A victory more shocking than they will ever admit

The PSOE's resounding defeat in Extremadura, a former socialist stronghold, has been predictably seized upon by the right-wing newspapers to declare the end of the Great Dark Age of Sánchez. In fact, reading some of the front pages, it even seems as if he himself ran in the elections: "Sánchez suffers a historic defeat in Extremadura" (The reason) or "Sánchez leads the PSOE to collapse and the PP wins without getting rid of Vox" (The WorldClearly, the events in Extremadura are of little to no interest to Madrid.ABC The headline also projects into the future: "Historic victory for the right in Extremadura." However, looking at the results, perhaps the enthusiasm should be tempered somewhat. Because the three media outlets' clear bet was on the PP (People's Party), so, unsurprisingly, cases have recently erupted that tarnished the reputation of Abascal's party. Now, Vox has risen like thunder, and, in fact, looking at the front pages reveals a startling realization: the PP candidate, María Guardiola, has won, yes, but has only managed to gain a single, meager seat compared to what she already held, despite the media support she received. Or, in other words, the majority of the deputies who released The PSOE has poached Vox (which doesn't necessarily mean they're their own voters, something some enthusiastic analysts seem to forget: we must discuss the alleged vote transfers in Demoscopilandia someday).

The other now classic point to comment on is that the three right-wing newspapers still don't include "ultra" on their front pages, so as not to alarm their followers. They do use "extreme" and "hardline," of course, but as a single word and to refer to the autonomous community. Otherwise, everything is democratically normal, and nothing happens here about making deals with a party rooted in the politics of hate.