Moncloa: we have a problem

The Madrid elections have buried, 11 days before 15-M, a decade in which the indignation of an anti-establishment youth has not only failed to change the world, but has unfortunately made it worse. The corrupt bipartisanship and the insatiable nationalisms found in the new political groupings the weakest links to break the Constitution and the rule of law; their objective: to put an end to the Transition and the Monarchy. 

I went to the Puerta del Sol to get a closer look at this sociological phenomenon that came to redeem the oppressed of capitalism. The slogans were similar to those of '68: " Forbidden to prohibit ". The permanent assemblies were a binge of ideas in tents surrounded by rubbish. Kilometre 0 was contaminated from the first minute and ZP's negationist crisis brought us, after the brickbats, a government with an absolute majority that was useless; political and economic instability settled among us until the Chinese pandemic arrived with 120,000 deaths and is leading us, despite vaccination - we don't even know what to do with the doses of AztraZeneca - to a dead end. 

It has been a decade of corruption, coup d'état, whitewashing of terrorism, abandonment of the victims and the birth of the first social-communist coalition government that has brought us ruin. You only have to walk through the heart of our cities to know that the moral crisis is greater than the closure of establishments, with all that this entails in terms of unemployment and despair. And that recovery will be delayed for another ten years. 

On May 4, with the victory of Isabel Díaz Ayuso - not that of Pablo Casado's PP - the people of Madrid have said no to totalitarianism, no to Sanchism and no to Pablo Iglesias' Unidas Podemos. A majority has spoken. Freely. Ayuso alone has won more seats than all of them together. The blow to Pedro Sánchez has been paralleled by his contempt for Madrid. Gabilondo, -good man, bad candidate-, a puppet in the hands of Moncloa. The humiliation to which the apparatus has subjected him is typical of a totalitarian party. He leaves without picking up his deputy's seat in the Assembly while the internists were mending his heart. Susana Díaz will suffer the same fate in Andalusia. Pedro shows no mercy.  The PSOE has been the third force, behind Más Madrid, a podemite franchise - red inside and green outside - which Errejón did not have the courage to call Más España and unsuccessfully transmuted it into Más País... out of nowhere. Alfonso Guerra is right when he assures that "the left has no guts to defend the unity of the Nation".

 

That 15-M of 2011, an angry crowd demonstrated in several Spanish cities and then in some European capitals to get drunk chanting anti-capitalist slogans: "If you don't let us dream, we won't let you sleep"; " Democracy, I like you, but you're as if absent" (plagiarism to Neruda); or, "They don't represent us". The siege of Congress ended with police charges. The rioters, with the consent of Vice-President Rubalcaba, injected into the social networks all the rancour and hatred that Iglesias would later imprint on his revolutionary movement. Time has shown that their "assault on the heavens" consisted largely of buying a luxury property overlooking the Valley of the Fallen at a low price (speculation). What a heroic deed to exhume the remains of Francisco Franco 45 years after his death! All they needed was to decorate themselves with a pensioner's medal. As the former Uruguayan president Julio María Saguinetti said, "when a dictator dies, the brave form a queue".

The leader of Podemos resigned because people discovered that he is an impostor.  Let them ask the workers of Parla, Móstoles or Leganés. "Never with Iglesias!" they shouted when asked by El País. Why does he despise us so much if we have never done him any favours? Iglesias went to pay obeisance to Oriol Junqueras in Lledoners prison, defended the fugitive and coward Puigdemont and initiated the whitewashing of ETA, starting with his partner Arnaldo Otegui. In collusion with the zombie Marlaska - whom they now want to resurrect from the living dead - he invented the threats with blanks - while his thugs assaulted VOX militants in Vallecas.
 

 

The irresistible rise of this irredeemable communist would come two years later when he placed the mother of his children as Minister of Equality and he became second vice-president of the Spanish government. A guy who swore loyalty to the Magna Carta and to the King and never kept his word. A magnificent representation when he demanded Felipe VI, in the middle of the campaign, to condemn the "threats" in his mailing envelope with 4 bullets, or else his silence would give him away as an accomplice of the ultra-right!

What a relief after 4-M! Thank you, Isabel, because first you kicked him out of government and then out of politics.  It remains now for Dr. Sánchez to subsidise with (fresh) European funds the bankruptcy of Roures and place him to produce in "La Sexta verdadera" TV channel, which is still "Gol" channel, very anti-monarchical, very social and very inclusive programmes.  The audience dictatorship could turn him into the great competitor of Jorge Javier's Sálvame de Luxe show. 

