There's no point in getting distracted.
"I'm a supporter of independence, but as a democrat, I'm afraid." Gabriel Rufián is calling on the left to mobilize against the far right at a time when a PP-Vox government is a real alternative for Spain. And Abascal is increasingly trapping Feijóo: while Vox is on the rise, the PP is stagnating, stuck in a rut, waiting for the PSOE to hit rock bottom. Does Rufián's appeal to fear have a cautionary value that I share? What scares me? That the increasingly widespread attempt to put politics above the law, as Carl Schmitt envisioned during one of Europe's most tragic moments, will succeed. And today, Trump is one of its greatest propagandists, having led it to a caricatured level that, fortunately, may finally bring him down due to the absurdity he has reached, as is the case right now with his denial of science and global warming. And certainly, we are not free from that risk here at a time when European leaders are capitulating to a dynamic that substantially threatens democracy.
What is the problem in the Spanish case? Pedro Sánchez caught the PP off guard, ousted Mariano Rajoy when no one expected it, and the right, convinced it was a mirage, crashed against him time and again with its peculiar capacity for resilience. At a time when the European left is fading, it continues to speculate about the future, and provokes further speculation, and provokes González, who says he won't vote for him. With the PSOE weakened and the left trapped in the psychopathology of minor differences, the PP has everything in its favor. Why hasn't it broken free? Because, convinced that the right-wing space is its own, it hasn't anticipated the damage that Vox could do by becoming an indispensable partner. And Abascal has gone all out, thinking that in these disconcerting times, a segment of the population might be receptive to a version of the nation and the right wing—one he shamelessly promotes—based on masculinity as an attribute of power, the foreign pariah—the immigrant—as a factor dissolving the eternal nation, and post-democratic authoritarianism as the alternative for the future.
Summary: the PP needs Vox. And Vox has the leeway and the complicity to do harm. There remains a glimmer of hope: Vox may continue to win votes from the most reactionary sectors of the PP, but at the same time—as it grows in size as a threat—it could provoke a mobilization of democratic reaction on the left and part of the right. Now the partners in the Sánchez government are waking up: Sumar and others are calling for a reaction against neo-fascism. However, it's impossible not to recall the Podemos debacle of 2014, which ended in utter chaos, with leaders who should have been conquering the world trapped in the psychopathology of petty differences between inflated egos.
If the PP feels insecure today, it's due to Feijóo's lamentable management, incapable of projecting authority and developing a consistent alternative discourse that would allow him to secure a majority of right-wing votes. He has limited himself to the constant denigration of Sánchez, as if he didn't dare explain his own projects and intentions. And it becomes clearer every day that he will end up adopting many of Vox's principles. Hence the fears that have led Rufián to say that there's no point in getting distracted.