BARCELONA
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| Soap opera Spanish-style | |
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And yet, it was not meant to be like that. Sánchez started out as a star. Well, a falling star when barely two years as Socialist party leader he had to resign in 2016 after two inconclusive elections. Any other politician would have thrown in the towel. Not him. He traveled the length and breadth of the country, bringing his message, if not to the masses, at least to the party militants, who several months later, and against party leaders, voted him back into office. Pedro's first gamble had paid off.
His second stroke of luck was just around the corner: A no-confidence vote was called in 2018 against Conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, following a court ruling in which it was mentioned that he must have know about some of the corruption in his party. This was later rescinded but the harm was already done, the no-confidence vote was passed against him and Sánchez managed this incredible feat: The first time since democracy was reestablished in Spain that a government came to power, not through an election, but through a no-confidence motion.
In the following elections eyebrows were raised when, Sánchez, unable to win an outright majority, increasingly had to rely on far-left and Basque and Catalan separatist parties to come to, and stay in, power. Under him Spain experienced its first coalition government, with far-left Podemos. Further eyebrows were raised when, in the run-up to the 2019 election, Pedro Sánchez,who had always promised that fugitive Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont would face Spanish justice sooner or later and serve his sentence for his illegal attempt to make Catalonia break away from Spain, also promised that no pardon would be forthcoming for jailed separatists.
Well, that noble principle went out the door as soon as election returns showed Sanchez had no majority. The only way he could stay in power was to get the votes of Catalan separatists and the price was: Pardon for their leaders. And a reform of the criminal code to make those crimes disappear. A shocked nation saw Sánchez make an about-face and accept these demands. Nothing new about a politician promising one thing during an election campaign and, once elected, do something different, but here the stakes were quite high and the meaning of what Sanchez was doing unheard of: In the political Gospel according to Sánchez, if you commit a crime, you go to jail - unless you're a friend of Sanchez's: In which case we remove the crime as a punishable offense so that you can't be prosecuted, and for those who have already been condemned and are serving their sentence, I'll pardon you.
From then on, things took a turn for the worse and started going horribly wrong. In 2023, after regional elections dealt a devastating blow to the Socialists, Sánchez made one of his trademark bold moves, calling a snap election which he lost again, and not only did he not get an outright majority but the Conservative PP party came in first (also without a majority.) During the campaign, Sánchez was asked whether he would go further in acceding to Catalan separatists and grant them an amnesty: he consistently said that, unless a pardon, an amnesty was impossible because unconstitutional and therefore he's never do it. There are red lines that can't be crossed, he added.
At this stage, the reasonable thing would have been for the two parties to come to a gentlemen's agreement: To avoid becoming captive to smaller parties (the PP also had two center- and far-right parties yapping at its heels): Whoever comes up first gets to govern (with the other party abstaining during the vote in Parliament.) But that would have meant for Sanchez handing power over, albeit temporarily, to someone else, and by then it was becoming clear to most of us that Sanchez was enjoying the high life, the palaces and Falcon jet and being fêted and toasted as Spain's head of government. Like a Latin American left-wing leader, Sánchez is becoming ensconced on his throne - and enjoying it.
So, the red lines mysteriously disappeared. Amnesty was no longer unconstitutional: "After all," would Sánchez glibly say, "only the Constitutional Court (Spain's equivalent to the US Supreme Court) can decide what is constitutional and what is not. The man of no convictions showed that he had turned into a fully hypocritical and cynical politician negotiating with "Putsch-Demon", the man he had vowed would face Spanish justice. Catalan separatists, with a tiny number of deputies, became kingmakers because Sanchez needed each one of their votes since a couple of votes would make him lose power. Spain started looking like a banana republic where laws are made no for the benefit of the many, but for the benefit of the few - and especially the one: Sánchez, to ensure his stay in power.
"And I will call you Pedro Sánchez..."
