Aznar in Ceuta

The “he who can do, let him do” well understood begins with oneself, and according to this evidence, former Spanish President José María Aznar has materialized in Ceuta, where he had not returned since 2004, with the sole purpose of intensifying the tension and further weakening Pedro Sánchez and his government: indeed, Aznar himself has repeatedly pointed to the current Spanish government as the cause of an unprecedented institutional crisis, in the face of which all means are legitimate. It is curious, on the other hand, that he too has ended up doing like other leaders of the Spanish extreme right and far-right (it's not a play on words, or not only): imitating their own agitators. Thus, Aznar goes to Ceuta to put on a show, like a Vito Quiles or an Alvise Pérez. This tactic of appearing in sensitive places to carry out clumsy provocations became a common political tool of Albert Rivera and Inés Arrimadas's Ciutadans, and is part of the toxic legacy that that far-right formation (it was nothing else) left within Catalan and Spanish politics.Speaking of legacies, it somehow makes sense for Aznar to go to Ceuta, if only to close a circle he opened there twenty-four years ago with the campaign for the sovereignty of the Perejil Island. That episode was labeled grotesque at the time by many voices, because it undoubtedly was. But it was the same kind of grotesque that we now consume by the spoonful: that of Spanish-style constitutional patriotism, an elegant way of calling lifelong ultranationalism, today turned into a political space shared/contested by PP and Vox, as well as a vast collection of civil entities that raise the flag (constitutional or not) and also their arms and faces to the sun with renewed energy. The pioneer of this return of the most rancid Spanish right was Aznar, first from the government and then from FAES, an artifact halfway between a lobby and a think tank that has been building the discourse and doctrine of the hardest Spanish nationalism over the last quarter of a century. A part of the PSOE also gravitates towards it (starting with another former president, Felipe González; it is curious that investigations into the activities and assets of former Spanish presidents have started with Zapatero and not with Aznar or González, nor Rajoy), and the main message is clear: when it comes to Spain (which for all these people means a system of personal enrichment), there are no jokes. When Aznar began to claim unabashedly Spanishness, to put flags everywhere and to go to joke wars like the one over Perejil or real ones like the one in Iraq, he could not imagine that a wave of the far-right would come across the West that would give a thousand horsepower to his ideas. But the wave has come, and he and his circle have enthusiastically ridden it. Aznar goes to Ceuta to proclaim the pride of the heirs of those who won the Civil War, and to make it clear that they are willing to win it again (and blame the defeated for it).