The lie
A feminine word that comes from Latin and is used to denounce the reality of any statement made by a person, when they are aware that what they say or claim is not true. It has many synonyms, which I bring up because they define the concept much better: trápala, embustería, bola, falsedad, embrollo, engaño, farsa, embeleco and trola.
Unfortunately, this attitude or human deviation is very frequent and is increasingly used in all areas of social, political and economic life; due to its repercussions, it is generally repudiated and punished in serious and formal environments and people, and is even considered a sin in many of the religions in force.
It is important in the judicial sphere, where lying before a court, when summoned as a witness, is a crime in most countries in the world, and it is even a very despicable and reprehensible act to do so in what is known as the parliamentary seat, which in some countries can ruin the political careers of even great and established leaders.
In Spain - a country traditionally given to the picaresque, the advantageous, the short-sighted manoeuvre and deceit - despite the fact that, apparently, the same thing happens as in most of the countries around us, lying is observed and applied by many and when it is discovered and denounced it is usually judged with greater or lesser ferocity and determination, depending on who falls into the error or on the vehemence and spurious interest of the denouncer. So much so that, in many cases, lying and even doing so repeatedly and in a big way is free for many peculiar characters, they are unpunished or capable of turning them into truths like fists and, in many cases, it does not usually have negative repercussions for their future or career.
In fact, today we have a Prime Minister who has a doctorate "cum laude" - in this case a real one and with full rights and honours - in the art, use and abuse of deception. A person in whom, in him, his legacy and environment, almost everything is a lie, an exaggeration or a product of marketing aimed at deceiving the suffering, disoriented or previously convinced and well-nourished spectator since that individual began his career.
In his youth he excelled in almost nothing on his own; he was a student and a mediocre sportsman who obtained his highest degree in Economics due to a thesis copied and also corrected or evaluated by a group of cronies who elevated him to the highest category without deserving it at all, so that, despite that mockery, he could barely get a medium-sized job at the university where nobody remembers his scarce lessons and advice, because they could learn little or nothing from him.
Taking advantage of his student popularity, a certain cocky demeanour and some personal dowry, he charmed the daughter of a businessman dedicated to the never-clear business of saunas of various kinds, whom he married and, thanks to this marriage, was able to afford a flat in which to settle down for the years to come, as well as a small utility vehicle.
For several years, and like most of the inept people who work in politics, he moved in this world, like almost all of them; that is to say, he worked as a fighter, a show-hugger, he carries or pays Fantas, and always acting like a real "claque" (a place which, according to the Akal Dictionary of Theatre, is "the group of people who are hired to applaud and cheer wildly for certain performances, which, for this 'work', they enter for nothing").
After his brief and useless or unfruitful stint in local and regional politics in Madrid, he managed, on the rebound, to get a seat in the Chamber of Deputies and there he endeavoured to follow to the letter everything he was told to vote for; by the way, some of those things approved with his vote are today repealed by him or forgotten forever, as if they had never existed.
As a good meddler and in order to increase his income, he previously managed, within the socialist quota, to get a hard rub on the board of directors of the plundered Caja Madrid where - despite his training as an "economist" - he supported, without the slightest hesitation, everything that was put in front of him. Decisions which, to a large extent, led to the ruin of this savings bank and, as a result, Spain's debt to rescue most of the savings banks, not the banks, was considerably higher.
I do not need to expand on the process of revolution, expulsion and recovery, after a fierce struggle and subsequent internal purge, for his position in the PSOE to take over the General Secretariat of a party that he has turned around like a sock, nobody recognises any more and, even today, there are no qualms about calling it the "Sanchista party". This is the "modus operandi" of an unmoderated egomaniac and dictator, who has managed to subjugate - based on lies and promises, all of them unfulfilled - his electorate and the indoctrinated media that follow him, support him and adore him. Promises that, of course, when he made them he knew he would never keep.
At this point, it is worth remembering how he managed to win a motion of censure against an overconfident, tired and unskilful Mariano Rajoy. A motion that Sánchez had lost beforehand, but which, thanks to basing it on his own great and obscene lies and those of a person who should never have been a judge, due to his prevaricating way of using his position to interfere in the application of justice and, above all, by selling his soul and that of Spain to its greatest enemies and to those other parties that only live off the miseries of active governments or the promises of those others who have a glimpse or possibility of achieving government and who, undoubtedly, given their weakness or precariousness, will need his votes, both to achieve the post and to stay in power.
