On the edge of the sunset
The Tour de France is over and the Paris Olympics begin in armour-plated form without a cohabitation government in France. The EU renews Mrs Ursula von der Leyen's mandate. Russia continues to massacre Ukraine. Peace can wait in Gaza until November. In the Canary Islands, alone in the Atlantic, immigration is mercilessly hitting the "menas", the illegal immigrants arriving in cayucos and the islanders themselves. Sánchez, without state policies, is trying to deceive the autonomous regions. Catalonia is in limbo under the long shadow of Puigdemont. The CGPJ is being revamped five years late.
Suddenly the future has arrived. A new time has dawned. Next autumn will no longer be what it was.
One year later
Three hundred and sixty-six days ago, Pedro Sánchez did not win the elections of 23 July, but he is still in the Moncloa. A "pact of maximum corruption" with ETA members, nationalists and coup plotters granted him exceptional powers. He is the almighty god. He still is. And the gods are cruel to mortals.
This first year of the 15th Legislature, without budgets, has only produced one law: the amnesty law, drafted by the criminal beneficiaries, which is leaving Spain unarmed and all those who participated in the coup d'état of 2017 in the street. They have already announced that they will try again. This is what the president calls coexistence and normality.
In the middle of the week, the Supreme Court has appealed the Amnesty Law to the Constitutional Court (TC), considering it unconstitutional for violating the equality of all Spaniards and because the crime was clear: they carried out a coup d'état seven years ago. We depend on Conde Pumpido and his six Sanchist agents.
Forty-eight hours ago the legislative year ended with thirty-two parliamentary defeats for the government. Weakness. These were the last two: the Law on Foreigners and the spending ceiling. Will there be no budget in 2025 either? The legislature has entered a dead end.
The annual balance is, according to Sigma-Dos, worse than in July 23. 54.4% rate the situation as very poor and give the government a failing grade. Those who think it is going well, with a pass, a good or an outstanding grade, account for 43.5%.
Corruption runs rampant in the PSOE. The director of the Women's Institute, Isabel García, has been dismissed for contracting her partner with 44 socialist town councils to monitor the ‘violet dots’ and pocketing 250,000 euros, and now Anticorruption is asking for Ximo Puig's brother to be prosecuted for fraud. Tomorrow they will explain that this is a political hunt.
At the same time, the TC erases the crimes of the Andalusian socialists condemned for the EREs. 680 million euros embezzled from the unemployed and the public purse. My respects to Judge Alaya, who gave her life in the search for the truth.
Chaves, former president of the PSOE and of the Junta de Andalucía, accuses the PP of conspiracy and demands moral reparation and rehabilitation as a decent citizen. Griñán, Magdalena Álvarez and Zarrías have begun their victimhood ordeal. Espadas has gone further, describing Moreno Bonilla's governments as "illegitimate".
And just as the Supreme Court is about to impose a sentence on Álvaro García Ortiz, the government's attorney general, the latter has once again appointed Lola Delgado, the recent wife of the lawyer and ex-judge Garzón, who maintains a chiringuito that is clearly incompatible with his wife's appointment, as prosecutor of the Sala de Memoria Democrática. It is a provocation. And a disgrace. Europe has warned of the government and Parliament's criticism of Spanish judges. They don't care.
Privilege in writing
A year later, the Government presents a second law on the repression of the media and judges, with the bait of 100 million euros for digitalisation (new television to PRISA), under the guise of the regeneration that Sánchez himself called for ten years ago and which brought them to power in 2018.
Then they demanded Rajoy to resign for sitting in the witness box for the "Gürtel case". That same medicine, resignation, is what opposition leader Núñez Feijóo has asked him for. He paid no attention. Silence and absence explain the transparency of the most opaque government in democracy. Sánchez does not attend Parliament to vote at critical moments and blames the PP for not supporting him. He neither governs nor allows an alternative by calling general elections.
The Executive, the Government Attorney General's Office and Ferraz 80, with the Minister of Justice and Chief Counsel of the Kingdom at the head, are trying to reprove Judge Peinado and accuse him of prevarication, as if he were just any old Garzón, so that the "Begoña-Sánchez case" - which is the same case - becomes the "Peinado case"; in other words, recusal of the judge and then, the case is filed in the Provincial Court.
Nepotism has been installed in the Palace. And it has spread to Badajoz. It is what the judge of the 41st court in Madrid calls "chain trafficking crimes".
"My brother" David Azagra, the musician, maintains that "absenteeism is not a crime". And neither is "getting paid without working and without paying taxes in Spain". A fiscal patriot.
Judge Beatriz Biezma is cautiously investigating a clear case of political nepotism and conflict of interest. We have not yet reached paternity leave, with no known child, nor the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes with his personal wealth, via Thailand.
