Madrid is, increasingly, a continuous and terrible spectacle, starring a wide collection of actors from all imaginable professions who always move around a single concept: power. In its full dimension and with all the elements that have characterized the work for centuries: ambition, corruption, exploitation, manipulation... institutional violence if necessary. Pasqual Maragall already anticipated it in detail in articles in El País 25 years ago ("Madrid se va") and 23 years ago ("Madrid se ha ido"). Today we note that these are not only very relevant reflections, but that it is possible and necessary to update them.

The Catalan education law (LEC) has been in force for just over fifteen years. This is a good time to move away from nostalgia and instead make useful reference to the debates and concerns of the present. It is certainly worth recalling that, together with Francesc Colomé, we accounted for what had been accomplished during that period and shaped it in the book New school, free townPublished in 2013, we explained what, in our understanding, it meant to govern a system with over a million students and nearly 100,000 teachers.

Political parties are fundamental components of the democratic system. Undeniable. And yet, political parties are now directly responsible for the growing disconnect between citizens and democracy as a system of representation and governance. This contradiction has become increasingly tangible in recent decades as a critical issue and part of the explanation for the rise of populist and anti-democratic options. Two fundamental elements of the democratic system have been in place since the Transition: the basic legislation on political organizations and the proportional representation electoral system. Spanish (and Catalan) regulations grant political parties exclusive power in the dual function of representing citizens and selecting candidates for positions of responsibility in various institutions. The legitimacy of proportional representation systems is more than established, but we also know that they include criteria such as "closed and blocked" lists, which limit and undermine the direct relationship between elected officials and voters. Beyond the party leaders and candidates for regional or local government, political parties are no longer able to maintain a dialogue with the citizens they theoretically represent. Does anyone know who "my representative" is? Who, beyond their immediate party and social circle, knows the members of one electoral list or another? How can we evaluate or criticize their legislative performance, or their direct contact with their electorate? The initial good intention (1978), which aimed to guarantee political pluralism and respect for minorities, has resulted in a clear disconnect between political forces and a society that has lost much of the trust and respect it should owe its representatives. The virtues of proportional representation were minimized from the outset by the definition of provincial constituencies that favored (or imposed) a two-party system considered a guarantee of stability.

We have reached the climax, the collective orgasm of total disaster. After weeks, months, and years of news about successive and respective cases affecting the two major Spanish parties, we have reached the peak of the scandal with the publication of the report by the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard (UCO), on the commissions allegedly received and shared by the magnificent trio Koldo-Ábalos-Cerdá.