Of Trump and of Juan Carlos I

The symptoms of degradation of liberal democracies are multiplying. And the situation is worsening since the United States entered the Trump era, who with no respect for democratic institutions considers them all to be at his service. ARA has reported on the deal that Trump has imposed on the country's tax agency, the IRS: an out-of-court settlement with the approval of the Department of Justice, which establishes that it is "prohibited and excluded forever" from examining or prosecuting any tax claim against Trump, his children, and the Trump Organization. In other words, the president and his entourage have a free hand for economic impunity. What about the principle of equality before the law, which at least formally governs democratic societies? The institutional degradation generated by Trump's egocentric deficiency knows no bounds. From republic to monarchy?

We know what this is about. We have experienced it live, albeit in a more domestic version. King Juan Carlos I took this privilege of impunity that comes with the crown to the extreme, like any Trump, although fortunately his powers were much more limited. His abuses, especially formal ones, reached a level of shamelessness that caused institutions to react – and also his son, who must have seen his future in danger –. The solution was resignation and flight. And since then we have seen him wander sadly around the world, with sporadic comings and goings from the country, a reminder of the limits of an institution that has become compatible with various democracies, even though it is a contradiction in the fundamental terms of the regime.

When it is an elected official who goes beyond the limits, as in Trump's case, and therefore a head of state with all powers, the situation worsens. Democracy is in danger. And in the case of the United States, it is evident. What are the economic superpowers that set the pace doing to curb presidential delirium? Nothing. And what are political parties doing? Where is the Democratic Party? Trump finds the complicity of the judiciary and the immobility of the legislature, to place himself and his family above the law. And no one is doing anything to stop the pathetic spectacle of a leader who lives off permanent threat in service of his ego.