Shortening the agony
Sanchismo has an expiry date: 5 years, 1 month and 23 days. Or are citizens going to change their vote overnight to save the owner of the Falcon and of institutional communiqués and interviews without questions? The answer to so much arrogance and so many silences became clear on the night of the last Sunday in May. Pedro's face, announcing hours later that the general elections would be brought forward to 23-July, reflects the fact that he is a man who has been touched, angry, angry, disappointed and abandoned to fate. Nor has he been able to keep his promise to run out the term of the legislature. Desperation (and revenge) has led him to the only dignified path: a return to the polls. It is the president's best decision during his term in office and a great opportunity for the change Spain needs.
Power and votes
The "ides de mayo" have abandoned him in the middle of spring. The reality bath of 28-M has caught Moncloa and Ferraz with the lies of Tezanos' CIS exposed. Yes, PP, VOX and Ciudadanos have let us vote in freedom! Speak, people, speak! And the people spoke loud and clear. The call, announced a few hours before the Council of Ministers met as mandated by the Constitution, confirms that in this second round there will be no peace, mercy or forgiveness for a government that has strained society and institutions in the last sixty months as no one had ever done before in democracy. And which has been the biggest defender of criminals and the corrupt. From the former director of the Guardia Civil to Tito Berni ("They are not socialists, Patxi López will always proclaim").
Pedro Sánchez and his myriad of monclovite advisors live in a bubble. And suddenly it burst in the middle of the night. The PSOE has lost more power than votes. Seville has hurt a lot. Andalusia, Valencia, Balearic Islands, Aragon, Cantabria, Rioja, Ceuta, Melilla... have dressed in blue and green until May 2027.
Ayuso and Almeida have exceeded expectations in Madrid. The northward expansion of the capital of the Kingdom is clear. The power of the provincial councils is the most effective tool to consolidate the parties in power. The tsunami has swept away PSOE, Podemos and Cs. I am truly sorry for this. Arrimadas' disciples must be buried with dignity for their courage in defending the Nation over the last decade. Not standing for election in the summer, after having prevented centre-right majorities in Asturias and C-LM is a wise decision.
Voting with enthusiasm
The secretary general of the PSOE has not given any reason for the advance. He never gives reasons for anything or to anyone. The entire Sanchista period has been an information wasteland for militants, sympathisers and contributors. Transparency has not exactly been a virtue of this government supported by the worst of the communist left, the separatists and the heirs of ETA. This "progressive alliance" - Frankenstein - is the main cause of this ruined scenario.
The terrorists at home. The victims are forgotten. Laws such as the repeal of the crime of secession, the reduction in the embezzlement of public funds, the whitewashing of Bildu, the "sisi" law with more than 1000 sex offenders and paedophiles benefiting from the generosity of Irene Montero, the housing law that enshrines the "squatting", the surrender in the Sahara. The bloodstained lists -the poisoned gift from ETA-, the buying of votes in the south, the manipulation of the postal vote in Melilla or the permanent concessions to ERC and PNV, are not easy to forget. We remind you of some others. The Tito Berni affair, the ERES convictions, the 32,500 euros in Sevillian brothels.
One more item. For the abusive use of the Falcon, the humiliations to the Head of State, the attacks to the businessmen, the fascist insults to the judges -this was done by Podemos but, Mr. President, you kept quiet as a dead man-; for placing Iván Redondo and Iglesias in the CNI, for governing by means of BOE, for the double unconstitutionality during the confinement, for amputating the competences of the General Council of Judicial Power, for controlling the TC, Fiscalía, RTVE, T. Cuentas and CNMV; for tax hikes without deflating personal income tax; for not defending the Spanish language in Catalonia, the Basque Country, Navarre, Aragon, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands; for allowing the language to be perverted with everyone, everyone, everyone.
Finally, for abandoning farmers, stockbreeders, fishermen and the self-employed, for the trains that do not enter through the tunnels, for the AVE that never reaches Extremadura, for the LOMLOE, for his falsehoods with the COVID and for his indecent electoral promises. He slept with Iglesias and made a pact with Bildu. "I'll never make a pact with Bildu, I'll tell you, if you want, 5 or 20 times: I'll never make a pact with Bildu", remember? OK. We are ashamed of the treatment of the terrorist Petro, Maduro, Fidel's pupils and the defence of the corrupt Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Let's not forget that he also failed to keep his promise to pass the ELA law.
It is already strange that his first visitor to the presidential palace was, outside the media, the "financial coup-maker" George Soros. Ten months waiting for the elections to be called, and the plagiarism of his doctoral thesis. Decent people wanted you, Mr. Sánchez. Very much so, in Madrid and in the rest of Spain because you have disappointed us since the day of your (irregular) investiture, 1826 days and 1825 nights ago today.
