Difficult times are coming

2023-11-12 17:15:08

“There are arithmetic victories that are social defeats.” The paradox is exposed by a territorial official of the PSOE. And it is the key to Pedro Sánchez’s drift in his obsession with preserving power.

The socialist leader has cleared his re-election as President of the Government this week, adding 179 parliamentary supports, a margin of 3 votes above the absolute majority. But on that path to continue in La Moncloa he has crossed the sense of decorum, paying a string of tolls that damage the system of coexistence that we gave ourselves in 1978. He included the coronation of him with a total amnesty to the independence movement.

Sánchez is going to go down in history for his demolition of democracy. His imminent investiture is going to be hindered by agreements that de facto suppress parliamentary control, by accepting international mediators to verify monthly deals that include talking about the self-determination of Catalonia or executing an entire case against Justice from Congress, the unpunished singling out of judges, annihilating with one stroke the separation of powers and the rule of law.

Sánchez shows in every step that he only cares about saving his own luck. The result of excessive personalism, the main trait of his character, is straining the Spanish institutional seams to the maximum.

The simple concealment for weeks of the content of the legal deletion of the process makes the looming breach bigger. The official messengers of Sanchismo seek to make their way by anticipating that “public opinion is going to get bored of hearing the president talk about the amnesty.” The accumulation of damage on the street is not even contemplated, according to their doctrine. “If anyone thinks that this party is being intimidated, they are wrong,” they proclaim from the socialist heights. “We must resist,” they repeat to themselves. Until it subsides. But the internal gap is enormous. In La Moncloa they seek to quickly change the screen, form a new Government and begin to announce measures that reduce the response.

The socialist hard core wants to believe that fatigue will take its toll on the Spanish and the amnesty will be condemned to silence. But citizen anger is increasing, as seen daily in many cities in Spain, with demonstrations in front of socialist headquarters, with the epicenter in Ferraz’s headquarters. Seeing their national headquarters surrounded every day by people shouting against the PSOE hurts them a lot. Sánchez himself remained locked up this past Friday for nearly three hours with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in the Government subdelegation in Malaga due to the impossibility of the police cordon guaranteeing the safety of the official delegations and the protesters stationed in front of the building. In fact, the president canceled his presence at an event with European socialists who had traveled to the Andalusian city.

This Sunday, all the squares in Spain were a cry against the impunity that Pedro Sánchez has decreed for his partners. Millions of Spaniards are aware not only of the seriousness of the events, but of their exceptional nature in a modern democracy. The reaction to the party operation launched by Sánchez that confronts the country is exemplary. No matter how much La Moncloa entrenches itself in canned phrases full of holes: “The right and the extreme right hyperventilate”, “our commitment is to coexistence”, “the need to carry out a progressive Government”, etc., etc.

The cards, in reality, are cast. The European Commission itself has turned on the red lights, no matter how much the government staff tries to clear the ball into the gallery. However, he privately takes aim at Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, painting him, of course, as doing “political work for the PP.” They should already know it in Brussels: Sánchez does not give up on anything to achieve his goals. As for the PSOE, in short… either applauds the boss or remains silent, submissive, between panic and frustration, after the collapse of the territorial leadership. Difficult times are coming for socialism because a social majority, accompanied by the judiciary and senior state officials, defend themselves against the autocracy of Pedro Sánchez.