No doubt this case is easier to decipher than the alleged crimes of Mrs Gómez Fernández: influence peddling and business corruption. The family must be saved. For the moment, the lawyer of the professor emeritus of the Complutense University has advised his client not to testify after the obscene spectacle of the security measures to get before the judge. It is her right. What she has done may not be a criminal offence, but ethically and morally it is reprehensible.
I have listened to some of the videos of the ‘catedrática honoris causa’ in which she promotes her teaching for Competitive Social Transformation (TSC) at UCM. Her contribution to restaurants ("offer healthy food to customers with local products"); to sponsors ("investment in longevity") and to students ("multi-channel culture") are not strong enough ideas to fill a unique professorship with content. Not even a Self-Help Instruction Manual. All very profound. We have already learned from Woody Allen that "the deepest thing is emptiness".
The visits to the Moncloa by UCM rector Joaquín Goyeche and businessman Carlos Barrabés confirm that the proposals of the president's wife, including the chair and logistical support, were urgently attended to in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. They are responsible for the irresistible rise of the Bilbao graduate.
The unsatisfied request for information to close the academic years and the Financial Department's complaints about irregular contracts formalised (verbally) by Doña Begoña are already in the possession of the examining magistrate.
The letters of support to the Ministry of Economy signed personally by the wife of the head of the Government supporting the request for credits for her mentor, the businessman from Huesca, Mr. Barrabés, was closed with at least 20 million euros, partly financed with European Funds.
Air Europa's direct subsidies to doña Begoña's "Africa Center" could be related to the multimillionaire subsidies to the Globalia Group where Javier Hidalgo, the commissioner Víctor de Aldama, the ex-minister José Luis Ábalos, Koldo, ‘el conseguidor’, and Delcy Rodríguez, could be part of the corruption with plots in Elvas (Portugal) and Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). Everything smells rotten in Moncloa. The business dealings of the Monclovite tenant-consort are ethically and aesthetically unsustainable.
Mr Sánchez is willing to testify in writing. He is entitled to his status as aforado, as he likes privileges! It is already strange for a husband to testify against his wife. Sánchez has never said anything about his wife's meetings in government "territory". Nor has he confirmed that he was present on two occasions to greet the Aragonese businessman. In fact, he has never clarified anything either in parliament or in his interviews-massage from RTVE, EFE, La Vanguardia, EL PAÍS, Cadena SER and La Sexta. It's all a hoax; all mud’, he maintains.
He has never given an open press conference in his six years in office. Before it was all mud, now it is "a political pack of the right and the extreme right".
The institutional persecution against the examining magistrate has been savage, from Bolaños to Margarita Robles via Patxi López and Minister Puente. Everything is "a Judeo-Masonic conspiracy of Manos Limpias, Hazte Oír, Vox and PP to destroy our immaculate and progressive president". The falsification of his doctoral thesis gives the measure of the character.
A humiliated government
"We are more", declared Dr Sánchez on election night exactly a year and a day ago from the balcony of Ferraz. Today, having paid part of the bill for the amnesty, his partners humiliate him and continue to pass on bills with maturities of 30, 60 and 90 sunsets.
The trip to pay obeisance to Aragonés has an explanation: to surrender to ERC so that it will invite Salvador Illa as Molt Honorable President. It is his lifeline to survive in Madrid for a few more months.
It is an understandable humiliation, even if the price is excessive: taking on the Generalitat's debt (15 billion a year for six years; collection of all taxes, exclusive defence of the Catalan language, scholarships, minimum living income, relocation of some 400 ERC officials, and a referendum on self-determination). A complete package that we all pay for.
The bet seems "sensible" in the face of a party as corrupt and broken into a thousand pieces as that of the Reverend Junqueras and the activist Rovira. There is a fundamental problem. Sánchez, who has fooled us all the time, promised Don Carles full amnesty and to reinstate him in his post. "You in the Moncloa and me in the Generalitat". That was the pact with international mediation. Is the tenant of Waterloo going to stay still? He has already warned: "Host after host", if Illa is supported (pardon the expression; I am only transcribing).
It is true that Don Pedro urgently needs to install Don Salvador as the representative of the State in Catalonia. His 19 national votes are essential for the political survival of Sanchismo. Neutralising first and then displacing Puigdemont in Junts is another story. He will die by killing. The direct victim is Don Pedro. Once again he failed to deliver what he promised.
The "fake" news that Feijóo is preparing a motion of censure supported by Junts, is an intoxication of Rufián, the provocateur of the 2017 coup, when he resurrected the betrayal of the 30 silver coins of Judas. Junts is incompatible today with the PP and above all with Vox. We have, then, Sanchismo for a while.
