A strike based on electoral bias

Last night's interview on TVE's La Revuelta went much better for Abascal than for Broncano. The Vox leader listened, kept quiet, did not interrupt, and responded when it was his turn. And he responded in a reasonably responsible tone. Broncano, on the other hand, made very long interventions with clarifications that no one was asking for and that sounded like excuses, and he managed neither to make an entertaining show (we are talking about an entertainment program) nor to conduct a poignant interview. To put it in sporting terms, Abascal won. And he will gain some votes, thanks to this interview, because many people watched it: it was the most-watched broadcast in the history of the program in terms of viewers, nearly five million people, 428,000 more viewers than the one with Pedro Sánchez.

And that said, tomorrow there is a general strike. It has many possibilities of being a success, more so because the unrest that causes it has been going on for a long time and has ended up creating a state of generalized awareness that goes far beyond politicized people: impossible rents and home purchases, salaries that fall short, older children who do not leave home, and life plans at all ages that remain suspended in uncertainty.

And here comes the most paradoxical part: impoverishment is so widespread that some of those who will be singled out by the strikers suffer for the same reasons as them: how many small and medium-sized enterprises have no margin to raise salaries or how many owners of an apartment bought by dint of doing without many things in order to leave it to a child would like to get rid of it because they have lost control over it in the face of hyper-regulation and do not feel at all represented by this adjective thrown like an insult of "rentier"?

The strike tomorrow, then, let it be clear, is based on real discontent; in fact, on great discontent. Now, it has an electoral bias. It is being held 48 hours before the start of the campaign. You will see how the government of Pedro Sánchez will want to capitalize on it, as if it had not been governing for eight years. I do not believe it can be said, as the PP says, that it is a strike against the opposition, but the strike has the favor of the left, which needs a major mobilization of voters, in light of the polls that say that a PP-Vox government is inevitable.  

And how will it go tomorrow? The unions themselves have predicted that there will be more people at the evening demonstrations than work stoppages at companies in the morning. The Mossos have planned a maximum security operation, with more than 9,000 agents deployed in four shifts, almost half the staff. The largest demonstration will be at 5:30 p.m. on Passeig de Gràcia. The Mossos believe it is called with a peaceful intent, but they also foresee that after the mobilization as such, once the unions have called it off, incidents with groups could occur. It will be a serious day. And to those who say that strikes, like demonstrations or sit-ins, do not change reality, tell them that there is no communicative act that does not have consequences. Changes begin when everyone is aware that a limit has been reached. And in the case of housing, we are already at that limit.

Good morning.