Spanish politics is bogged down, who will unbog it? It will certainly not be Alberto Núñez Feijóo's PP, which fails to present itself as a governing alternative that convinces anyone, except the PP itself and the only interlocutor and partner it has left, Vox. The situation of the Spanish government oscillates between anxiety and shock, according to the news of each day, each week, and each month. Pedro Sánchez seems determined not to call early elections, or to resist doing so as much as possible, and one can doubt whether this attitude is due to firmness, calculation, or mere stubbornness. But Feijóo is not, in any case, a leader who presents himself with a response capable of generating enthusiasm in the face of the government's wear and tear. For a long time now, his only opposition task has consisted of directing exhortations to Sánchez's investiture partners. Sometimes he blames them, other times he insults them, much less often he hints at wanting to convince them (I won't say seduce them, so as not to sound sarcastic). To Junts and the PNB, in particular, he begs and begs again, like a mendicant friar of politics, to let him have their votes to carry out a motion of no confidence, even an instrumental motion, pretending to sideline Vox. Even so, he does not manage to get the Catalan or Basque right to give him their support. Not because Junts and PNB are particularly satisfied with Sánchez and his government (especially Junts, gripped by a conceptual discomfort that leads it to engage in the gesticulations that everyone already knows), but because they know that the Spanish right's proposal is no acceptable alternative. They know that, however bad the current situation is, the other is objectively worse. With a PP that openly says it is willing to govern with Vox (what else?), and with the demonstrated influence of the Spanish right over State powers such as the police and the judiciary, what may happen in the form of involution —and, if necessary, demolition— of Spanish democracy is easy to imagine and difficult to digest. It is also obvious that the first to suffer the consequences would be the Basques and the Catalans. Very mainly the Catalans.The distrust of Junts and PNB towards the PP also has to do, paradoxically if you will, with what has served the popular party to put Sánchez's government on the ropes: the judicialization of politics. At the beginning of the current legislature, the PP fell into the maneuver of labeling the left-wing government as "illegitimate" — no small matter — and Feijóo predicted a "calvary" for Sánchez that has been becoming a reality in chapters. The harmony between the PP and the patriotic justice is more than evident, and this causes the stalemate to be not only of the government, but of the institutional system. To dislodge the PSOE from power and access it themselves, they have literally perverted the rule of law: this is how they have gained positions and worn down Sánchez, yes, but they have also cornered themselves. Feijóo is six votes short of bringing down Sánchez, only six. And he doesn't get them. He can only beg for them.

Beyond the PSOE and the PSC, the left-wing parties paint a plural mosaic in the Spanish state. This complex configuration expresses two facts. The plurinational character of the State, with differentiated societies that generate their own party systems, and the tendency towards ideologically delimited spaces: a culture of political affiliation that makes it difficult to articulate broad fronts. Broadly speaking, in ten of the seventeen autonomous communities, proximity left-wing parties operate with an institutional presence. In all cases, it is a single entity that brings together progressive sovereigntism: Endavant Andalusia, the BNG, the CHA, Compromís, Bildu, Més Madrid, Més and Nova Canàries. Catalonia is the exception: here ERC, Comuns and CUP inhabit (and dispute) the space. On the other hand, there are three forces with the will to operate throughout the State: IU, Podem and Moviment Sumar.Throughout the years 2023 to 2026, the sovereignist lefts complete a cycle with relevant results: above 30% in Euskadi and Galicia; between 15% and 25% in Catalonia, Madrid, Navarra, and the Valencian Country; around 10% in Andalusia, Aragon, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands. The federal lefts, in the same cycle, are situated at modest levels: between 2% and 5%. In three communities, however, these forces articulate candidacies based on trajectories that go beyond a specific coalition: Per Andalusia, Unides per Extremadura, and Contigo-Zurekin (Navarra); in all cases, the results improve and are situated between 6% and 10%. The set of these dynamics offers some keys for navigating paths of strengthening. It is also about factors connected to underlying trends.Territorial rootedness. In a global context of uncertainties, individualization, and acceleration of rhythms, community anchorages are absolutely necessary. But they must be rebuilt on new foundations. The explosion of diversity requires daily environments where bonds are possible. It is about equipping life paths with elements of relational security: frameworks where support and collective action capacities are articulated. In political terms, these solidarity grammars translate into actors oriented towards working with logics of territorial rootedness and municipalist projects. Political forces similar to the people, where belonging is built in terms of practices and values, rather than ideological narratives; where identity is oriented towards forging popular power and local sovereignties, rather than national abstractions.The will to articulate majorities. Throughout the last century, the political expression of social conflict consolidated the classic left/right axis. In that context, social democracy managed to gain centrality in the progressive sphere. And even more relevant: it built a framework of reference, which placed the rest of the actors, for example, to the left of the socialists. This framework still underpins – often inertially – many perceptions. But it has begun to overflow. Spaces of the left are now being articulated that move from the corner of the board towards broader proposals. Political forces that connect with new common senses, more transformative and more transversal at the same time.The activation of hope and joy. “To be radical is to make hope possible, not to convince despair”. With these words, the Welsh sociologist Raymond Williams wanted to establish a clear counterpoint to an emotional state deeply embedded in the left. What Deleuze called the sad passions: a political logic given to discouragement, or, in the best of cases, to digging trenches of resistance. But here too things have begun to change: the left of hope is emerging. Actors who link transformative ambition to joyful passions. Political spaces that are working on a new emotional framework that generates horizons of meaning, and also fraternal paths to move forward. A rebellious grammar – without resentment or nostalgia – woven by trust and empathy.The good recent results of the sovereignist left, and also of the federal ones when they work from proximity, offer solid foundations. The challenge now is to translate this baggage into formulas for cooperation with tactical intelligence (given an electoral system in which proportionality largely disappears in much of the territory). A good result for the left in the general elections will be key to defeating PP and Vox. Two open proposals for confluence have been put forward: the call by Gabriel Rufián and that of the Sumar parties in government. They should be worked on, cross-recognitions built, and progress made towards inclusive fronts: pivoting on plurinationality, with the capacity to articulate majorities and broaden hope. Perhaps it is not easy, but it would be difficult to explain not trying.