He began by promising left and right not to do what he had done, he denied it actively and passively like Peter to Jesus and did not bat an eyelid when he changed the script without any kind of justification, only resorting to deception, placebos and sweetenings or idealisations of execrable facts to make his aforementioned voters and followers agree, even if it was with huge and apparently unpalatable millstones.
His capacity to lie, cheat, trample and dispose of others, even if they are his closest intimates, knows no bounds. He does not shy away from any measure he has to take to save himself from the fire, to get out of difficult situations or to blame others for his own or collective mistakes, even if it is under his mandate or direction, as reflected in his famous book entitled, "Manual de resistencia"; a book which, as is his custom, was not written by him either, but by a "negra" whom he has rewarded with successive and substantial political posts for as long as he needed them, in spite of his transfuguism and lack of worth.
He has managed to overcome the saying that it is impossible to deceive many people for a long time, and he continues to do so both within and outside our borders. His egocentrism is patent and pathetic and like a good dictator he fears criticism, even if it is constructive. He hides behind obscurantism and the use of the decree with urgency and nocturnality to avoid being ridiculed or making his vulnerabilities obvious; in fact, he is the president who has used this procedure the most.
He has devoted enormous efforts to controlling all the institutions that support or constitute an important part of the state, and of course, those that because of their importance and transcendence should remain out of reach and out of the government's prodigious manipulation. In his eagerness to achieve patent and profitable objectives, in an incredibly short space of time, he has managed to control, with proven supporters, twenty-five public entities, from the Constitutional Court (TC) or the Council of State and the CIS, to companies such as Correos, Indra or Aena.
Each of these efforts has an important role to play in their work of deceiving and convincing the masses of Spaniards who live their lives thinking about handouts, subsidies, favours and disproportionate salary and pension increases. Among them, it should be noted that the TC itself, the highest body for the defence of the Constitution and democratic values in Spain, its president and main swordsman of Sánchez, Conde-Pumpido, has complied with his plan to control the Court, and in just three months six ideological laws have already been approved to give it the stamp of truth without palliation. A Court that since its creation has been characterised by its slowness and hesitancy in taking decisions given the importance and significance of these decisions.
As a final summary and as a reminder, I would like to stress that Sánchez has lied to everyone without leaving anything or anyone behind: the victims of terrorism; families in their beliefs, uses and customs; he has destroyed education; he constantly deceives workers and companies with successive tax hikes. It has kept Spain under house arrest during the months of the pandemic, unable to do as it did, forgetting tens of thousands of deaths during the pandemic.
He has changed international policy and Spain's role in the world around us or in our area of influence with lies and trickery, breaking ties, customs and habits and even endangering our economy.
He has constantly sold smoke in Spain and Europe; he lies with his eagerness to elbow his way into the limelight, to be the first, albeit empty-handed, in conflicts, countries or personalities of relevance such as Ukraine, China or the US; he constantly lies to the EU and NATO about his investment plans, leaving the hot potato for whoever succeeds him; he arrogates to himself the successes of others and a leading role that does not correspond to him in most national and international spheres that may or may not be his concern.
He abuses the means of the state for his personal or party use by gross deception or by hiding the costs and realities; he is driving Spain's debt, deficit and CPI to unprecedented heights and it is never his fault that this is happening.
It deceives the homo and transsexual world, as well as the victims of sexual abuse; it frees ETA prisoners or makes their lives easier because it gets support from their heirs; it has annulled the crime of sedition and sweetened embezzlement to save cronies and, above all, to please the Catalan independentists in search of their support while the rest of us are bored with fables and tales of normalisation; does not pursue attacks and outrages against the State Security Forces and Corps, the King, the Spanish language and the unity of Spain or its flag, no matter how much his "fellow travellers" try to spit on them.
He has abandoned the army in terms of its future, capabilities and economic and employment situation, although he uses them in all the fires, real or otherwise, that he has to put out; he promises aid in catastrophes that never materialise; he inaugurates stretches of high-speed railway in semi-empty Spain, when they are lies or far from reality and, not content with all this and many other things, he torpedoes us with videos that pretend to be home-made, but are recorded for his personal use and enjoyment based on false scenarios and facts that have no truth in them at all.
A man who struts around the world, dressed in colourful suits or warm clothes that are not always very appropriate or somewhat unusual, believing himself to be someone important; when in reality he has to wander, like a soul in pain, to swallow potent toads, to disavow what he himself has said and to put out frictions created by his imprudence, as has just happened with his recent visit to Italy.
I am convinced that his figure, attitude and legacy will be studied with real interest in the faculties of medicine and psychology, as well as in those of political science, economics and various other specialities, because of his ineptitude and negative transcendence. Not to be missed.