Second plebiscite
No, it is not an act of patriotism or responsibility. Sánchez has never been a hero. He ran in these local and regional elections overruling all challengers. He was the supreme candidate for councillor, mayor, regional deputy and regional president. A plebiscite for the most daring. He could have run for the presidency of the Diputación, the most unknown and effective place to win elections, village by village, hamlet by hamlet. The best farmhouse for a politician. Sánchez has postulated himself as a god.
His visits to the streets, with pensioners who play petanque, or meetings with people who earn thousands of euros, have been of little use; behind him was always a socialist militant with a powerful family member. It didn't work. Nor the surprise visits to various entities, half an hour before the meeting with an audience controlled by the PSOE's order service. Pedro Sánchez has never understood the message: people do not like him for his cessationist arrogance and populist subsidies. Paternalism leads us to Venezuela. Thank you.
His leading pundits maintain that this decision is an act of responsibility and generosity from a statesman. No, the right thing for him to do after this setback would be to resign. His enormous ego will not allow him to do so. Because he - and only he - has been the only candidate in the 8,000 Spanish municipalities, in the 12 Autonomous Communities in the race, in Ceuta and Melilla. It was a political act of necessity because the "Titanic Frankenstein" was sinking. It was the only way out.
To use the excuse that the general elections were called to avoid a rebellion of the socialist militants is another lie from the Moncloa Factory. Pérez-Castejón has ruled authoritatively and contemptuously against all the militants of his party. So much so that, with the exception of Emiliano García-Page, today, he has only one rising baron left: Arnaldo Otegui. The president of Castilla-La Mancha has prolonged his mandate by the skin of his teeth. Thanks to the fact that he always lives in the street, close to the people of Castile-La Mancha. He has been the only one to denounce the suicidal pacts because he knew the price paid by the PSOE and Spain.
There has never been any rebellion against the Secretary General. He has politically shot all his "internal enemies". Like General Serrano. He has behaved like a visionary Caesar. But his time has come. He has called the polls because he wants to save his own skin. From tomorrow onwards you will hear his harangues: "Fascism is coming" or "me, the right-wing and the extreme far-right". We already know these slogans that don't even scare children.
One consideration: Has the PP's share of the vote in CyL fallen as a result of co-governing with Vox? No; it has gone up. Therefore, that the Nazis are coming when the Russians are invading Ukraine and we have them in our own government does not keep anyone awake at night. Sánchez has maintained an excessive government with unpresentable and mediocre ministers such as Fernando Grande Marlasca, Dolores Delgado, Manuel Castells, Joan Subirats, Pablo Iglesias, Irene Montero, Ione Belarra or Alberto Garzón. We could name another twenty more, just as incompetent as those mentioned above. What a waste of temptation! This is the real cause of the defeat.
Progressivism of the high chair
Podemos thought their provocations, insults and progressive shenanigans would never end. There's the end of it, brother. Every time I see the progressive policies of these political careerists who have never worked a day, I shudder. We have a president who cannot dismiss his ministers; and ministers who cannot resign because they would go straight to the dole. Neither of them have any shame.
Do you think that people have forgotten the management of the pandemic, the 8M/21 demonstration that infected thousands of women, the laws against property or the reforms of the CP that protect criminals? Simply no. Never has a government with so few seats done so much damage to so many Spaniards. The right thing to do is to put an end to it, democratically, vote by vote. And that is what we are doing. And we are still at it.
The Popular Party has swept Ferrol (La Coruña), the homeland of Yolanda Díaz. Sumar has become a (National) Movement of progressives where the only objective is to place themselves in starting positions for the next elections. Sixteen populist-communist-caviar groups have already given their approval for the grand coalition. There will be an agreement before 9 June because the ground for the next four years is at stake. I have been following the Madrid resurgence of Yoli - Tezanos' protégé - and, frankly, I have not heard a sensible idea from her in her entire career, beyond the "matria" bullshit and that she wants to be the president of Spain.
Her programme is unknown except for the 32-hour week and four witticisms that will be paid for by the CEOE. After supporting Colau, Oltra and Mema, she has no known popular push at the ballot box; a textbook opportunist digitally appointed by Iglesias who, if they let him, will bring back the Popular Front with Pedro Sánchez at the head for Madrid.
In reality, after the disappearance of Podemos in Madrid and Valencia, the purple party counts for less than nothing. The PSOE takes these elections believing that the 21-day European presidency will bring back 500,000 votes; another 200,000 by mail, another 300,000 by absenteeism of the right in the middle of the heatwave, and the rest will come from Yolanda and her mariachis.
