallego, the only woman in the 44 years of life of the newspaper and only two years after choosing her. At a time when The country wanted to identify with progressivism and with the values ​​of feminism, the return of Xavier Moreno it is totally different from the one that Gallego drew for the future of the newspaper.

Soledad Gallego Diaz She was widely supported by all the sectors of the newspaper and sources consulted by this newspaper indicate that “she did not want to leave.” Several editors spoke with her during the pandemic and she stated that she wanted to fulfill the two-year contract and continue to relaunch the post-covid newspaper, wanting to get her colleagues from the current ERTE out of it and with the idea of to tell firsthand how the new society that has come out of confinement would be shaped.

What happened? The sources consulted by Invertia indicate that Prisa’s management team had Moreno in a folder for at least a month. From the Board of directors his management is recognized in America Country, where he promoted the payment model and his work on digitization and media innovation. In Prisa they also warn that Dark He is one of the few managers in Prisa who can lead large teams and has shown it as director of the School of Journalism of El País and as head of America.

Editorial of the Country.

Editorial of the Country.
The country

But why put Moreno ahead of Sol Gallego when the latter stated in private that she did not want to leave? The answer can be found in the management team of Rush. Management has concluded that at a time of economic crisis, with the refinancing of Rush with banking on the table and with plummeting advertising revenue, the most prudent thing was to place a manager in charge of the newspaper.

Furthermore, a manager who was in direct harmony with the guidelines of Prisa and its Board of directors. A role that Moreno already fulfilled in the last stage of Juan Luis Cebrián, when the largest Spanish companies such as Santander, Caixabank and Telefonica they went from being creditors to shareholders of the company.

Financial difficulties

As Invertia has already told, the Prisa group is at an economic crossroads. Amber, its main shareholder with 29% of the shares, has ruled out carrying out a takeover bid, while the capital increase outlined by Javier Monzón, non-executive president, has been paralyzed due to the lack of interest from Spanish companies.

The poor financial situation has also closed the doors to the announced IPO of Santillana and the sale of 10% of Media Capital -after two failed operations- has made Portuguese businesses go from being valued at 440 million to only 130 million euros.

Javier Monzón in a file image.

Javier Monzón in a file image.

That is why what is really important for Rush right now is the status of your debt. The pandemic and confinement have caused the banks to forgive certain conditions agreed in the last agreement, but without solving the bulk of the problem.

In April of this year the company had to pay a partial amortization of 275 million euros as part of the commitments signed with the creditor banks. Nor it was an enforceable obligation but rather it was configured as a milestone that, if not met, would cause an increase in the cost of its debt. Finally, the bank forgave them the 1.5% increase in interest and decided not to apply this clause.

On the other hand, Prisa must carry out two other partial amortizations and mandatory debt on December 31, 2020 and 2021 for amounts of 15 and 25 million euros, respectively. And you must pay the bulk of the debt in November 2022.

If we analyze the impact that the coronavirus can have on its accounts, it seems difficult today that these milestones can be consolidated and everything seems to advise that the group must close as soon as possible the renegotiation with the bank of new agreements to alleviate a debt close to 1,500 millions of euros.

12Mar
Is Spain bankrupt?

On October 10, the leader of the opposition and the Popular Party, Pablo Casado, surprised locals and strangers with a statement in which he stated that “Spain is broken. Beyond the unfortunate nature of this demonstration, which can damage the image of our country abroad and create social alarm at home, the objective of this article is to assess whether this phrase can make any economic sense.

Strictly speaking, a country, like a company or a family, is “bankrupt” if the value of its liabilities exceeds the value of its assets. This situation, which occurs in families and companies, is very unlikely to occur in any state. Debt, which is a stock, is usually measured in terms of a flow, GDP. And, in the most extreme cases, one can speak of a debt 4 or 5 times that flow (400-500% of GDP).

Nevertheless, the set of assets, the wealth of a country, is much higher. It encompasses the value of its territory, its natural resources, the capital of its companies, technological capital, that of its buildings, both those intended for production and residential, the value of its historical and artistic heritage, its gold reserves and other metals, its financial assets against other countries, not to mention its human capital and its intangibles. All of this probably amounts to 50-60 times annual GDP.

It is true that many of these assets are not easily sold and, therefore, cannot provide liquidity to meet the payments to the creditors who hold our debt. For this reason, Casado was probably referring in his phrase to the concept of “suspension of payments” or defaultWhat is it a situation in which a country is unable to meet its commitments to pay interest or repay principal to its creditorseither because of their volume or because they have not generated enough confidence in the international markets for creditors to renew their loan or other new lenders to decide to take it on.

