Sánchez, democracy and stability

“You cannot force a country to choose between democracy and stability, because there is no greater instability than that which stems from corruption”. The phrase is by Pedro Sánchez and was addressed to Mariano Rajoy the day before the motion of no confidence that made the socialist leader president of the Spanish government, on June 1, 2018. Next Monday it will be eight years.

Although the circumstances are not the same as now —at that time the PP had just been convicted of lucrative title for the Gürtel network—, the message was clear: let the corrupt leave and let democratic regeneration begin. Sánchez said: “Corruption dissolves a society’s trust in its rulers and weakens the powers of the state”. Well, we are exactly here.

It is also true that trust in the judiciary has been shaken for decades. We have seen Catalan independentists convicted of crimes they have not committed and we have heard a judge’s laughter when he was about to draft the sentence of the Attorney General of the State, to give two examples. That is to say, we have more than enough reasons to think that there is political intention in judicial investigations, which plunges us all into the devastating emotional game of “I do believe you” or “I don’t believe you”, with no basis other than our political sympathies. And yes, everyone is innocent until justice proves otherwise, but Sánchez has an accumulation of investigated individuals, including his own party.

We are here, disgusted, due to a terrible deadlock: neither the PP can win a motion of no confidence nor can the PSOE approve a budget. It is as if the functions of government and opposition were purely nominal. And that the replacement is the PP —which has had at least nine of Aznar’s ministers investigated, prosecuted or imprisoned— with the support of Vox is the icing on the cake of a pie in which Catalonia has a subordinate role.