“That’s a lie, and if they don’t say it, I’ll say it.” The phrase of the ERC spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, provoked an annoyed assent from Aina Vidal, from the commons –“Man, Gabriel”–, and the sudden question of Patxi López, spokesperson for the PSOE: “What is it that is a lie? ”. Cuca Gamarra had just said that Pedro Sánchez would go down in history as a liberator of “rapists and murderers.” The alignment of the majority of the legislature worked like this all night, imperfectly but efficiently.
The seven-way debate on RTVE was in many ways a five against two. The five that have participated in the policies of the last five years, PSOE, Sumar (UP), ERC, PNV and EH-Bildu, against Vox and PP, in this order, because Iván Espinosa de los Monteros managed to be more efficient and assertive than PP spokesperson, Cuca Gamarra, operating as Johanna Spyri’s governess, feet together and back arched.
It is undeniable that bipartisanship wanes as soon as it is surrounded by other political voices. The paradox is that Patxi López and Cuca Gamarra lose scale next to other spokespersons when these, unlike what happens in Las Cortes, enjoy the same time to intervene. López and Gamarra spoke to each other in a tidal wave of mutual reproaches as if no one else was in a room. But in the room there was more.
So, as soon as the first block of the debate began, three dynamics were formed: Vox came to say that no one else is worthy of the Spanish, PSOE and PP got involved in the construction of appendices to the debate of their leaders last Monday, and the rest devoted a third of their time to discussing two issues: why not go further in the legislature that is leaving – memorable Aitor Esteban reproaching ERC and Bildu for sabotaging the reform of two thirds of the Gag Law without present amendments – and how far can be reached in the future if the conformation of majorities is repeated.
In the distribution of roles, there were subcontracted tasks. For example, Aina Vidal took care of incarnating the voice of the program proposals and the defense of the coalition – the PSOE was very focused on the PP -, while Gabriel Rufián assumed the role of giving Espinosa de los Monteros a hard time , whom he interrupted with jokes every time he got carried away. He also took care to vindicate the figure of Irene Montero, Minister of Equality, who, as already happened in the May campaign, next week has an institutional act in Barcelona with Esquerra Republicana. The coincidences of the agenda.
Things as they are, if the projects are what was explained yesterday on television, of the PP we know from Cuca Gamarra, that “how bad Pedro Sánchez”, “how bad the pardons”, “how bad the ‘yes is yes'”, and from Vox, we learned from Espinosa de los Monteros that “many immigrants”, “how much crime”, “we need longer sentences”. From Patxi López, we know that “territorial policy must be based on coexistence” and that the PSOE “works to improve it”. And that he no longer listens to Felipe González and his invocations to the grand coalition and substitutes as the most voted list.
Oskar Matute covered Gamarra’s mouth, referring to the interviews of José María Aznar’s heralds, in 1998, with Batasuna first and with ETA later, and Espinosa de los Monteros to whom he launched: “I was at a vigil in Ermua asking for freedom of Miguel Ángel Blanco the night before he was murdered; I don’t know where you were.” The Vox spokesman did not respond.
Aitor Esteban recalled that politics does not work on ideals but on “realities, the State is facing two hot potatoes, the Catalan potato and the Basque potato, and this must be resolved with politics.” The phrase, although already said in the rostrum in Congress, had a happy fit and became the trending topic of the session.
In the block of pacts, the news was given again by Aitor Esteban: “We are not anyone’s crutch, Feijóo has crossed an unaffordable line normalizing Vox’s extreme right. It is political clumsiness: we, with Vox, nothing at all”.
That statement generated a current, and from his hand, ERC, Bildu, with greater forcefulness, and Sumar joined the PNV understatement: none will allow the PP and Vox pact to govern, which they defined as “undemocratic” and “fascist”. . Hand in hand with him, Patxi López responded to ERC with a resounding “no” to the possibility of allowing a PP government if it is the list with the most votes.
The debate summarized a country that was much less tense than the PP-PSOE duel last Monday, in which no fake data or angry gestures slipped, but rather a complex political society that requires the label of the pacts.
The bipartisanship came out resized, lessened, and in the midst of that fresco, Xavier Fortes, as moderator, with few but firm interventions, returned to journalism, as an expression of public opinion and, therefore, of the citizenry before the candidates, the authority mediation in public discussion. Which, in the time that occupies us, is not a small thing.
