A matter of pure and simple humanity
MadridIn Madrid, they've begun installing the wiring infrastructure for the Christmas lights. But the Christmas spirit hasn't appeared anywhere yet. The ongoing confrontation between the People's Party (PP) and the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) isn't benefiting anyone. In any case, it serves to confirm that the investiture pact in favor of Pedro Sánchez is holding up. Under precarious conditions, but it's holding up. As for the general atmosphere, it's as if spectators at any sports tournament have lost interest in following the game, waiting for unforeseen events to turn their gaze back toward the field or the court. We're at a point where only a dramatic change will allow the public to regain its full attention. The key decisions are those about organizing the political calendar. And since almost nothing is moving—that is, nothing decisive—we are content to watch the attempts by both sides to poke holes in the opponent's strategy. And this is where we are stuck, neither moving forward nor back, in a long game of chess with an uncertain outcome.
The PP expected a hellish autumn for the socialist government, while a handful of judges continued to stick needles in it. Each report from the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard represents a high risk for the government and for the PSOE. But so far they have not been sufficiently explicit to constitute an insurmountable threat. Sánchez has already been warned from many angles that sooner or later he would receive a report with the thesis that the socialists have had illegal financing, a parallel economy or a slush fund. The idea continues to be fostered, especially with the discovery of Koldo García's famous terminological innovations, the former advisor to the former Minister of Public Works, José Luis Ábalos, for whom the five-hundred-euro bills were considered chistorra (a type of chistorra sausage)—for color reasons, with the aggravating circumstance of being delivered to their recipient in envelopes with the letters PSOE clearly visible. For the Popular Party, this is incontrovertible proof. For the Socialists, however, nothing matters, because it was money intended to pay the expenses of former minister José Luis Ábalos, when he was acting on party business.
Parliamentary control sessions in the government are always a thermometer to check the political temperature, and the latest occasion was no exception. The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, appeared confident that this time he would succeed in upsetting Pedro Sánchez, announcing that he would bring him before the Senate's commission of inquiry into the Cerdán-Ábalos-Koldo case, for the alleged evidence of illegal financing of the PSOE. He probably wanted to rush things too far, because the suspicions about a Socialist secret fund aren't solid enough to formulate a solid accusation. It remains to be seen what that appearance will yield, but the Socialist leader's first reaction was to bring his rival down a peg. The two words Sánchez uttered in response to Feijóo are among those that go straight to the compilation of parliamentary quotes for their simplicity, irony, and forcefulness. "Cheer up, Alberto," he replied from his seat, and immediately sat back down, lowering the microphone, with a gesture of authority much appreciated by deputies when they want to appear self-assured.
The problem for the PP isn't Sánchez's response, but the immense difficulty he has in defining his playing field and making the most of his opportunities. The latest Civil Guard report wasn't the rocket the opposition had hoped for. It allows for many assumptions and accusations about the circulation of cash received by Ábalos between 2017 and 2021, but without proving parallel accounting by the PSOE. Feijóo, in short, has failed to grab his rival by the throat. On the other hand, the expression "Ánimo, Alberto" serves to mock an attempt at persecution in a brief parliamentary session, but there will be something more from Sánchez when he appears before the Senate's inquiry committee. The advantage the PSOE has at this moment is that the PP is beginning to experience very serious problems in Madrid and Andalusia. However, these factors will not allow us to forget that the commitment to present a draft state budget for 2026 is still pending.
Complex autumn
In Madrid, Feijóo must endure living with a regional leader, the president of the community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who has been accumulating blunders and barbarities this fall. Her positions on the genocide in Gaza and the disqualification of the Flotilla participants are far from the criteria and feelings of the majority of Spanish society, I'm sure that of Madrid. And her response to the government on the creation of a register of conscientious objector doctors Regarding abortion care, this will haunt her for a long time. Her statement asking people to "go somewhere else to get an abortion" is unjustifiable. It's another matter that she said that in Madrid "no doctor will be singled out" for their conscientious objection to abortion, because that should be guaranteed. But women who want to terminate their pregnancy under the conditions provided by law should also be absolutely guaranteed access to public health care.
As for Andalusia, the situation due to the lack of information for women who undergo breast cancer screening is a very serious matter. It means The worst crisis that the government of the popular president, Juan Manuel Moreno, has experiencedThe resignation of the Minister of Health, Rocío Hernández, and the measures to assist the women affected by this scandal will not be a sufficient response. A breast cancer screening program cannot result in the subsequent neglect of 2,000 women who were literally abandoned without information. Nothing can cover up what has been, at the very least, enormous and unjustifiable negligence. It is a matter of pure and simple humanity. The PP must understand this; the struggle for power must always be compatible with solidarity and identification with the suffering of people, especially when the cause of this situation is unjust and even cruel, and you can already assume I'm not just talking about Andalusia.
