Opportunities

Well, when the political landscape changed from one day to the next, from the day before yesterday to today, Pedro Sánchez won and governs, and the party apparatus loses. And once again we see how the sun shines on the sheets of steel. The PP is cradling itself in its problems and waiting for the trials to fall, all isolated and old cases, according to them. And Podemos shouts that we must save the homeland, as in the old days. If it weren't for them, one could think anything, but they sound just like VOX. As for Ciudadanos, they mumble a Radio Futura song; it's hot, it's hot.....esta is the school of heat.

Meanwhile, the media are rubbing their hands together because everyone will have to focus on them again and they will regain the limelight, as the pandemic has already been exploited to the hilt. 

And so the year goes by, between the squabbling and the fears.

But I stop at Ciudadanos. A young, liberal and unprejudiced guy, he seeks a niche in the picturesque panorama, does well, screws it up and becomes a Chinese vase. But Inés takes over and continues to look for a niche. With the permission of VOX, which is very busy bullfighting with Pablo, stepping on his orchard and singing Snowy Mountains, which Filomena has made easy for her. 

And, as I was saying, Inés is trying to open the can. She may find the handle, but it's not an easy opener. Because between the debates of one and the other, Podemos's interest is to save us all and to touch the PSOE's morale, the PP's interest is to slip away and the PSOE's interest is to define itself. Inés and her boys give the impression that they are looking for Macron before it starts to rain more. But now that the days are getting longer, they have to make the most of them and get down to work. Close ranks, form cadres, open up ideas, reject copies, change patterns, speak out, explain their decisions and learn to govern. The latter they are proving. Because it is on the dirt fields where the team is tanned, where the dust and the kicks of the rivals, temper the spirit and strengthen the group spirit. And where falling down is a guarantee of a scrape and where you leave with so many on your body that you can hardly put on your long trousers after the match. And that builds character.

But let's see what people think, with the social networks inflamed, the TV channels replying 'tweets' and the press giving wax to the side that suits them best, nobody can guess what the voters are going to decide, neither in Catalonia, which is as arcane as a china shop, nor in possible early elections. Because if Sánchez continues to swallow toads and continues until the end of the legislature, without calling an early election, he and his party could be in for a huge shock. But we don't know if the president is interested in the PSOE. Moreover, as everyone has their own opinion, even against the big political and media apparatus, this could open the door for Ciudadanos and, perhaps, recruit some of those who have fled the party. Not so much because of their own merits, but rather because of other people's disasters. 

Because what ordinary citizens seem to want is an understandable order, changing, yes, but for the better and in earnest. Without sophistry, without unfulfillable promises, without corruption and without everyday acts changing too much; the first communion of the child, the updating of salaries, pensions, unemployment, health, an orderly management of the pandemic and of European funds, etc. .... that is, with a fairly clear principle of rational choice. The desire is somewhat impulsive, and perhaps not too elaborate, but clear and emphatic in its expression in front of the cubata. In other words, variable normality, not ideological, but of management and transversal, it doesn't matter who is right, but that what is good for the majority is done. No good or bad guys. The broadest possible welfare state as an objective, introducing those variables necessary for it to be plausible, such as: available money, reasonable taxes, productive spending, distribution of wealth, etc. Variables that, although they limit the execution of the tasks, can be adjusted to make them as broad as possible.

It is not so difficult, the transformations that have taken place in these years of crisis and the painful pandemic have freed parties and voters from their ties. Moreover, a higher cultural level, more means to interact, more media and a more open society give the opportunity to those who do not have prejudices, but rather realistic policies and realistic speeches, to explain and gain the trust of the electorate. But beware of disappointing again, it is not the time for experiments.

Everything else is history, mothballs or pending revolution. In these times, and even more so now, reflexes, sincerity, cleanliness and seriousness are required. If all this can be brought together by a party or a good part of these interests, it can win the day. And it seems, from the published polls and the existing currents of opinion, that neither the polarisation that was so productive in other times, nor the lies of the classic parties, repeated a thousand times, are having any effect on the electorate, if not the growth of the nostalgics. 

So Inés, now with less of a voice than in the good old days, freed from certain burdens within the party and without much to lose, can, if she finds the keys to access, return to play in the field with the elders. Let's see if she can make the grade.