The opacity of the president's whirlwind trip to Catalonia will have a response and visibility on August 1st, when the ERC rank and file approve to survive with Illa's budgets. Everything indicates that Don Pedro, as always, is in charge of the PSC for the first time. His involvement is part of the collective survival of the socialists. And of the Republicans.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo's appearance after his meeting with the Popular parliamentary groups of the Congress and the Senate has given a headline: "This is not a government, it is a racket; elections now".
Sanchez's corruption permeates all political and economic news. The Supreme Court has just prevented the government from transferring to the Basque Country the granting of recognition of foreign university degrees, but has granted it the transfer of coastal, port and airport security. A dismantling and scrapping of the National Police and the Guardia Civil, the guarantee of border defence. An open door to collusion with drug mafias and organised crime. He will end up recovering the Guardia de Asalto. In time. Spain is breaking into pieces.
The world in flames
The assassination attempt on Republican candidate Donald Trump has accelerated the times of change at the epicentre of the world. The second victim has a name and surname: Kimberly Cheatle, director of the Secret Service. After admitting the "biggest security failure in years", she appeared before the Senate Oversight and Accountability Committee and resigned.
The resignation of Joe Biden - a great president and friend of Ukraine and Europe - leaves the fate of the universe in the hands of Kamala Harris. Trump's return will complicate our lives. He has already advanced that the "pax trumpista" is to maintain the current "status quo". It would enshrine the invasion and the current borders for Moscow. A disaster for NATO and especially for the integrity of the EU. Defence is freedom.
Bear in mind that Putin and Xi Jinping are the driving forces behind "revolutionising" Africa so that immigration from the black continent destabilises the European Union. Immigration, violence, hunger, mafias, drugs with allies of the Puebla Group, cyber-attacks and support for separatist nationalism (Catalonia). Thanks to Judge Aguirre.
Trump's victory ("USA bigger again") is a philosophy compatible with allowing the policies of Iran, Moscow and Beijing in Africa as long as they admit their hegemony in the Middle East. It would not be surprising if the new Potsdam Conference to re-divide the world were to take place in Budapest (Hungary). Trump, Xi and Putin have one thing in common: they hate Europe.
Freedom is at stake in these months. The general elections this Sunday in Venezuela are the first test. I cautiously follow the optimism of the heroic Venezuelan opposition. Dictator Nicolás Maduro has made it clear: "Either I win or civil war". A communist ultimatum. Thank you Zapatero.
The 8 million exiles will not be able to vote. It is true that even the families of the military are going hungry. But the repression of the last months is the same as the one preached and practised in Havana: "Any dissidence will be neutralised with beatings, isolation and threats to family members, the counterrevolutionaries".
The 24 points in the polls in favour of the Edmundo González-María Corina Machado duo mark the hope of an impossible dream: to end the dictatorship. Will the Bolivarian army fire against its own people? It would not be the first time. In Cuba they have been doing it for sixty-four years. God save Venezuela! We support the mobile revolution and national reconciliation.
The Paris Olympics are taking place amid heavy security measures. The first objective is to avoid the Munich ‘72 massacre of the 96 Israeli athletes. But this Greek festival of competitiveness, with Russia excluded because of the invasion of Ukraine 30 months ago, opens windows of opportunity for Islamist "kamikazes", dormant or not. It will be difficult to reconcile security and spectacle.
Macron, wrapped in the Arc de Triomphe, postpones the government crisis until the second week of August. The Olympic Games are sacred. The greatest spectacle in the world with 10,500 athletes and 20,000 journalists to tell the story. The world fights for every medal. We are all Jesse Owens. The open wound after the Morocco-Argentina football match (2-1) is unprecedented. Spain agonised to win by the same score against Uzbekistan. Gold and pride cannot be bought with money. Every medal is a story of achievement.
The Microsoft accident that brought half a plan to a halt forces us to reflect on the vulnerability of our digital and energy infrastructures.
Cybersecurity and narco-crime must be, along with water, the three core subjects for the new five-year term in the European Parliament, the Commission and the Council.
I am writing on the edge of the sunset at this impenitent end of the month when the sea has claimed six lives in the South Atlantic Ocean. The Falkland Islands have always been a dangerous place. The skies are dressed in red as the sun sets over the Guadarrama horizon. In the evening of life, according to St. Augustine, we will be examined on love. We go through an inclement summer waiting for winter. Let us not allow silence, lies and corruption to contaminate our lives. Sunsets are a Transition with shadows only until dawn. Let us dream the impossible. There is still time.
Antonio REGALADO directs BAHÍA DE ÍTACA at: aregaladorodriguez.blogspot.com