“The direction in which this populism disguised as progressivism is leading us is unique and unequivocal: the impoverishment of public life”. (José Luis Pardo. Discomfort studies. Authenticity policies in contemporary societies. Anagrama Editorial. 2016. Page 257).
During Rajoy's two terms in office (2011-2018), at the water table of Spanish society, the reversal took place that now manifests itself in a defiant way because he ideologically and strategically emptied the right in the same way—inversely—as Zapatero radicalized the left. Starting with the 2015 elections (the PP collapsed to 123 seats and the PSOE to 90) the corrosion of the institutional framework became rampant.. And the collapse of the system began to show its face: the electoral repetitions and the agonizing efforts to form a Government. After the December 2015 elections, others in 2016. PSOE crisis with a traumatic internal rupture that politically gave birth to Sánchez. Legislature of disruption with the first successful motion of censure that took down Mariano Rajoy (May-June 2018) and the emergence of the rupturist purpose after two new general elections in 2019.
From all these circumstances that make up a process of decline and weakness of the constitutional framework, arises the feverish opportunity of the independence movements and an unrecognizable left recklessly tempted to alter the historical terms of the Spanish democracy of 1978 governed in two long periods by the PSOE ( 1982-1996 and 2004-2011). An amnesty law, whether called that or otherwise, would operate in accordance with its nature: a transitional norm from regime to regime through the delegitimization of the first to design a different one..
The PP and anthropophagy
In this context, the intention—nothing new since the Tinell Pact (December 20, 2003)—is to eliminate possibilities for the right to access power.. And what Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in the prologue to José Varela Ortega's magnificent historical essay entitled The Lords of Power (Galaxia Gutenberg) happens.. 2013): “There is no democracy that can long survive the efforts of important sectors of society, both right and left, to replace a policy of participation with one of exclusion” (page 13) and also that “it is precisely in moments of crisis like the current one when this historic achievement of the Transition is put to the test. “It is possible that at this time they require a refoundation of the Spanish model, a change upon change without breaking the parameters of the coexistence of all in a common political space.”. (page 17).
The PP is a man-eating party—that's how an intelligent jurist defines it to me—because it usually devours its leaders.. There is already gossip in cannibalistic circles around the organization that Núñez Feijóo is amortized. Because the measure of all success is obtaining the Government. Patience has already been discarded as a virtue in the exercise of politics. Aside from the absolute and manifest inconvenience of moving the chair of the former president of the Xunta de Galicia, without ceasing to consider the errors he has committed, how is it possible to ignore the arsenal of effective, direct, enormous power available to the right? Spanish in these moments achieved, also, under the presidency of Núñez Feijóo? It is possible because, after the traumatic July 23, the PP has not fully digested the frustration of its expectations. The question was and is very simple: in a parliamentary system, the party with the most votes and with the most seats is not inevitably responsible for government management, but rather the exercise of an opposition consistent with the democratically obtained resources and that configures an alternative..
Four democratic and institutional powers
The great powers of the right are these:
1) The largest parliamentary group in Congress—137 deputies corresponding to eight million votes—which makes it necessary—introducing Vox into the equation—for the adoption of decisions that require reinforced majorities greater than absolute ones, or that is, a blocking minority, for example, for the reform of the Constitution.
2) Absolute majority in the Senate that, in addition to empowering it in the second legislative reading, allows it to control the spending ceiling as a necessary condition of the General State Budgets (Organic Law of 2012 on Budgetary Stability and Financial Sustainability), approve —or no— new Statutes of Autonomy or their revision (articles 144 et seq. of the EC), and, in addition to exercising cameral control over the President of the Government, forming parliamentary investigation commissions and, finally, authorizing the Executive to apply measures to the protection of article 155 of the Constitution.
3) Government with an absolute majority in the communities of Madrid, Andalusia, Galicia and Rioja and in coalition with Vox in Aragón, Valencian Community, Extremadura, Region of Murcia, Castilla y León, Cantabria, and the mayors-presidencies of the autonomous cities of Ceuta and melilla. The regional governments manage essential public services (health and education, among others), have legislative initiative before the Cortes Generales and powers to apply the framework laws (education, housing).. In addition, they are part of the sectoral commissions on which the viability of government policies depends, among them, the one that studies and debates regional financing, to which must be added the control of the majority of the mayors of provincial capitals ( 30) —two of which, Barcelona and Vitoria, have a mayor from the PSC and the PNV, respectively, by transferring the votes of the PP in exchange for nothing— and more than half of the non-capital cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants.
