'Annus bonus, annus malus'

It never fails. The president (this applies to any country) says it's been a good year, and the leader of the opposition (ditto) says it's been a bad year.

As Presidents Isla ("It's been a good year for Catalonia") and Sánchez ("This government is good for the Spanish people") have said, they, incidentally, have failed to pass the 2026 budget. President Isla says "It's been a good year for Catalonia," but he certainly hasn't heard that phrase from anyone trying to rent or buy an affordable apartment, nor from the thousands of academically well-educated young Catalans who have had to go abroad to find better-paying jobs. And Sánchez, blinded by record tax revenue (more than 300 billion euros on November 30th), seems to be seeing the 25% of the population living at risk of social exclusion.

On the other hand, Feijóo believes that "it has been a bad year for Spain" and "the worst year of the worst government in the democratic history of our country," without remembering that the title of worst government (to put it mildly) was already awarded to Carlos Mazón, an infamous character whom he was protecting for a year until he was protecting him for a year.

Speaking of embarrassing a country, Donald Trump has taken stock of 2025 by stating: "We are respected again, perhaps like never before." He's now signing his messages as "President DJT." Let's see if he picks up some of JFK's ideas.

So the only year-end assessment that remains grounded in reality is that of Queen Elizabeth II in 1992, when, following the separation from Prince Andrew, the divorce from Princess Anne, and the publication of Diana: Her True Story and a fire at Windsor Castle where 115 rooms burned down, seemed to him to have been a "annus horribilis"