Dearest and most reverend president Pedro Sánchez, I will be brief and very clear.
You have just committed a tremendous blunder, something unaccustomed in your always wise behaviour. A serious blunder that could cost you the seat of the Moncloa Palace and, by chance, that of secretary general of the PSOE.
Revered Pedro, I have to tell you this for your own good, so that you correct your lethal blunder. You have believed wholeheartedly in the recommendation of the BATAPLOF, the Battalion of Advisors of the Moncloa Palace, and you have called a general election for Sunday, July 23rd. Couldn't you wait until September? Is the fall into a tailspin that serious?
I am sorry to tell you with all my heart that you have made a blunder, a crass mistake that could lead you to disaster if you persist in "sostenella y no enmendalla".
There is another better summer date
You have consciously chosen the Sunday before the long weekend of 25 July, which is the feast of St. James the Apostle, patron saint of Spain and a sacred day in the Autonomous Communities of Galicia, Castile-León, Navarre and the Basque Country.
These are days on which St. James the Greater, the standard-bearer of the Christian kingdoms that began the Reconquest of Muslim Spain, revives and lashes out with his sword and his white horse against any force that stands in his way. Beloved leader, are you still determined to be the pirate captain of the Saracens who want to immolate themselves before the swift swaying of the great incense boot?
Take my advice and rectify it. The most suitable date to call the general elections is, without a doubt... August 1st. As you are a man who never puts his personal interests first and always puts the good of others before his own, you should reconsider your tremulous decision of 23 July and set the elections for the first of August, Tuesday by the way.
If you do so, you will still be on the lips of the vast majority of Spaniards. But many would have more fond memories of you and some of those close to you, as it is the day of the month par excellence, when most of them go on holiday. In a very special way, you would be on the minds and in the mouths of those who have already paid for or booked their train or coach tickets, their boat tickets or their plane flights.
The huge benefits of rescheduling
But if you decide to make the change, you will go down in Spanish history as the president who has avoided on such a significant day the long traffic jams at the exit of major cities and the unexpected queues of traffic in the middle of motorways, dual carriageways, national, regional and local roads.
Moreover, as a result of the significant reduction in road traffic, there would be fewer fatal accidents involving cars and motorbikes, which would also mean far fewer injuries due to traumatisms - great news for the DGT statistics!
And there would be less consumption of fossil fuels and far fewer pollutants would be emitted. The vote of the ecologists would be assured. The rest of the benefits can be listed by the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, who would wholeheartedly support the date change.
But there is a much more compelling reason. From your free summer break in the official residence of La Mareta, in Lanzarote, you would have a new opportunity to take the Falcón and deposit the ballots for Congress and Senate in your polling station in Madrid. As you can see, there are all advantages if the vote is held on 1 August.
P.S. Ah, you've got it all tied up and well and truly tied up for 23 July! What does that phrase sound like to me?