4) Link with the European People's Party, the majority in the Union Parliament, which provides it with a capacity for international relations and dialogue with great potential (the European popular group is, with 177 deputies – 13 from the Spanish PP – out of 705 , the largest in the Union Parliament).
Mobilization in the street
These are the powers available to the right and with them Núñez Feijóo could concoct an entire credible project—alternative and opposition—as long as he articulates it convincingly.. The power of popular convocation – which today materializes in the great event in Madrid – is not minor and it is a call with as many drawbacks as indications. The overreaction of the PSOE and the Government to the call suggests that the initiative causes concern because it opens an unexpected front: the public and unavoidable expression of a radical disagreement with a possible measure—the amnesty—that would act lethally on the effective validity of the Constitution of 1978. It is not an apocalyptic reflection but derived from the most basic legal and, above all, political logic..
The use of the street must be administered carefully, with temperance and with a purposeful message.. But it is legitimate, although its effectiveness is like that of medications: it causes side effects. Furthermore, raising political issues with the banner has been a specialization of the left that feels robbed when the right invades that territory that it considers to be an ideological pasture of its property.. The left in the street is predictable; the right in the street is a coup. Isabel Rodríguez mentioned the rope in the hanged man's house.
Pablo Iglesias' warning
Núñez Feijóo, whatever the outcome of today's rally in quantitative and qualitative terms (it coincides with the annual party of the PSC and the Alderdi Eguna or party day of the PNV), has a legitimate opportunity on Tuesday in the debate on his investiture: to assemble a good speech and reply correctly. It is not easy and the shot must not be missed.. The arguments for a convincing dissertation are many and the powers that the PP accumulates are sufficient to deal with the left and the independence movement face to face..
As often happens, in the face of the trompe l'oeil of smiles with which Yolanda Díaz wants to make a political statement, everything about Pablo Iglesias is understood without the need for exegesis. It's like the canary in the mine. And this is what he wrote on September 14 (“Aznar and the historical commitment”) in Ctxt: “what is worrying is not that they are taking their social bases out into the streets, but that they already have their army of judges, commanders ready. police and military and media gunmen, in front of a PSOE that does not seem to understand that this goes far beyond the investiture. “This is about the end of the '78 regime and the confrontation with a right that is much more powerful than the 171 seats that PP, Vox and UPN have.”. If we discount the hyperbole in which the founder of Podemos and his war-civilist language abound, the substance of his thesis is true: the right—which goes beyond the PP—has more power than it seems, although, perhaps, the right itself politics don't believe it.
The relationship with Vox
Finally, the PP must make a definitive strategic decision about its relationship with Vox. The cut or cortijo. The behavior of Abascal's party has been painful, but the resignations of the PP have been no less so, particularly in Extremadura and the Region of Murcia. The impositions of Jorge Buxadé in the appointment of presidents of regional legislatures with such foolish political profiles, so far from the natural average of the citizen, show that a sector of the radical party – the one that has separated Espinosa de los Monteros – is torn between administration of power wherever possible and the intention to destroy the PP to ensure its longevity in the opposition against Sánchez. So this clarification of Genoa is urgent because its future is going.
The recipe is to absorb again that political manifestation that has no parallel with the stimuli that have given effect to apparently similar parties in the West and overcome the division of the right-wing bloc to compete with more advantages against the left-wing bloc and independentists.. It does not at all suggest an opposite solution, that is, the normalized cohabitation between the PP and Vox because those of Abascal are a ballast to the possibilities of regrowth of the Popular Party. The management of that pairing has been terrible.
The example of how members are treated, especially the unwanted ones, is Pedro Sánchez himself: not a bad word or a bad gesture towards Unidas Podemos or towards ERC, PNV, Bildu and, now, also Junts, even if they accuse the PSOE of having been behind the coup of 23-F. On the contrary, the extreme harshness that he applies to his adversaries, to which Feijóo himself can attest. You don't have to look like your opponent, but sometimes you do have to learn from their stratagems by reinterpreting them.. The PP, in short, has a hand of cards with the possibility of launching unexpectedly impressive schemes after an investiture by Núñez Feijóo that, surely, will not prosper, but that could harbor a lot of political power for the immediate future if the Spanish democratic right puts its foot down. long lights.