Not "a single ballot", nor anything

The political forces “to the left of the PSOE” had until this Friday to unify efforts and present some kind of joint proposal that could inspire, or at least mobilize, their electorate. We are referring to the parties of the so-called Broad Front (Sumar, Comuns, Más Madrid, IU) and the two parties of the Rufianista-Monterista Front, or ERC-Podem. This, however, has not happened. The fronts that have prevailed, for the umpteenth time, are the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea, so inspirationally described in Life of Brian by Monty Python, and their customary, irritating, stupid inability to reach any kind of agreement among themselves. Unless there is, in stoppage time, one of those tiresome plot twists, one of those childish attention-grabbing stunts to which the politicians of our time have subscribed, “the unity of the left” will not happen again, precisely because of those who have spent months and years lecturing and gesturing about the need for the unity of the left. The fact that the election call surprised all these forces with their homework undone and completely disorganized was already shameful enough; that in the following weeks they have not only been unable to correct this situation, but have finished ruining it, is a calamity. In the ways they could, the voters asked for only one thing: a single ballot, a single list to vote for. For this, not even “unity of the left” was needed, only a certain willingness to reach an understanding. A little bit of skill, intelligence, flexibility, a steady hand (left, yes) and, above all, an important dose of humility, self-criticism and a will to serve the citizenry. There has been none of that. Neither “a single ballot”, nor anything. Nothing at all.

There was even a certain political capital that could be harnessed, shared, and transmitted: that of the need for the PSOE to govern with crutches (there is nothing wrong with admitting the reality) that lead it towards social policies and towards respect for diversity, instead of leaving it within its conservative inertia. One could show the progress achieved in these years in progressive policies and claim the credit or a good part of the credit for it, commit to persisting in it, to improving these policies and making them bolder and more effective. One could even appeal to the epic of remaining as the last bastion against the rise of the far-right, etc. But all this possible capital has been thrown into the trash. Now, each one will pick up the crumbs that correspond to them and they will still come out to puff out their chests on election night.

It is a pity, and above all it is a shame. The worst thing is that all this happens not only "for the seats", as they say, but for an even more despicable reason: out of pure and simple vanity. Because of a group of leaders with hypertrophied and infantile egos, incapable of behaving like adults. They will always have left, like the right, to blame everything on Pedro Sánchez.