This was what happened in the eurozone crisis in 2010-11, with several countries that had to be “bailed out” (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus), that is, receive a liquidity line from the international public sector (ECB, European Commission and IMF, the so-called Troika) to be able to meet their payment obligations, in exchange for a series of adjustment measures or reforms imposed from outside. That was not the case of Spain, which did not suffer any bailout of its sovereign debt, like the aforementioned countries, although it did receive a bailout of its financial system in 2012, coinciding with the Rajoy government.

The question is whether we are now in a situation similar to that or not. As I said before, at least one of the following conditions must be met: (i) that the volume of debt is exorbitant and (ii) that international, private and public creditors are not willing to renew their loan to the country .

Public debt, private debt

The first point is very relevant because, frequently, it is measured whether the volume of a country’s debt is exorbitant, referring exclusively to public debt. One of the great lessons we learned from the international financial crisis and the Great Recession of 2008 is that identifying “national debt” with “public debt” can be very wrong. That was the main thesis of my book The False Bonanza. How we got here and how to try not to repeat it (Ed. Peninsula, 2015).

Indeed, In 2007, Spain was one of the OECD countries with the lowest Public Debt ratio: 36% compared to 65% in Germany, 64% in France or 103% in Italy, to give a few examples. The public deficits close to zero of the last Aznar government and the public surpluses of the Zapatero government (the only surpluses that there have been in democracy) managed to drastically reduce the debt ratio, which reached 64% when we entered the euro in 1999 .

So why was Spain so hard hit by the crisis? The answer is very simple: because of our private debt and its corollary, the external debt. At the beginning of 2008, when the financial crisis was about to break out (Lehman Brothers fell in September 2008), our private debt was 385% of GDP, more than 10 times the volume of our public debt. Of this debt, 90% of GDP corresponded to families, basically mortgages. The debt of non-financial companies was almost 200% of GDP, which included not only the liabilities of real estate developers but also the indebtedness of many of our companies that decided to position themselves as “champions” in the international market in sectors such as energy , banking, insurance, telecommunications or infrastructure.

Getting into debt in a pandemic is normal. For the first time in a long time we are doing what needs to be done.

The rest, 100%, were the debts of our financial sector, banks and savings banks, which had borrowed in the interbank market of the euro zone to lend abroad and fuel the credit and real estate bubbles.

This private debt explains why the foreign debt, what Spain owes to its international creditors, reached 100% of GDP. And it was in this ratio that our vulnerability rested. When there is an international financial crisis and the markets “dry up”, the countries that suffer the most are those most indebted abroad. Japan has a colossal public debt (250% of GDP) but hardly any external debt, since it finances its internal public debt with domestic savings. That is, it does not have private debt either.

Including total public and private debt, the question would be: why do countries get into debt? The typical response is war, natural disaster, or pandemic. The surprising thing about Spain in the years of the “False Bonanza” is that the excess of indebtedness took place in full economic boom, unleashed after our entry into the euro in 1999. That was not normal. The current thing, getting into debt in a pandemic, yes it is.

Therefore, for the first time in a long time, we are doing what needs to be done, borrowing from the impact of the pandemic and reducing the debt ratio (largely thanks to nominal GDP growth) with the recovery.

What is our current debt level?

If we start with private debt, the Bank of Spain has recently published the debt ratios of both households and non-financial companies, which are shown in Chart 1.

Source: CaixaBank Research, based on Bank of Spain data.

Source: CaixaBank Research, based on Bank of Spain data.

It is true that the debt of companies and households has risen as a result of the pandemic. But, as he defended before, it is a “natural” increase. Furthermore, despite this increase, private debt ratios are much lower than they were in 2012-16, when Spain was not only not “bankrupt” but, according to the opposition leader, “enjoyed iron solvency”. And far from it these current ratios are comparable to those during the False Bonanza and to those I have referred to earlier. Therefore, as far as private debt is concerned, it does not seem that we are in a situation that is much less close to suspension of payments.

As far as external debt is concerned, as Figure 2 shows, it is true that in 2020 a path of decline that began in 2014 is cut short. But it is also a “natural” upturn.

Source: Bank of Spain and own elaboration @migsebastiang

Source: Bank of Spain and own elaboration @migsebastiang

The increase is consistent with the increase in private debt that we saw earlier and with the increase in public debt that we will see next. In any case, these are external debt ratios that are much lower than those reached in 2012-16 and can hardly be associated with levels close to “insolvency”.

And what about public debt? As I said at the beginning of this article, this is the variable on which the focus is usually placed, both political and media. In Graph 3 I present the Public Debt ratio of all the Public Administrations of Spain, according to the excessive deficit procedure.