It is suspicious, to say the least, that the Constitutional Court has declared unconstitutional the appointment of Iglesias and Redondo as members of the CNI using a decree-law on measures against Covid19. In short: As Mr. Iglesias is leaving, let's farewell to a decade of hatred, lies, insults to the people and the Crown and a cult of his personality (see photo) as if he were Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Fidel, Chávez, Maduro or Kim-Jong-un. All at the same time. Close the door on your way out. Thank you.

The end of the state of alarm - absolute power for more than a year to a person without scruples or principles - has turned into a state of chaos. Barcelona, Seville, Navarra, Madrid and Salamanca are four cities assaulted by Saturday night fever where young and not so young people have confused freedom with debauchery and irresponsibility. 

More than a year ago, the vice-president Carmen Calvo promised to modify the Public Health Law so that the Autonomous Regions would have sufficient tools to tackle the pandemic after the desertion of the national government. Time wasted. Neither the Minister of Justice nor the Minister of Health have offered an alternative of co-governance. It will be the Constitutional Court that will decide the criteria of the appeals presented before the Supreme Court by the Autonomous Regions themselves. In other words, judges turned into creators of non-existent laws. Justice disguised as an encore Congress. Is there any greater irresponsibility? Conde Pumpido, former Attorney General of the State and today in the High Court, is once again staining his robe with the dust of the road by covering regulations such as the appointments of Iglesias and Redondo and the cutback of the competences of the CGPJ, forcing the magistrates to make political pronouncements.

Since he arrived at La Moncloa in 2018 through the back door, Dr Sánchez has subjected us to an imperial rule that fortunately ceased in Madrid in early May. Two hundred and thirteen years and two days have passed since that glorious 1808. The people rose up against the new Napoleon.  In 32 months he has touched everything and sunk everything: institutions, economy, society, health, education, justice, foreign affairs - the submission to Mexico, Venezuela and Morocco confirms the decadence of his phantom reign. He has another 32 months to go before the end of his term. We will continue to resist. 

As always, in hard times, he has not shown his face. The president has been hiding himself once after opening and counting the ballots in the Madrid ballot boxes. The journalists who followed him to Porto (EU Summit) and Athens could not get an answer about his defeat. Do (decent) media companies have a duty to follow the chief executive on his trips away from home when he is unable to give an explanation at a press conference? That's what he calls transparency. What a load of crap!

A long week later he appeared in Congress to insult the head of the opposition. Then he launched his "kamikazes" ministers (González Laya, Montero and Maroto to blame the situation of tourism on Díaz Ayuso. First they blamed her because the French were coming and then because the British were not arriving. The day before he started his countdown to "herd immunity".  

In the meantime, we still can't get to know what he has handed over in Brussels; yes, after the wasteful spending (ministries, advisors) it is discovered that they will fry us with taxes: IRPF, VAT, Patrimony, Inheritance, Inheritance, Google and Tobin Taxes, Societies, Sicavs taxation, Plastics, diesel, motorways, highways and airports. A "bite" to raise 78,500 million euros a year.   They call it harmonisation and say that the rich will pay for it. A sharp blow to the spine of the entire middle class. All taxes. Order and command. 

At the same time, the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, presented tax tables for the self-employed ranging from 280 to 1,250 euros per month, depending on income. Lorenzo Amor, president of ATA, was categorical: "It's a total joke". And, as always, without any dialogue with anyone.  However, his mouth is full of propaganda: "Together we are stronger and no one will be left behind". He must be referring to his partners and advisers. The latter (some 770) and some senior officials have shared out 728 million in bonuses in the midst of a crisis with 6 million unemployed. Not a word from the finance minister. Chaos is the best hallmark of this government with no rhythm and no direction.
 