The day after the respective parliamentary groups applauded with Christian fervor (of false saints, of whitewashed tombs) in Congress the words of Leo XIV against xenophobia and national priority, the PP and Vox invested the new president of Castilla y León with a government agreement based mainly on this concept. It is hypocritical and contrary to the spirit and letter of everything they claim to defend, from the Constitution to the Charter of Human Rights, but it was completely predictable that it would be so. Castilla y León would not be an exception to what has already happened in Extremadura and Aragon, nor to what will most likely also happen in Andalusia. In fact, in the communities that have not had elections this past winter but are also governed by agreements or pacts between the PP and Vox, national priority has also been incorporated into the roadmap as an indispensable condition for maintaining governments. The scheme is always the same: Vox imposes a blockade on the PP and does not lift it until the PP signs a long document in which it commits to applying Vox's demands in its government action. Since Vox is a completely vertical and hierarchical party, it always does things the same way everywhere, so it is absolutely predictable.The first of these demands is the famous national priority, which conceptually implies the institutionalization of racism and xenophobia, and in practice means a severe cutback in immigrants' access to public services. It is, incidentally, exactly the same recipe proposed by Aliança Catalana in Catalonia, and it is also the characteristic “Theirs first” of fascist populism. It rhymes well with the European Union's migratory policy, which, as the Advocate General of the ECJ has just certified, exports immigrants to prisons in non-EU countries without any guarantees regarding their fundamental rights. Without euphemisms: so that they can be tortured and killed in these other countries, in exchange for receiving the corresponding stipend.Returning to the national priority of Vox and the PP, what many of their supporters do not know is that the cuts in public services and rights that they applaud being applied to immigrants will tomorrow also be applied against them. Hearing Mañueco (the president of Castilla y León is called this, and he repeats in office) stammer vague excuses to downplay the agreement is a sad warning of the justifications that his voters will have to seek when they realize – if they realize – that at the bottom of it all is the dismantling of the welfare state, first, and of democracy itself later, or simultaneously. All this, seasoned with defiant bad-taste fireworks: the president of Extremadura, María Guardiola, who a couple of years ago stated that governing with Vox was her red line, now puts the resources and strength to create a piece of garbage called Extremestiza, to exalt with public money the figures of the Extremaduran plunderers of Latin America, Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro. And what is worse, with Nacho Cano as musical advisor.