In 2019, despite the coalition government, there is a reduction in public debt.

As I pointed out before, from our entry into the euro until 2008 the public debt ratio was systematically reduced, taking advantage of economic growth, until reaching a minimum at the beginning of 2008. From that moment on, a sharp deterioration in the debt ratio began for two reasons: (i) the crisis reduced tax revenues and increased certain expenses, such as unemployment benefits . This deterioration in the public deficit translates into an increase in debt. But this also increases due to the bailouts that the public sector makes of private debt: part of the debt of banks and savings banks, electricity debt, etc.

Public debt increased by 25 points of GDP during the Zapatero administrations (from 45% in 2004 to 70% in 2011, going through the minimum of 34% in 2007) and by 31 points under Rajoy (from 70% to 101% in 2014). So far, all quite reasonable, given the magnitude of the financial crisis of 2008-2013. What is most extraordinary is the absence of a correction of the debt ratio from 2015 to 2018, despite the fact that the economy was already growing. Indeed, in those years Spain not only did not reduce the structural deficit, but rather increased it.

Source: Bank of Spain and own elaboration @migsebastiang

Source: Bank of Spain and own elaboration @migsebastiang

In 2019, despite the coalition government, there is a reduction in public debt to 95% of GDP. But this trend is cut short with the arrival of the pandemic and all the expenses associated with it (health, ERTEs, aid, etc.), as well as the corresponding loss of tax revenue due to the crisis. In addition, the rescue of the SAREB takes place, in an unsustainable financial situation after a disastrous management of the previous years. The debt ratio has climbed to 125% of GDP. But the forecasts of the European Commission itself point to a significant reduction in the coming years.

Source: CaixaBank Research, based on Bank of Spain data.

14Jan
Maruja Torres’s nightmare: the ghosts that aborted her ephemeral return to ‘El País’

The journalist has had a convulsive relationship with Prisa, going from being one of its most prominent firms to harshly criticizing the group’s management.

The journalist and writer Maruja Torres.

May 16, 2013: “The director of The country he kicked me out Opinion and I’ve gone from The country. So many years… But it’s a relief.”

June 15, 2020: “Soledad Gallego-Diaz leave the address of The country and I happen to inform you that my article from the previous Saturday is the last one you have read in that medium. I have enjoyed a lot and I thank you, the readers and the companions. I don’t have the cunt for noise.”

Just over seven years separate these messages published by Maruja Torres in your account at Twitter. Seven convulsive years of back and forth and two sentences that perfectly summarize the relationship of the journalist and writer with the recently appointed new director of The country, Xavier Moreno.

A controversy that is nothing more than a new episode in the strange and convulsive relationship that has marked Torres in the last decade with the group in which he has worked for practically half his life. In 2013 the newspaper did not renew his contract under the usual terms and she decided to leave after harshly criticizing the ERE carried out a year before and who he considered his promoter: Juan Luis Cebrian.

Without Cebrián and without Javier Moreno, Torres healed her wounds and undertook a return to the newspaper, convinced by the management of Soledad Gallego-Diaz. It was three months, from the beginning of the pandemic, that ended abruptly this week. Those who have closely experienced this process indicate that it has not been easy for the journalist who was very excited to return to writing in what she has always considered her home.

More than 30 years in ‘El País’

The countryhas been a part of life Maruja Torres, where he has done practically everything, but also the reason for great professional disappointment. She is too sincere to stand out next to power, extremely close to her colleagues and not given to hierarchies, she never held positions within the organization chart, despite being one of her oldest editors.

It was included in the newspaper Rush already with an important journalistic career behind. Born in Barcelona in 1943, she began in the world of journalism two decades later as a secretary and editor in the section Female Page From the newspaper the press. In 1965 he became part of the magazine Garbo and At the same time, he collaborates with the magazine frames where he made his first opinion articles and interviews. During this period he publishes in The country, Please Y The street.

In 1981 he moved to Madrid to join the newspaper The country -founded in 1976- under the supervision of Rose Montero. He would be 33 years in the Prisa newspaper. In the eighties and nineties he was a war correspondent, one of the most prominent.

He was in charge of covering the invasion of Panama by the North American troops and there he lived in 1989 the murder of the photographer Juantxu Rodríguez by shots of the US army. He also covered the conflict in Lebanon and in Beirut established his residence for some years. In the mid-nineties she returns to Barcelona where he collaborates in the publications The viewer Y what to read. In addition to the columns of him in The countrysince September 2006 collaborates in hour 25 in the Ser Chain.