Whatever absurd demand Catalan separatists would make, Sánchez would accede to them, such as the renewed demand to make regional languages as official languages at the Spanish Parliament. The demand had been rejected, and rightly so, by Sánchez himself just one year early as absurd since it would involve additional costs and was superfluous since every single deputy, even Catalans and Basques, spoke Spanish, anyway. Now that he needed their votes, this demand made more sense. Separatists' glee was on obvious display when they added a further demand: We also want our languages (accounting for something like 0.01% of Europe's population) to also become official languages at ...the European Parliament!. No issue, this is a very reasonable demand, Sánchez agreed, and instructed his Foreign Minister to make this happen. (So far other European countries are refusing seeing this as a domestic ploy that should remain circumscribed to Spain.)
Famous American comedian Groucho Marx once said, "These are my principles. If you don't like them, well, I have others." Sanchez is taking this principle, or lack thereof, to new heights - or, rather, new lows.
The latest sad episode in what is increasingly becoming a bad chapter in Spain's history came this week. Actually, it started last week when a judge accepted to investigated Sánchez's wife for corruption, after a denunciation by a civil organization. Sánchez went up in arms that this denunciation was unacceptable, that it was a ploy by the Conservative camp to hurt him. Somebody explain to me why the Prime Minister's wife can't be investigated? After all, a member of the Spanish Royal Family was investigated, prosecuted, sentenced to jail and served a couple of years in jail. If a royal can be sent to jail, why can't be the Prime Minister's wife be merely investigated? (At this stage she's not even being prosecuted?) Is she a goddess? Is he a god? Well, his behavior shows that he believes this to be so. And what about the judge who launched this investigation? A puppet of the right-wing and far-right folks, claims Sánchez. OK, so when judges send other people to jail, they are doing a great job, they are unbiased. But as soon as they do the same for left-wing politicians or their friends, they become corrupt and biased? This sounds more and more redolent of a banana republic.
Sánchez then made yet another of his bold moves: Announcing that he was taking five days off to consider whether he was going to resign to protect his family, he claimed. (As if a judge would rescind his wife's investigation because he has resigned!) Most observers, including I, knew there was no way a man so addicted to power as he was would resign on such a flimsy pretext. It was clearly a ploy to drum up more support for him in the run-up to the Catalan elections (2 weeks from now) and to the European elections (next month.) And on Monday, as expected, the circus came to an end when Prime Minister Sánchez went to meet the Spanish King to announce his "decision" which was a non-decision since he wasn't resigning. Seeing the thousands who had been bused in to acclaim their Dear Leader "Pedro, Pedro, please stay" sent shivers down my spine, reminding me of the adulation of the North Korean leader or former Soviet/Easter European Communist leaders. Sánchez announced that he was staying and would take measures against the press and judges who damage democracy.
Reminiscent of Chávez and Maduro in Venezuela? Remember that the Socialist Old Guard, especially the historic leader Felipe González, have denounced Sánchez's policies, especially regarding the concessions to regional separatists - except for one: Zapatero, who is a stalwart supporter of the Venezuela strongman. Are we surprised?
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| How many Spaniards see Socialist leader Sánchez's policies |
It is too early to say that under Sánchez Spain is moving inevitably towards a Bolivarian model. But everything I have described so far, along with some of his policies, however, point towards it. What was the point in removing Franco from his Valle de los Caidos graveyard when nobody cared a fig about a long-dead dictator? - If not to mobilize the far-left masses and divide the country further.
Only twice have I been very worried about Spain: When the 2008 financial crisis hit and 40% of young people found themselves out of a job. And now that the political crisis has reached unprecedented level of polarization under the stewardship of Sánchez.
And yet, as I said at the beginning, it was not supposed to be like that. When "Pedro" became Prime Minster he was this rare find: Handsome, smart, bold, amazingly lucky, English-speaking. He was a model leader. How sad that he has degenerated into this obsessively ambitious, power-hungry, unscrupulous, lying, cynical, mafia-like don whose future actions are becoming increasingly worrisome. Small wonder many Spaniards have taken to referring to him now as "Perro" Sanchez.*
*Perro means "dog" in Spanish.
(DISCLOSURE: The blogger is not affiliated with any political party, whether left- or right-wing or in between or beyond. Actually I NEVER cast a vote. But as a citizen I carefully watch how we are misgoverned in order to be able to should out loud: "Not In My Name." I described my model political system a couple of years ago in this post on DirDem or Direct Democracy.)
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