There are historical moments when certain political tendencies seem to impose themselves unstoppably, as if carried by a gust of wind. A few years ago, the rise of the far-right was unthinkable; it is true that the disasters of the 20th century are now far away for the new generations, but we have seen enough films and heard so much talk about Hitlerian madness and the dictatorship that long oppressed us that it seemed impossible that anyone could still believe that those slogans were desirable and could improve collective life. And yet, we have seen how the wave has been spreading across Europe, how it has devoured the United States, how it is rising among us, perhaps to engulf us too. We have many explanations for why this has happened. The easiest and most trivial is the one that attributes it to the errors of left-wing parties, to corruption scandals, to internal squabbles. All of this is certainly present, but they are minor issues when compared to everything that the left has achieved since the Transition: free healthcare and education systems, pensions, redistribution of income through political action. Everything that is at risk when the far-right arrives; this, initially supported by populist proposals, always changes when it has already achieved power, with a coup d'état if necessary, if it sees its dominion threatened. And then the party is over, it is repression that settles in, and, unfortunately, sometimes for many years. Is it inevitable that in Spain the next government will be PP+Vox, a combination that could be terrible, and that will once again turn Catalonia into the favorite enemy, along with immigration? Can the left-wing parties do anything to prevent it? I think, at this moment, this is a key question: I don't know if we have time to avoid disaster, but, at least, we should try.

Today the day breathes the happiness of a festival, of a festival that has a unique particularity: it is simultaneously a national festival and a universal festival. And, frankly, as the world is (and with the busy day that awaits us), with this we would have enough to analyze this April 23rd, which today could have a very simple title: Long live Saint George.But current events are what they are, imperative and capricious, to the point that today it brings us the other side of life. If Sant Jordi is the perfume of a rose and the smell of a new book, the pact between the PP and Vox in Aragon is as if it rained shit and the air had been smeared with the stench of rot.The PP and Vox have agreed in Aragon to demand "freeing Aragon from the imposition of Catalan" to invest Jorge Azcón, from the PP, as president. Yes, as it sounds: "Freeing Aragon from Catalan." There is a section of the agreement titled "Freedom in the face of indoctrination and imposition." The law stating that Aragonese Catalan is a co-official language is being reformed, and the Aragonese Institute of Catalan, which oversees the application of Catalan norms and the social use of the language, is being abolished. Let's see, the PP already invented the name LAPAO to avoid saying Catalan, but now they are not hiding anything and are talking about "freeing Aragon from Catalan," as if one were talking about freeing it from a foreign invasion or a disease, as if it were not the language spoken and that has been spoken for centuries by the Aragonese who live in La Franja.  

Although the People's Party insists actively and passively that Vox is a party like any other to justify their pacts with them, reality shows every day that this is not the case. The incident staged by deputy José María Sánchez in the Congress of Deputies, in which he climbed the podium to shout at the then acting president of the chamber, Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Celis, at a distance of a few centimeters, had not been seen in the chamber throughout the democratic period. And perhaps the closest thing to it was on February 23, as recalled by the socialist Patxi López.

The big news from the elections in Castile and León is that, for the first time in a long time, the expectations predicting a surge for Vox have not materialized. Polls forecasting a drop for the People's Party (PP) and a Vox surge to 19 seats and over 20% of the vote have instead led to a scenario that reinforces the two-party system, with both the PP and the Socialists gaining more seats (+2) than Vox (+1). Therefore, it is legitimate to ask whether the far-right wave is reaching its peak, especially considering that the campaign coincided with Donald Trump's escalating involvement in the Iran-Contra affair. However, two points need to be clarified. Vox's rise hasn't been as significant because it was already starting from a strong position in 2022, when it obtained 17.6% of the vote and 13 seats. The electoral system, especially in a territory with many constituencies, benefits the two major parties and disadvantages third parties, as has been the case. The second point is that, while the far right is not growing as much, the hegemony of the right is consolidating.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has concluded that to reach La Moncloa (the Prime Minister's residence) he needs to coexist with uncomfortable neighbors, such as Vox. There is, therefore, no alternative. In fact, what he now needs to demonstrate is that PP-Vox governments work, and that this is a model that can be replicated in the Spanish executive branch. The dream of governing alone, already difficult for most of his supporters, is a distant prospect. malesThis is arithmetically impossible in a Parliament where Catalan and Basque votes also come into play, as is the case in the Congress. However, this coexistence can be, for many reasons, even more complex than the one Pedro Sánchez faces with his partners. Why? Because the political paradigm is changing at breakneck speed before our very eyes.

Aragon goes to the polls this Sunday for the first time in early elections, not coinciding with other elections, but there is very little doubt about the outcome. The conservative majority (PP+Vox+PAR), which currently holds 36 of the 67 seats, is expected to rise above 40, in line with the conservative wave sweeping Spain, but which, as was already evident in Extremadura, primarily benefits the far right. There is also no doubt that the PP will be the leading party and that, therefore, Jorge Azcón is the most likely candidate to be re-elected president. However, in the final days of the campaign, Azcón has appeared tense and agitated, particularly raising his voice against Vox. Why? Because, like María Guardiola before him, he called early elections to overcome Vox's obstruction of the budget, and now everything suggests that he will be even more hamstrung by Santiago Abascal's party. In short, a move designed to strengthen the PP may end up strengthening Vox and complicating life for the Aragonese president.