Prisa also allowed her to combine her writing and column work with her prolific career as a writer and novelist. Planet Award in 2000 for his novel as long as we liveat the beginning of 2009 wins the Nadal Award by wait for me in heaven.

The wounds of the ERE

Everything fit together until the arrival of Xavier Moreno to the address of The countryin 2006. Close to its predecessor Jesus Ceberio, Torres he never understood the ways of the new director: dry, cold, close to power and far from his newsroom. “A CEO with the skin of a journalist”According to those who know him.

A few convulsive years in which Torres moved away from day to day, he focused more on his books and his columns, but he did not move away from the newsroom. They were the hard years of the crisis, the sharp drop in newspaper advertising and the almost technical bankruptcy of the Prisa group. It was the time when Juan Luis Cebrián multiplied his pressure on the countrys, when it favored companies and political parties and when large Spanish companies exchanged the company’s debt for Prisa shares.

A period in which creditors demanded cutbacks and The country he had to perform his first and only ERE to date. 129 colleagues left the newsroom Maruja Torres, a third of the workforce, in one of the hardest moments of the Prisa header.

Y Maruja Torres did not shut up On October 11, 2012, he published an incendiary column criticizing the directors who promoted the ERE led by Juan Luis Cebrian and Javier Moreno. “There is a lot of talk about what those who are subject to layoffs, readjustments, downgrades and, in general, what is now called ‘adaptation to current circumstances’, a subtle metaphor of a pickle, suffer. Demagogy. It’s easy to side with the weak. However, no one feels sorry for the bosses.”

“My heart aches when I think of those executives who fly business or first—some, even, in the terrifying isolation of their jet private, owned or rented-, and that they cannot do anything else, understand it well”, he concluded.

First rush outing

Seven months later he left, when Xavier Moreno He proposed that she do reports and remove her from the opinion section of the newspaper. the past Holy Week I received a letter informing me that the newspaper’s management had decided not to extend my contract under the same terms,” ​​the journalist told The world for those dates.

“In the meeting that we have held today, the director began by telling me that the economic situation is terrible and that it is not possible to explain how the other newspapers survive. Later he has tried to ‘sell’ me that it was wasted, that wanted me to do reports again…” he explained to this newspaper. He finally told her that he was not interested in the offer and left.

Months later he began collaborating with eldiario.es and time passed. In 2014 Xavier Moreno would leave the direction of The country and in 2018 his definitive departure from Juan Luis Cebrian. In June of that year, Soledad Gallega was appointed director of the newspaper and things began to change. She was always her turn on the table, but it was not until the beginning of this year that she began to write in the diary again with the coronavirus pandemic as an ‘excuse’.

A return that, however, was aborted only three months later. Soledad Gallego leaves The country and Maruja Torres welcomes Xavier Moreno with his resignation and with the qualification of “the child of the ERE”. “The boy from ERE is back!” He said even before exchanging words with the new director and not before setting the networks on fire with his criticism of the group’s Prisa leadership. A decision that goes back to the most immediate past. That of Juan Luis Cebrian. That of the ERE.

A week of fury that ended with three dream months in which Torres was reunited with his lifelong diary, but which he has had to abandon again because of Xavier Moreno and again because of his troubled relationship with the company’s management. The nightmare repeats itself.

9Jan
Maruja Torres’s nightmare: the ghosts that aborted her ephemeral return to ‘El País’

The journalist has had a convulsive relationship with Prisa, going from being one of its most prominent firms to harshly criticizing the group’s management.

The journalist and writer Maruja Torres.

May 16, 2013: “The director of The country he kicked me out Opinion and I’ve gone from The country. So many years… But it’s a relief.”

June 15, 2020: “Soledad Gallego-Diaz leave the address of The country and I happen to inform you that my article from the previous Saturday is the last one you have read in that medium. I have enjoyed a lot and I thank you, the readers and the companions. I don’t have the cunt for noise.”

Just over seven years separate these messages published by Maruja Torres in your account at Twitter. Seven convulsive years of back and forth and two sentences that perfectly summarize the relationship of the journalist and writer with the recently appointed new director of The country, Xavier Moreno.

A controversy that is nothing more than a new episode in the strange and convulsive relationship that has marked Torres in the last decade with the group in which he has worked for practically half his life. In 2013 the newspaper did not renew his contract under the usual terms and she decided to leave after harshly criticizing the ERE carried out a year before and who he considered his promoter: Juan Luis Cebrian.

Without Cebrián and without Javier Moreno, Torres healed her wounds and undertook a return to the newspaper, convinced by the management of Soledad Gallego-Diaz. It was three months, from the beginning of the pandemic, that ended abruptly this week. Those who have closely experienced this process indicate that it has not been easy for the journalist who was very excited to return to writing in what she has always considered her home.

