At about 7:10 p.m., the Rafael del Pino Auditorium had inevitably become a kind of black friday of Marianist nostalgia. And by the time Mariano Rajoy appeared, walking fast as in the campaign videos and swelling the cheeks so that the applause bounced back, it was already 2018 in all the clocks. A glass was a glass and a plate was a plate. Or, in other words: it could not be otherwise.

The staff of Marianism then began to flashback as if they were black-legged sunrises, and, suddenly, everything was in the place where Rajoy left him, "except for something." Who else and who least remembered anecdotes of "that person you speak to me about", who was not the mayor's neighbor, but the man who presided over Spain for almost seven years.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen," what really happened was that, apart from tautologies, the Rajoy political memoir, A Better Spain, was presented in Madrid, before an authentic plethora of former ministers, from Rafael Catalá to Cristóbal Montoro, passing through Álvaro Nadal, Miguel Arias Cañete or Ana Pastor. It would seem the Bernabéu's forehand on the break of a Madrid-Barça, but with another construction company as host and a bético as master of ceremonies, Carlos Herrera.

Although he spoke since 2018 that has been very far, politically, Rajoy launched tremendously current messages last night. For example, he claimed the recovery "of the consensus of at least the two great parties", PSOE and PP. And he agreed that the important issues that now stress the country should not depend on the parties that go "against the unity of the nation and against national sovereignty," in reference to ERC or JxCat. This last observation aroused the applause that did not obtain its appeal to the pacts with the PSOE.

Before the attentive look of Pablo Casado and the whole new dome of the PP -except Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo-, Rajoy demanded «that the two great parties go hand in hand» on the big issues, «and whoever breaks it is irresponsible» . This was, of course, by Pedro Sánchez.

But he did not expressly mention it either. It is something that Herrera praised: "This is not a book of bold", but of understood. For bold, those that piled up in the front rows. Above all, María Dolores de Cospedal and Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, who bargained at less than a meter - on a tile - at the most tense moment of the prolegomena. Barons Alfonso Fernández Mañueco and Alberto Núñez Feijóo made pineapple while more former ministers were arriving: Alfonso Alonso, Juan Ignacio Zoido, Pedro Morenés, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, Fátima Bánez and a long etcetera.

Rajoy explained that the book was born from the recognition of a palmar reality: "If I did not contribute my version of what happened, others could do it, and in a less affectionate way for my humble person." And to rebel against those who "believed that I was Don Tancredo."

On the contrary, those who "have not done anything since the motion of censure" are others. "But luckily it has not been repealed, in a sectarian way, what has worked," Rajoy lamented, before paraphrasing Ortega: "Every ignored reality prepares his revenge." This phrase immediately led Cánovas: «Politics is the art of applying to each epoch that part of the ideal that circumstances make possible». Which translated into Marianism means: we raise taxes and nationalize the bank despite having promised otherwise, "but that was what reality demanded at that time, and if we had not done so, Spain would have failed."

It was, of course, a dart to the critics - of his party and from outside - that they are concerned about not having put ideology before pragmantism. «Ignore the doctrinaires. In case of doubt, me, not them, ”he said. «A ruler has to always look for the best for his country, because that gives him peace of mind and, in addition, votes», he tied, before launching a last warning to navigators: the PP must be «centrist» and not «drag doctrines or earmuffs ».

Shortly after finishing his speech, at 20.10, the Marianist spell was undone and we all returned to 2019, the year in which we voted dangerously and the year of Greta. Although, you know, Mariano has a cousin who ...

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  • Mariano Rajoy
  • PP
  • PSOE
  • Pablo Casado
  • Pedro Morenés
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Rafael Catalá
  • Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría
  • Íñigo Méndez de Vigo
  • Alberto Nunez Feijoo
  • Alfonso Fernández Mañueco
  • Ana Pastor
  • Christopher Montoro
  • ERC
  • Madrid
  • María Dolores de Cospedal
  • Miguel Arias Cañete
  • Politics
  • LOC

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