The fight for the king during the campaign

I admit that, for a moment, upon seeing the coincidence on the Spanish front pages, it seemed to me that not everything was lost and that polarization had not ruined everything (yet). That in the middle of an electoral campaign it was impossible to distinguish whether a front-page headline corresponded to an apologist for Sanchismo or to one of its unredeemed and furious critics made one think of the miracle of reconciliation. The thaw of the two Spains! Let's look at these two covers, to see if one can guess which one is from El País and which from El Mundo: “The King, to the Ceutans: «We will not leave you alone or defenseless»” and “«Our obligation is to defend an inalienable part of Spain»”. The same would happen if we added Abc and La Razón. In all of them, the floor is given to Felipe VI, without any semantic twist that would allow one to deduce a criticism of Sanchismo.

Does this mean that the King managed to be the meeting point of the two trenches? The authority that no one disputes? I do not deny that there is a point to this, because the mess that sustains the major Spanish media has the same foundations as the monarchy, the judiciary, or the bipartisanship that emerged from the Transition. But I would say that the predominant factor in this false brotherhood is the attempt to appropriate the figure of the King, with diametrically opposed objectives. When the right brings him out for a walk on the front page, it is saying: “This one does defend Ceuta, unlike the fool Sánchez”. When El País does it, it conveys the idea that the King –who has an acting and speaking capacity severely tutored by the government– is the representative of the State, that is to say of Sánchez, addressing the thorny Ceutan issue. It is a way of saying that the autonomous city is not left in the hands of God, or Allah, contrary to the narrative of the 'caverna'. So, reconciliation?, monarchy as a linchpin?, non-partisan media? I am very sorry. I made a mistake. It will not happen again.