The expression is not mine. It is from the calm Víctor Lapuente in the very sanchista newspaper El País: this electoral campaign is being a bazaar. they all are. What happens is that some –those who justify talking about buying votes– border on impudence. This one, for example. A rain of seductions like the one that fell on the electorate in three weeks is not remembered. The conquest of the vote must be very hard to commit 13,000 million euros from the public treasury for the benefit of a single political force, not to say for the benefit of a single person.

It would be necessary to consider what percentage of that money will create national wealth and how much it will condition future governments, but let the economists do those calculations. Those of us who do not understand numbers must be content with the solemn appeal to the welfare state made by the ministers, as if the welfare state depended on the number of young people who use the interrail. More realistic is to think that Sánchez had the intelligence to take the initiative, only lost because of Bildu, and to cover recent mistakes with tons of new illusions. To understand each other: as long as jokes are made with the two euros from the cinema for the elderly, the sedition or embezzlement that deteriorated the Government so much is not remembered.

Still, this hasn’t been the worst. The worst thing has been the burial of the very little that remained of the dialogue between the two possible presidents of the Government. As Vicente Vallés said, both went to the debate in the Senate to destroy each other; not to expose any thesis, but to tear himself apart. If that is not rancor, may God come and see it. Without playing with feelings, Sánchez and Feijóo managed to destroy the most positive thing that the transition has left us. And they tore it to pieces where it hurts the most, which is terrorism: not long ago we considered it indecent to use it in an electoral campaign.

How is this massive destruction explained? Obviously, because two strong incompatible personalities face each other, but also two aspirations to Moncloa raised to life or death. Life or death for Pedro Sánchez, because he is convinced of his historical mission as a progressive leader, not only Spanish, but European and world. Is a newcomer from the provinces going to take away that glory? And life or death for Feijóo, because this may be his only and last chance to return the right to power. And none is free: Sánchez is harassed by his associates, whose collaboration maintains and restricts him. Feijóo is conditioned by Vox, which can give him territorial governments but scare away a multitude of voters in the general elections. And all of this, together, creates an environment that dwarfs polarization: they are in the excitement of war.

We could not expect such a result from local elections, but these will be the first decided by Frankenstein; they will be the consecration of the bloc policy (this is how the polls are already being read), and we are witnessing the birth of a policy based on the exclusion of the adversary. One, because he wants to “repeal sanchismo.” Another, because he is convinced that no one who can repeal it has been born a Christian.