Headline on the front page of Abc: “The captain of the PSOE sewers mediated to help the investigated”. When I read it, I thought the newspaper was trying to create a kind of character, like Captain Lettuce, Captain Pescanova or Captain Mondongo. This "Capitán de las Cloacas" – in the Spanish of the original version the sound is even harsher and more caricatured – has a touch of Mortadelo and Filemón. But it turns out not to be so, it's about a real Civil Guard captain, of flesh and blood and a tricorn hat, so it's the reality of the balance of powers in Spain that emulates the feverish comics of master Ibáñez. Not a day goes by that the word "sewer" appears on one front page or another of the right-wing newspapers. How do the pillars of sanchismo counter this? With synchronized polls.
Specifically, two, this Monday. El País: “65% of citizens believe there is lawfare in Spain”. La Vanguardia: “Only 40% of Spaniards perceive that judges are impartial”. It's amusing to see the social democratic newspaper now uninhibitedly embracing the concept of lawfare just as squirrels run their hands around an oak tree in the forest to reconnect with Mother Earth. Far from those fiery editorials of El País saying that “the rule of law and its judicial institutions function” or criticizing “the falsehood of the claim about the existence of political prisoners in Spain” during the time of the Process. It's exactly like Martin Niemöller's poem: “When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent, for I was not a communist”. Denouncing lawfare when it affects your interests, but denying it if it suits you, doesn't that make you part of the equation? Perhaps Captain Cloacas will one day come with his cape full of lanterns, the cast-iron shield of the Dúctil Benito Foundation and a friendly PowerPoint and clarify it for us.