More than 30 years in ‘El País’

The countryhas been a part of life Maruja Torres, where he has done practically everything, but also the reason for great professional disappointment. She is too sincere to stand out next to power, extremely close to her colleagues and not given to hierarchies, she never held positions within the organization chart, despite being one of her oldest editors.

It was included in the newspaper Rush already with an important journalistic career behind. Born in Barcelona in 1943, she began in the world of journalism two decades later as a secretary and editor in the section Female Page From the newspaper the press. In 1965 he became part of the magazine Garbo and At the same time, he collaborates with the magazine frames where he made his first opinion articles and interviews. During this period he publishes in The country, Please Y The street.

In 1981 he moved to Madrid to join the newspaper The country -founded in 1976- under the supervision of Rose Montero. He would be 33 years in the Prisa newspaper. In the eighties and nineties he was a war correspondent, one of the most prominent.

He was in charge of covering the invasion of Panama by the North American troops and there he lived in 1989 the murder of the photographer Juantxu Rodríguez by shots of the US army. He also covered the conflict in Lebanon and in Beirut established his residence for some years. In the mid-nineties she returns to Barcelona where he collaborates in the publications The viewer Y what to read. In addition to the columns of him in The countrysince September 2006 collaborates in hour 25 in the Ser Chain.

Prisa also allowed her to combine her writing and column work with her prolific career as a writer and novelist. Planet Award in 2000 for his novel as long as we liveat the beginning of 2009 wins the Nadal Award by wait for me in heaven.

The wounds of the ERE

Everything fit together until the arrival of Xavier Moreno to the address of The countryin 2006. Close to its predecessor Jesus Ceberio, Torres he never understood the ways of the new director: dry, cold, close to power and far from his newsroom. “A CEO with the skin of a journalist”According to those who know him.

A few convulsive years in which Torres moved away from day to day, he focused more on his books and his columns, but he did not move away from the newsroom. They were the hard years of the crisis, the sharp drop in newspaper advertising and the almost technical bankruptcy of the Prisa group. It was the time when Juan Luis Cebrián multiplied his pressure on the countrys, when it favored companies and political parties and when large Spanish companies exchanged the company’s debt for Prisa shares.

A period in which creditors demanded cutbacks and The country he had to perform his first and only ERE to date. 129 colleagues left the newsroom Maruja Torres, a third of the workforce, in one of the hardest moments of the Prisa header.

Y Maruja Torres did not shut up On October 11, 2012, he published an incendiary column criticizing the directors who promoted the ERE led by Juan Luis Cebrian and Javier Moreno. “There is a lot of talk about what those who are subject to layoffs, readjustments, downgrades and, in general, what is now called ‘adaptation to current circumstances’, a subtle metaphor of a pickle, suffer. Demagogy. It’s easy to side with the weak. However, no one feels sorry for the bosses.”

“My heart aches when I think of those executives who fly business or first—some, even, in the terrifying isolation of their jet private, owned or rented-, and that they cannot do anything else, understand it well”, he concluded.

First rush outing

Seven months later he left, when Xavier Moreno He proposed that she do reports and remove her from the opinion section of the newspaper. the past Holy Week I received a letter informing me that the newspaper’s management had decided not to extend my contract under the same terms,” ​​the journalist told The world for those dates.

“In the meeting that we have held today, the director began by telling me that the economic situation is terrible and that it is not possible to explain how the other newspapers survive. Later he has tried to ‘sell’ me that it was wasted, that wanted me to do reports again…” he explained to this newspaper. He finally told her that he was not interested in the offer and left.

Months later he began collaborating with eldiario.es and time passed. In 2014 Xavier Moreno would leave the direction of The country and in 2018 his definitive departure from Juan Luis Cebrian. In June of that year, Soledad Gallega was appointed director of the newspaper and things began to change. She was always her turn on the table, but it was not until the beginning of this year that she began to write in the diary again with the coronavirus pandemic as an ‘excuse’.

A return that, however, was aborted only three months later. Soledad Gallego leaves The country and Maruja Torres welcomes Xavier Moreno with his resignation and with the qualification of “the child of the ERE”. “The boy from ERE is back!” He said even before exchanging words with the new director and not before setting the networks on fire with his criticism of the group’s Prisa leadership. A decision that goes back to the most immediate past. That of Juan Luis Cebrian. That of the ERE.

A week of fury that ended with three dream months in which Torres was reunited with his lifelong diary, but which he has had to abandon again because of Xavier Moreno and again because of his troubled relationship with the company’s management. The nightmare repeats itself.