If just a decade ago, on the 40th anniversary of Francisco Franco's death, someone had told us that by the 50th anniversary a far-right political force that celebrates his legacy would be setting the pace of Spanish politics, we probably wouldn't have believed it. But that's exactly what's happening. On the eve of the dictator's fiftieth anniversary, Vox occupies the center of the Spanish political debate for several reasons, but the main one is that it is clearly influencing the actions of the main opposition party, the PP. The PP is currently negotiating with Vox to invest a new president of the Valencian Generalitat, and in five weeks, early elections will be held in Extremadura precisely because the president, María Guardiola, wants to stop depending on the far right. The president of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, finds himself in a similar situation, having been left without a budget by Vox. But the fact is that all the actions of the PP's regional leaders, from Juanma Moreno Bonilla, who is holding elections in June, to Marga Prohens in the Balearic Islands, and including Isabel Díaz Ayuso, are carried out with one eye on Santiago Abascal's party, whether to seduce it or absorb it. And then there's the case of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who after three years as PP president has still not been able to define a clear party line for dealing with Vox. This leads him to endorse seemingly contradictory strategies, such as that of the Valencian PP, willing to adopt the far-right's positions to retain power, and those of Guardiola and Moreno Bonilla, who want to distance themselves. And there is still a third way, that of the Ayuso-Aznar tandem, which seeks to absorb Vox to reunify the right-wing space.

Feijóo, the man who whispered in the ears of the Basques and Catalans, congratulated the president of the Autonomous City of Melilla, the notoriously powerful Juan José Imbroda, with the phrase, "I don't know what your wife gives you, but you look better every day," which was, naturally, warmly applauded by the audience. Imbroda must have thought it a nice compliment, and his wife probably did too, if she shares her husband's and his party colleagues' worldview. They are the ones who talk about "gender ideology," "feminazis," and false accusations of assault or rape, while lamenting that "you can't say anything anymore" and that "they'll have to fill out a form" to have sex, because of the "gender dictatorship" they see everywhere.

All roads lead to Rome. After Mazón announced his resignation, a year late, the first initiative both he and Feijóo took was to ask Vox to get to work so they could immediately reach an agreement and form a new government. This definitively puts an end to the ambiguities. Vox is winning the battle on the right. And the PP now acknowledges that Vox holds all the cards. This is Feijóo's greatest success. When he arrived, the PP was hegemonic on the right, and Vox was just beginning to make its presence felt. Now it is indispensable. Only Vox can bring him to power, and at the same time, it continues to chip away at his support and take away votes from people who, when faced with the choice, when the neo-authoritarian excesses of the far right are no longer taboo in the fight against the evil personified by President Sánchez, end up preferring the model to the copy. In other words, the reactionary wave that is destabilizing Europe is taking hold in a large part of Spain.

If a frog is placed in boiling water, it will immediately jump out to save itself. However, if it is placed in cold water and the temperature is gradually increased, the frog will not perceive the danger and will be boiled to death without attempting to escape. This phenomenon, known as "boiled frog syndrome," describes a process of gradual adaptation to change that can have tragic and irreversible consequences. It is a strategy commonly used to explain various social and political phenomena, including the rise of Nazism and its tragic outcome in the form of genocide. It is highly unlikely, if not impossible, that Hitler would have gained the support of German citizens if he had run in the 1933 elections with a political platform that included his plan to exterminate Jews, Roma, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other minorities through a sophisticated system of extermination camps and Cameroons. Such a policy would not have found support among the German public. No one, not even those most convinced of the superiority of the Aryan race, would probably have supported a party that upheld such barbarity in its political ideology.

I take this title from the article in the book of poems and scattered notesThe police will be in force (Documenta, 2025) by the eminent Enric Casasses, because the author's poetic prose is an invitation to look at life in general, and life in Catalan in particular, with the lack of inhibition of someone who sees it clearly and knows how to say it, which is what one must adopt to go out into the world when hysteria triumphs.

Let's not fool ourselves. Achieving official status for Catalan in the European Union is no easy task, as it is an issue that raises many concerns in other countries, and the decision must be made unanimously. The Spanish government, in order to fulfill the commitments signed with Junts, intends for the European Union's General Affairs Council to vote on the matter this Tuesday after a diplomatic offensive aimed at overcoming the reluctance of the most hesitant countries, such as the Baltic countries, where there is a significant Russian-speaking minority that could demand the same.