Once again the milkmaid's tale, dear followers of Bahia. This is the chronicle of a desperate election in which the supreme leader, with a scorched team, tries to reissue the agreements with ERC, Puigdemones, Bildu, PRC, Compromìs, Más país, PNV - who feel used like a kleenex by Sánchez - and the CUP to continue tied to the privileges for another four years. One question: after this socialist defeat, are the thousands of "displaced" from the official seats going to give their skin and their lives so that their beloved leader continues to enjoy the Falcon and the March's private jet?
No complexes
We mourn the loss of Ciudadanos. We already mourned the orphanhood of President Adolfo Suárez's CDS. PP and VOX have taken over the centre. And it is in the centre that elections are won in a democratic society. We were surprised by the announcement of the elections, but not by the fact that the president did not congratulate Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the winner of these elections. Sánchez has managed to overshadow the results and has not allowed the Popular Party to enjoy the victory. Nor have the socialists been able to savour the defeat, as Maite Rico appreciated, holding the vermouth last Monday.
The truth is that Don Pedro has broken the PSOE from one side to the other, leaving Spain disarmed. Not only by annulling from the Penal Code the crimes of sedition and corruption, but also without constitutionalist votes in Catalonia, the Basque Country and Navarre. Aragonés demands that the agreements signed with the government be fulfilled. Otegui, the smartest of the class, and his numbers allow him to place two hundred ETA members with or without blood crimes. Pensions for the murderers of Miguel Ángel Blanco and the kidnappers of Ortega Lara must be guaranteed. Suckling from the public udder is the business of the parties against the Constitution and the Monarchy.
The need to shape municipal and regional governments forces them to make pacts. And, with exceptions such as in Jaén, the Popular and Abascales only have one common partner: PP-Vox. They will be accused of being fascists, Nazis, Francoists and right-wing extremists. After the PSOE's pacts in all directions, even with the direct heirs of ETA, there is no other solution than to leave behind the complexes of "what they will say" and sign agreements for the Constitution and for Spain.
Feijóo has offered his few councillors in the Basque Country and Navarre to offer them unconditionally to PSOE and PNV to stop Batasuna. It is a good decision. This is not about acronyms; it is about saving Spain from parties that are trying to carry out a revolution pending since 1934 and paid for by the citizens.
The exposition is simple: Vox is a democratic party. It has not assassinated, like Eta-Bildu; it has not carried out a coup d'état (like ERC-Puigdemont) and it complies with the Constitution (which the PSOE does not). And, furthermore, it is not a communist as the PSOE and ETA have been. Nor is it a Hitler sympathiser like the PNV or a Mussolini sympathiser like Rufián.
Decalogue of priorities
Sanchista's challenge is an opportunity. The 450 million euros for propaganda, approved in the last Council of Ministers, will be useless. There is no time to spend them. The two PP-VOX parties must be given a massive mandate to enter the institutions and present a joint programme on matters of State. Here is a decalogue of principles.
1. Defence of the Unity of Spain and the Constitution. And defence of the Spanish language. Freedom and Democracy. The EU as a common project. Spain, a bridge between Latin America before Brussels and the Maghreb.
2. Reform of the Penal Code for the crimes of sedition, secession, corruption and high treason. The corrupt will have to return the money before leaving prison.
3. State Pacts for (PHN, Pensions, unemployment, Equality; Dependence and Energy).
4. Health, Education, Justice, borders and Foreign Affairs. Health, Education, Justice, borders and Foreign Affairs, will become exclusive competences of the State.
5. Abrogation of the Law of Democratic Memory and all its "chiringuitos".
6. Permanent political and economic disqualification for those who threaten National Security.
7. Political and economic disqualification for all those convicted of terrorism, rape, sexual assault, paedophilia, white slavery and drug trafficking, organised gangs and similar crimes.
8. A Drought Plan. Prison sentences for arsonists.
9. Mental health, bullying, suicide, alcohol and drug addiction.
10. Reform of the Administration. The laws of Congress and the Senate will take precedence over regional and local laws. Civil service examinations open to everyone everywhere. Social rights and duties.
No complexes. After getting to know the PSOE's travelling companions, it is worth asking Mr Sánchez a direct question. Is he going to continue to make another four-year pact with the enemies of Spain? Whatever he says, the answer is yes.
The president's gamble is not bold but desperate. On 23-July we must return to the polls with even more enthusiasm. Change depends on the PP and VOX acting without fear. Forget Sorayismo. And stupid personalism. It is time to change the government. Any other alternative cannot be worse. It will take us a decade to clean up the hidden accounts. We went to vote on 28-M with rain. We will also do so on Sunday 23 July, against the heat and the holiday abstention. We will keep an eye on postal voting. Our lives depend on it. Let's extend democracy and freedom. Sánchez only wants to shorten his agony.
Antonio Regalado runs BAHÍA DE ÍTACA at:
aregaladorodriguez.blogspot.com