Flirting with the assault on Congress

The pituitary glands are fused from the different humors emanating from the circles closest to Pedro Sánchez, but democracy has guarantor norms that shield governments from diverse impulses. In moments like these, they are perhaps difficult to reason with, but they are there for a reason. That is why I find the constant appeal from the cave to the supposed illegitimacy of the PSOE leader to be dangerous. The latest broadside is delivered by Abc with an editorial titled “A president against democracy”. Placing him outside of democracy is frankly dangerous, because it invites decisive action, torch and pitchfork. Everyone to the Capitol to restore freedom! Coming from a newspaper that lived through the Civil War, it is even more disturbing. And to further inflame tempers, the front page opens with another headline that fuels the offense: “Sánchez despises justice and Parliament”. The narrative from this trench always has the same blind spot: the inability to seriously analyze why the immense majority of political forces in Congress turn their backs on the PP and Vox. Without this consideration, their narrative falls apart: they should explain to their reader that the terrible management of integrations into the state project by right-wing parties forces the perfidious periphery to opt for the lesser evil, however lame the duck may walk.

In this sense, the approach of El Mundo is somewhat more rational, which this Thursday headlined: “Sánchez already has a majority of 188 deputies against him after leaving without giving explanations”. There is the obvious trap that the 188 do not want an alternative that involves Feijóo and ArmillaMan, but at least the newspaper poses it in terms of parliamentary majorities and not usurpation of power. We have seen in the United States the consequences of stirring the hornet's nest of illegitimacy, and it is a frankly inadvisable path. Especially in a country with its media landscape.