September is just around the corner and we still don't know if autumn will bring us a new government or if we will continue in the Italian way without government, without idea and without program. It is no exaggeration today to say that we are living a tangle comedy with a protagonist and several supporting actors. The main actor is Pedro Sánchez, a very skilled politician who, more than moral considerations, moves the value of the will and the intensity of the passion to command. Anyone who approaches him would do well to remember what Chamberlain said in relation to Britain's approach to Russia in 1898: " When you dine with the devil , take a long spoon."

The second character in the cast is Pablo Iglesias who moves in a diabolical dilemma: he does not want a new election because he knows he has lost all, but he also does not want to deliver his seats in exchange for anything because that would make his party a vassal of the PSOE and prisoner for the next four years. And it is that the podemites see in the marketing that we are currently attending a political maneuver aimed at making them bear the responsibility of making the negotiations fail and aborting the birth of a "progressive" government.

Last but not least in this function, there are the nationalist and separatist parties on whose decision the fate of Spain depends. What it does seem is that, if there is an investiture thanks to the votes of socialists and podemites, we will have a president and ministers , but we will not have a government and that is serious when there are so many challenges on the horizon.

Most commentators bet because in the end Sánchez and Iglesias will agree, but we must not underestimate the intervention of the errors, the improvisation or simply the lack of sense of the opportunity in the policy march. In addition, we still do not know if Pedro Sánchez is going on a bluff, if Pablo Iglesias will double at the end, if Oriol Junqueras will remain anchored in the abstention on the eve of the procession sentence or if Pablo Casado and Albert Rivera will be able to agree to attend together and have an opportunity to reverse the situation ...

As the chroniclers of the Court do not seem able to guess the future, I have dedicated my spare time to rereading some classics to try to understand what is happening. The Fouché of Stefan Zweig portrays a character that "the nerves do not dominate, the senses do not seduce and in which all his passion is loaded and unloaded behind the impenetrable wall of his forehead. He waits patiently for the passion of the others or that a moment of weakness appears in them to then strike the inexorable blow. " Does it sound like something? Margaret MacMillan's 1914 illustrates how "the crucial decisions that led Europe to war were made by a surprisingly small number of people who, with very few exceptions, did not know where they led to their countries and the world." Doesn't it sound like that either? The one of the Sad Destinations , by Pérez Galdós, tells how the Liberal Union of O'Donnell and the Progress of Sagasta "shook hands and embraced to make the salvation of Spain as a single party".

The books cited describe times of great changes like the one we are living in Spain today, where things always last 40 years and every day it seems more evident that the first transition ended in 2015 when, for well known reasons, the bipartisanship of the second Restoration came to an end and the economic crisis ended with a long period of stability, progress and hope by opening a new period full of uncertainties. And that is not to mention the needs of Spain. Every day it seems more urgent to reaffirm the idea of ​​Spain, plug the waterways of our territorial organization system, thoroughly reform all our administrations by jointly contemplating them to eliminate duplication, correct inefficiencies and thus ensure the sustainability of our welfare system . Without forgetting the modernization of our economic system to survive in a scenario - globalized and digitized - completely different from the one we have lived.

New times in which the economic and social structures that sustained the world of yesterday are changing at great speed and in which, as the old Marx warned us, an aggiornament of political institutions and a revolution in the field of ideas are required. Much more when we are facing a new ABC of international politics: America, Brexit and China, and in some countries political leaders triumph that has shocked the international scene at the root. And when in many countries political leaders triumph that question the liberal order we gave ourselves at the end of World War II. The world is out of order or, if you prefer, "is out of joint."

The new times demand new solutions and the reform of our laws and our habits now requires the collaboration of the three major parties: PSOE, PP and Cs. Parties that in their European matrix have allowed consensus and facilitated the election of Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission, when that seemed an impossible task. Because of what Chamberlain said, such a government could only be formed after reaching a closed agreement , with very specific clauses and for a limited time. A national salvation government forced to call elections when the second transition was completed.

As a second option, we should look for a collaborative formula between the Popular Party and Citizens capable of mobilizing the center-right electorate and winning the elections. The most ambitious formula would be a coalition of parties and, in the long run, the creation of a new one capable of playing a role similar to that of the UCD in the first transition. A united and firmly anchored party in the center of the political scene. Many of the Vox voters, whose passion for Spain I admire, may be attracted to this formula.

It is clear that the main obstacle to this operation is the issue of leadership, a relevant point but now I think it is less because the fate of Caesar does not matter when what is at stake is the fate of the Empire. I dare not propose concrete formulas, but I affirm that there are solutions, there are. In 1993, for example, the UDF (centrist) and the RPR (gaullist) together attended the general elections and won them. In 1995, Mitterrand fell.

If this solution were not feasible, an electoral coalition for the Senate and the electoral districts in which our current electoral system penalizes the division of the vote should be explored. Everything but favor the electoral victory of a conjunction between sanchismo, populism and separatism.

Casado and Rivera have the enormous opportunity to offer the electorate a winning option. If they do not, they will only have to dispute the title of chief of the opposition allowing Sánchez to realize Zapatero's old dream: a fragmented Spain, with the separatist parties increasing their presence in the historical territories and with the PSOE as the only party of State scope present in them. I've said it many times: driving with long lights is necessary.

José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil , MEP, has been Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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