The stupefaction of Pedro Sánchez by the battery of data that Núñez Feijóo bombarded him focused the first part of the campaign. But the final part has been determined by a journalist, Silvia Inxaurrondo, who, with rare precision and reckless tenacity, pointed out Feijóo’s tendency to say “inaccuracies”, as he himself describes them. Last-minute decisive events cannot be ruled out, but, for now, Inxaurrondo’s interview and Feijóo’s responses have placed the electoral discussion around who is the most liar. It was inevitable. In the post-truth era, the important thing is to impose credible messages, even if they are unreal. As journalists, politicians, publicists and influencers well know, the voter craves, above the truth, that lie or “alternative fact” that confirms his prejudices.
Our journalism and our politics are inflamed with prejudice. The two Spains have not stopped confronting and radicalizing since the Aznar years, which buried the parenthesis of the consensual transition, and reintroduced the patriotism of friend-enemy. But that old local confrontation is feeding on new global sap: the generalization throughout the West of the malaise of globalization. An imprecise and profound irritation resulting from many factors: loss of sovereignty in European countries, fear of the future of the middle classes, American retreat, the emergence of China, the revival of Islam, changes in the human landscape due to migration, the disappearance of religions, technological disruption, cult of gender or racial identities, climatic chaos… The reaction (nostalgia for the past) is more fruitful on the right than on the left, because the university left embraced cosmopolitanism (just like the liberal right, which, however, is conservative in values). The attraction of the extreme right to the right, so visible in the US (Trump), is rooted in the validity of a certain longing for Franco, a cultural factor of identity. Even in Italy the postmodern version of fascism returns. Soon in France. Throughout Europe the phenomenon is visible. The loss of sovereignty has fueled nationalisms.
Whoever wins, the elections in Spain will bring more identity tension. But if this right wins, so seduced by the extreme right that it is even confused with it (Madrid, Valencia, Mallorca), Spain will enter a new phase. The neocentralizing and neoliberal politics will have great muscle (high judiciary, majority of voters, media), but the minorities will continue to be strong. The social, territorial and cultural conflict will be enormous. Consequently, recentralizing and reactionary neoliberalism can only be maintained by imposing a “majority authoritarianism”. As if that were not enough, the victory of the Spanish right-wing will decant the map of Europe, whose unity will enter a decadent phase, if not implosive. This is what awaits us. Illiberalism knocks on the door of Spain.