The EU will give us money if we make reforms; from pensions to public administrations. Day after day, we spend 495 million euros more than we take in. Deficit and debt are over Everest. It is fortunate to belong to a community club (the ECB) in this time of permanent crisis. Even if we are sent by a populist-frontist government. Let's hope they have learned the lesson from the people of Madrid. Please, let them stop wasting our time with the past, progressivism, fascism and the extreme, extreme right. Haven't they been governing for almost three years with communists, coup plotters, separatists and terrorists? Isn't this Council of Ministers the one preparing the pardons for Junqueras, Puigdemont and associates? Isn't this the Executive that has handed over the powers of Penitentiary Institutions to the PNV? As Rosa Díez said: "Marlasca brings them closer and Urcullu puts them in the street". On any given Tuesday, the 23 ministers meeting in community will break up the Single Social Security Fund and hand it over directly to Ajuria Enea. ERC, Junts and the CUP will offer the secession referendum. They have already reached an agreement to share the budget. That is the price he must inexorably pay to remain in the Moncloa. And after 4-M it will be necessary to neutralise Podemos and boost Errejón. The lesson of the ballot boxes admits no interpretation. Not like this. Less propaganda, fewer agitators on social networks and television and more consensus with the opposition. A return to the Constitution is the way forward. I fear that in Moncloa, the main objective is to destroy Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Her name is a synonym of Freedom.  Madrid, Isabel, Freedom. 

Pedro Sánchez has climbed like a creeper through the minds of his debtors. He is trapped by his fellow travellers, the worst of each house. And he has destroyed not only his own but also the liberals of Inés Arrimadas. 

The citizens are not going to forget so much arrogance transformed into sudden humility '-"it is the moment for consensus", he assured after the disaster in Madrid. But he only gets deals with Spain's enemies. As a good disciple of Zapatero he knows that "the left united (for the moment) will not be defeated". Watch out for the centre and the right. It can be done. We Madrileños have done it.  

On April 13, 1970 at 21.08 (CST) astronaut Jack Swiger in command of Apollo XIII called the base to say: "We've had a problem". A large number of warning lights came on indicating the loss of two of the three power sources. Apollo XIII was only able to circumnavigate the Moon and return home. It was a miracle. I remember the return and the anguish of entering the Earth's atmosphere because I was hospitalised and had just bought my first transistor. The faith and courage of the crew saved the lives of the three crew members. And the honour of NASA and the USA. But the phrase became a survival anthem: "Houston, we have a serious problem".  In Moncloa, Pedro and Iván did not get the message. All the alarm bells have gone off for the countdown to the general elections - with the municipal and regional elections of 2023, of course -; Vice-president Yolanda Díaz, a PCE militant but head of the UP ticket, has learned something: "Less twitter and less noise", she has demanded of her deputies. 

Pedro Sánchez has only two answers: Vaccine, vaccine and vaccine! And ¡2050, 2050, 2050! Long may you trust us. Not even if they injected us with Pfizer every week are we going to immunise ourselves against this time of alarm, improvisation, chaos and authoritarianism. Nor will we forget the uncounted victims of Covid19, nor their clandestine cremations without the consolation of their loved ones, nor the obscene obscene shout in Parliament of President Sánchez: Long live 8M! In August he ruled almost by decree law that we had beaten the virus. Today he just wants to amortise his incompetence by selling vaccines.  

We cannot believe in your policies, Mr President. If you still have any empathy left, talk to the socialists of yesteryear, get off the Falcon, talk to the people and see that, as the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, says, we have a problem with unemployment in full pandemic. A very serious problem. You are the problem.  Use the solidarity funds to improve the lives of those who have the least, those who are in the hunger and unemployment queues. Convene a State of the Nation Debate as soon as possible, another one a fortnight later on the State of the Autonomies and, in between, the Council of Presidents to seek urgent solutions with real experts.

Create equal opportunities with quality public education so that citizens, with their effort and talent, can achieve their dreams. Put your vanity aside and act. Legislate so that the exodus of this first weekend without internal customs does not increase either the number of infected or the number of dead at the end of May. We are talking about life, not politics; it is as simple as that. You are the first person responsible for solving our problems. Stop making promises you are not going to keep and talking to us about the future when we are running out of the present. Ayuso is not the enemy. Forget the lies you have told about the Colón picture - you no longer frighten anyone - and return to the path of the real PSOE and the Constitution. The kilometre 0 towards change has begun in Madrid. Either you change or we will be waiting for you at the ballot boxes on the 23rd and 24th. Just as in early May. Learn something from a universal Spaniard: Rafa Nadal who yesterday conquered, with pain and courage, for the tenth time, the city of Rome.

Antonio REGALADO directs BAHÌA DE ITACA at: aregaladorodriguez.blogspot.com