Spain's present is a shambling one. Politically speaking, of course. The supposedly regenerative Pedro Sánchez has become mired in systemic corruption, an endemic peninsular tradition that reached its peak for half a century under the dictatorship of Paco the Murderer, and which democracy, instead of cleansing, has shamefully continued. Sánchez's PSOE had presented itself as a vaccine for this deep-rooted disease. But no. The fiasco is monumental. And the disappointment of good people, even more so. Well, now they say they'll really get down to business with a plan that blah, blah, blah... Really? I wish.
But there's a more serious problem: the PP-Vox alternative. Because alongside that socialism that remains the stuff of opportunists, today's shambling political Spain has a right wing that bears the genetic legacy of the worst legacy of the past (Abascal's Falangist Francoism) and that foreshadows the worst possible dystopian political future (Ayusist Trumpism). Perhaps Sánchez will survive his term, but the day he falls or calls elections, what could happen is vertigo and dizziness. As with wildfires, we've been warned: Spain is deeply entangled, with a highly flammable mountain. When the PP and Vox govern, what they will practice is a scorched-earth policy. We're already seeing clear and painful examples of this in the Valencian Community and the Canary Islands. In every field: combating Catalan, uncontrolled urban planning, more "gallet" tourism, persecution of ideological dissent, dismantling social policies... And, on top of that, a dramatic and proven futility and cynicism, as we saw with the DANA.
For now, it's clear that Feijóo isn't succeeding. He hasn't been able to take advantage of any of the monumental obstacles Sánchez has encountered. He's more concerned with what Abascal and Ayuso say than with mounting a coherent and serious opposition. One day he opens the door to pacts with his potential partners on the Basque and Catalan right, and the next he lashes out at them (especially the PNV) or ignores them (Juntos) in Parliament. He has no measure or credibility. Feijóo is Sánchez's true lifeline. Not only does he not overshadow him, but his intended shadow, paradoxically, protects him. He's so overheated, Feijóo, that he'll end up burning up, if he isn't already. Just as it's enough to give time to see the end of Sánchez's tightrope-walking, a man who has grown accustomed to walking a tightrope, it's also just a matter of waiting to see when the Popular Party (PP) removes Feijóo and makes way for the incendiary Ayuso, capable of setting everything on fire, which is what's currently on the ropes.
Thus, ERC and Junts will do well now to wrest everything they can—in terms of funding, infrastructure, and language—from a PSOE and Sánchez who need them to survive, because the next stage will be one of resistance against Falangism-Trumpism. The question is whether any agreements that may come contain a strong legal and budgetary shield, or, on the contrary, their dismantling is assured. And the same goes for the PSC and Isla's presidency: now is the time to strengthen self-government. We must prepare to face the recentralist and ultraconservative wave looming on the horizon, a wave, by the way, to which the PSOE itself could also succumb when one day, a loser, it drifts: its Jacobin soul is always latent.
The Galdosian and fratricidal Spain is recurrent. Sooner or later, it ends up returning, like a nightmare. And the more they get involved, the more we all lose, especially those of us who mark the national difference that they find so hard to digest: the Catalans. That's why this heated climate of civil war in Madrid doesn't bode well. Surely the blows from Sánchez will end up denting us. I repeat, let's prepare. We accumulate strength and concrete gains (even if they fall far short of the processist ideal). We gather as much as we can, yes. And if the bad omens don't come true, which would make me very happy but I doubt, we'll still have everything we'll have won.
