Buses, boarding houses and Ruffles Matutano
Omnibus bills are the political equivalent of what they teach you in parenting 101: that you can put some Matutano Ruffles (now Lays, but I'm old school) with your grilled hake to try and stop your offspring from mopping up the whole plate with their adorable arm. The PSOE has plated up an omnibus bill where, alongside the hake, they've placed the Ruffles of pensions. The objective, of course, is to expose those who aren't at the table: how can you vote against raising the pensions of our long-suffering grandparents? It's a cunning and, frankly, unedifying move because it's designed to portray rival parties and put them between the sword of appearing condescending to the governing party and the hard wall of turning their backs on a popular measure.
The strategy, of course, doesn't work without a clear communications policy. And that's why today I was completely surprised to see that, on the front page, The Country The headline read: "The PP rejects the omnibus decree that includes the pension increase." The intended reaction is clear. The Vanguard The issue was also highlighted on the front page, with similar wording: "Junts warns it will vote against the omnibus pension decree." The fact that the two media outlets most closely aligned with Sánchez are the only two to cover it on their front pages, and that they do so in these terms, demonstrates the success of this tactic. In other words, the PP and, potentially, Junts are portrayed negatively in the headlines of both newspapers, although the Socialists could also be included in the equation. In fact, it is possible that The reasonThe newspaper, which is sometimes a day late (or several decades late, but that's another story), might end up with the headline: "The PSOE resists separating pensions from the omnibus law," and that would also be a valid perspective on the same problem. Meanwhile, pensioners are left with their hearts in their mouths, and we're all wondering how it's possible that people are becoming increasingly indifferent to politics.
