Any government or elections?

The most diverse characters of Spanish political life; radical and not-so-radical leftists, more radical conservatives and those who proclaim themselves centrists agree. Distinguished characters, who have managed to excel in Spanish political life by continually making mistakes, are manifested together with political savvy, living and communicating feuds, public and private search engines. Independentist and ironically centralist parties, political formations that have Spain in their mouths from breakfast to dinner coincide, shouting the same slogan, with those who have made art betrayal in Congress; very profitable art for some Autonomous Communities but lacking the grandeur required by the betrayals that go down in history. Everyone asks Sanchez to prevent new elections .

Some blinded by their electoral failure, the others by extreme sectarianism; those of there by political calculation, those of here for not losing an opportunity that will not be presented again, all consider it essential that we have a government, any government. Not a few think and silence: better a weak government to which they can sable from the first day or to those who manage to bend ideologically. In this courtyard of Monipodio, of course, they are surprised in their good faith ideologically honored people who believe in the universal goodness of the unity of the left.

In this case, as in others, I regret not agreeing with those good people and I am pleased to disagree with those who have always disagreed when the issue was of serious importance to the country. I will explain myself carefully so as not to leave the reader more perplexed to finish reading this article. The Spanish inability to forge agreements, to form governments with different parties shows us a public space pregnant with sectarianism, which has replaced the noble patriotic feeling with the fundamentalism of the acronym. Thus it transmutes in Spain the big in small, the general in particular, the national in regional, the common in group interest, the totality in faction; dire trend for the general interests of our country that is not the first time in our history that catches us. There will be no country in which agreements are so frequently invoked and so few are reached. Different political parties often ask for opposition support when they need it to govern. I want to say that they take over the discourse of "the great agreements" to combat the loneliness in which they find themselves when they have the responsibility of government, but they forget it immediately at the moment when the popular will places them in opposition. The maximum expression of these consensus policies, which do not combat plurality, would be a coalition government , necessary when no party has sufficient support to govern responsibly or in situations of national emergency. If we are unable to sign national agreements while maintaining the political personality of the parties, it makes little sense to expect that the parties of the right center and the left center have the greatness of making coalition governments, they will limit themselves to solemnly "demanding responsibility" from Moncloa.

The result of the last general elections allowed me to write with optimism: the Spaniards had offered various combinations of government without any depending on nationalists, independence or populists. It was possible to establish a solid, stable and lasting government that could have faced the independence challenges, European changes, international conflicts and the consequences of the technological revolution with guarantees. The PSOE with the PP or the first with Cs would have broken the political drift of recent years, which will end up leading us, if we do not remedy it, to a great political crisis. They were viable, reasonable solutions for any country other than ours, but immediately those who asked a few years ago from the government for responsibility disregarded the problem and those who lacked it when they were in the opposition wielded it menacingly. Little was reflected on the desirability of a PP support for the Sánchez government and among the Socialists I do not believe that anyone took this alternative seriously, problematic for potential partners, but very convenient for Spain.

The other option, that of Citizens, has given more than talk but with the same negative result. Rivera's party made it clear during the election campaign that he would never agree with the PSOE and has been rudely consistent with that premise. He has preferred to be consistent with the electoral promise, although that coherence reduces his political space, to competition with the popular, ensuring a long hegemony to the Socialists. They say that anger is one of the ways that the gods have to confuse humans, because Rivera, more and more angry with everyone, seems to have managed to blind him . Those who argue that the PSOE never offered him anything are absolutely right, but it is a passive, self-complacent reason that only serves to deceive himself and given the reluctance of the Socialists, he could have offered an agreement for a coalition government, thus taking the initiative. If the PSOE had rejected that possibility they would have taken it out of the comfort zone, the centrality and, of course, today they would have a great national speech, crisp, reformist and not a compendium of exaggerations aimed at excelling before the socialist power and consolidation of the popular, achieved this with a policy of alliances that leaves those of Citizens at the crossroads of irrelevance or disloyalty with its partners. They have been consistent but they risk being the fourth force, that the PP is consolidated as the first opposition party, to isolate itself in the space of the right, and, above all, they risk that many believe that being coherent betrayed their foundational reason

Some readers will be thinking that I finish the article without referring to the PSOE. No, let's go with him. I think that the PSOE is still very aware of the recent past, at which time he was in danger of being overcome by the novelty of Podemos. In several articles I have admirably reflected on the way in which the Socialists, in the seventies of the last century, far exceeded a hegemonic Communist Party on the Spanish left. Well, everything I said about those historical ones can be said about the current socialist leaders. They have managed to change the course of things on the left and what seemed inevitable, from the outside came examples to justify fear, has been avoided. Today the PSOE is clearly a majority on the left and Podemos has ceased to be a danger, unless we insist on resuscitating it. But that victory has radically conditioned the post-election strategy of the Socialists.

In recent months the PSOE has used a strategy with Podemos similar to that known as gas light, which can be effective in preventing the resurgence of the Iglesias party, but impoverishes the Spanish political debate. They have not been able to offer clearly, without doubt, a coalition government to the popular or Rivera's. They are in political centrality partly because of the demerit of others, but they have failed to raise a moderate, reformist and national discourse; they remain trapped in the fear that populism will resurface at their expense and in the classical tendency to see peripheral nationalisms as preferable partners to national parties; An indisputable example of this incomprehensible relationship with the nationalists, which can lead us to disaster , is what happened in Navarra.

In this context there is only the possibility of choosing between a government with Podemos, in the different forms that appear daily, or new general elections. A government with Podemos would not give confidence to face a very uncertain economic future, nor would it allow a realistic commitment to the new EU, nor a defense, without literary minstreling, of national sovereignty, the ultimate and ultimate guarantor of our citizenship status. But if these fears were not enough, we must bear in mind that both parties, in solitary pairing, do not have sufficient support in Congress. The government would depend on the avidity of the nationalists and the erratic humor of ERC, pending a ruling that will have incalculable political effects in the Spanish public space. Being so reality, and not what we would like, new elections, which highlight the Spanish politicians, are not, by far, the worst option. Let's go to the polls and the Spaniards, with all the data, to decide and solve what the politicians have not been able to solve.

Nicolás Redondo Terreros is a member of the Editorial Board of EL MUNDO.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• PSOE
• We can
• Citizens
• Spain
• PP
• Navarre
• ERC
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