"After what we've seen, the lesson on feminism should have been explained to the brothels," said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, addressing President Sánchez in Parliament, with the tense expression of someone who believes he's hit the mark. Spanish politics is experiencing a complicated situation, with the far right gaining presence and initiative everywhere, capitalizing on a discontent that weakens Sánchez's resistance. And Feijóo, trapped by his own insecurities, instead of providing a solid alternative, limits his entire public presence to the criminalization of the Prime Minister with a crude escalation that borders on the ridiculous. Amid the legal proceedings recently opened against socialists and former socialists, he has made sex his theme. How far does he intend to go?
Feijóo seems proud of his pronouncements, deployed in the Catalan Parliament as if it were a neighborhood café. Does he really believe that the highest-level political debate in the country should devolve into this avalanche of rudeness and frivolity? Is this childish exhibitionism how he intends to win the trust of the Spanish people? Then politicians are surprised by the bad reputation their work has. Feijóo aspires to succeed Sánchez as Prime Minister: it's the role that corresponds to him as leader of the opposition, but does he really think that this cocky, neighborhood show will be rewarded with the trust of the citizens?
What does he have to propose? What would he do if he were in the position of the one in charge? What project does he have for the coming years? What is his worldview and what can he offer the Spanish people? He's already been doing his "military service" as the president's number one adversary for quite some time, but his crusade is becoming increasingly grassroots. Once Sánchez is gone, then what? Silence. Doesn't he have any other way to attract the public's attention than to play a game of who can say the most outrageous thing against the president? Doesn't he have a single concrete proposal of general interest to frame his discourse? You will know men by their deeds. Someone who needs to destroy the image of their opponent in order to aspire to govern is suspected of lacking self-confidence: incapable of winning on their own merits, they have to demonize the other. But what does Feijóo offer the public that's new? He doesn't care, because economic and social policies won't be decided by him, but by those who really hold power.
Are we really supposed to normalize and applaud systematic lies, the manipulation of facts, and the denial of the adversary as a matter of principle? Is democratic politics truly legitimate with no other criterion than demonizing the opponent? Does he have nothing to propose, or is he afraid to propose what he does have? Isn't Feijóo aware that with this strategy he's doing the far right's work for them, that while he barks at Sánchez, they're capitalizing on the discontent of the segment of the population that rejects him, promising to save the nation by ousting the traitors who govern it? It's no wonder that more and more right-wing voters, caught between Feijóo's antics and Abascal's inflammatory rhetoric, are veering towards radicalization. Feijóo's greatest achievement may well be putting the PP in Vox's wake. Quite a success.
