Last Monday, King Felipe VI received the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles; the Chief of the Defense Staff, Teodoro López Calderón; and the Commander of Ceuta, Luis Fernández Herrero, at the Zarzuela Palace. The Palace's communication services immediately released a solemn image in which the King and the two military commanders were seen dressed in military uniforms. A detail that did not go unnoticed and which triggered speculation due to the absence of President Sánchez, who is responsible for setting and directing governance strategies. The military power, therefore, wanted to make its presence felt, and the Head of State offered them the opportunity, amidst rumors about discrepancies between the President and the Minister. And it is hard to believe that the image was innocent. In a country that comes from where it comes, the staging is, at the very least, unsettling. What is the reason for this militaristic gesture in the face of a crisis of considerable complexity that does not admit dysfunctional gestures, much less of this character? The monarch staging the army.
The following day, the Supreme Court paralyzed, based on a complaint by Vox, the right to vote of people naturalized under the so-called law of grandchildren, with a strictly political argument: it could change the electoral results. It is an issue that affects two million four hundred thousand people, and it seems that the Supreme Court believes that the status of descendants of exiles can influence their vote dangerously. The right has long been engaging in demagoguery in this regard: it speaks of a rigged election by the government. In any case, the reasons for everyone's vote—wherever they may come from—have nothing to do with what justice must protect, which is the fundamental right for every citizen to vote as they see fit. Denying this right because of the electoral effects it might have is not justice; it is politics.
These are two unsettling examples that confirm that Spain is entering, as elsewhere, what Susan Stokes calls "the era of the regressors," the leaders who erode their own democracies. A phenomenon that Trumpism encourages and that is currently in full development in Europe with the far-right on the rise and democratic right-wing parties increasingly in tow on the path of post-democratic authoritarianism. It is worrying that institutions like the monarchy or the Supreme Court are giving signals in this direction.
