James Bond and Sanchismo
Spanish politics has stages of incomparable turmoil. These days the acceleration has reached a degree of excitement that makes one fear for the coronary health of governments, politicians, propagandists, and believing citizens in general. Trying to understand the world that surrounds us in full acceleration and once we have exhausted the quotes from the cynic Machiavelli, the blessed Rousseau, the provocateur Nietzsche, and the brave Arendt, we are only left to surrender ourselves to the wisdom of James Bond. Politics today responds to the “shaken, not stirred” (shaken, not stirred) of yet another Martini that we know cannot end well.
Pedro Sánchez has called for elections taking advantage of the fact that the focus of public attention –increasingly shorter and more coveted– was leaving behind the migration crisis in Ceuta. From the humanitarian disaster, with diplomatic consequences, the public moved with the same emotional intensity to the eviction of an 87-year-old lady due to the negligence of the Madrid social services, added to the greed of vulture funds and the inability of the administrations to work in a coordinated and determined manner to stop externalizing the drama of access to housing to private individuals.
In Catalonia and Barcelona, one of the places where the awareness of the drama is greatest, public policies have been implemented for years that contain prices, buy homes, and build them, but without managing to add the level of supply essential to adapt to the speed of demographic changes.
If property owners are squeezed too hard, apartments are put up for sale and there is always someone willing to pay more to live in the trendy city. If the bureaucracy related to the construction of public and private housing is not facilitated, the supply remains insufficient.
The death of Maricarmen Abascal or the suicide of Olga Matute has put a face to the drama of hundreds of thousands of people who are consumed with the anxiety of being left out in the cold. Sánchez's reaction has been one of remarkable political opportunism, abandoning the framework of immigration and Ceuta to talk about social rights and highlight the lack of empathy of the PP, Vox, and Junts. Sánchez has pointed out the cruelty, and the left-wing groups have joined in with great virulence. The ballot boxes will tell if Sánchez got it right. Everything is stirred up enough that serious predictions cannot be made. But the center is being abandoned in an increasingly polarized society where the right allows itself to be led by the far right and the socialists allow themselves to be led by a far left that has been overwhelmed on the streets of Madrid.
Sánchez, the great chameleon, has adapted to the colors of the landscape once again. The man who reached the leadership of the PSOE defying the elements and who began by flirting with Rivera to end up embracing Pablo Iglesias wants today a sufficient majority to "bend the elites." The same elites to which he attributes the right's vote against the first housing decree, because the second decree was already designed as an impossible letter to the Three Wise Men.
Pragmatic like no other, Sánchez began the legislative term by buying into Miquel Iceta's proposal to promote amnesty for the pro-independence leaders, and he has followed through. In politics, it is useless to value the sincerity or good faith of actions, but rather to highlight that he has kept his word. Carles Puigdemont will be able to return to Catalonia, where the office of former president and a seat as leader of the opposition in Parliament await him, but with the call for elections and the campaign, it is becoming complicated for him to do so with the planned solemnity and ceremony. Miriam Nogueras is the undisputed candidate for Congress and has voted with zero empathy, but on behalf of small and large property owners and the financial sector, in a country where housing was a form of savings. Junts' vote has led Sánchez to finish a legislative term where it was still possible to approve the debt forgiveness of the FLA. Junts will save itself from voting on an insufficient financing system, even if it is possible and essential, but one that would have given a success to its main adversaries: the PSC and ERC. Oriol Junqueras will not be spared the uncomfortable conversation he has postponed, waiting for Gabriel Rufián to come down all by himself from the watchtower where he has placed himself due to his communicative capacity and his flirting with the Spanish left, with which he hopes to make himself a custom parliamentary group.
The PP presents itself for the elections with clear goals and a propaganda machine with a spirit of revenge. The agreements with the far-right clarify its political objectives and the virulence of the debate augurs an atmosphere that is difficult to breathe in. If anyone in Madrid thinks that the times of PP agreements with Convergència and the PNB can return, they are not keeping their feet on the ground. Vox will be radioactive.