The coalition government formed in January 2020, the first coalition cabinet in Spain since the times of the Second Republic, is facing one of the most critical junctures since the Ceuta crisis in May 2021, when Morocco put the government to the test. resistance of Spain before the indifferent gaze of the United States.
A socialist deputy in his underpants and a division general of the Civil Guard in unconditional prison. Story of prostitutes and cocaine days before the celebration of March 8. Stupefaction among the socialist militancy. The female vote of the PSOE wondering: “What is this?” Pedro Sánchez has lost eight points of support among women so far this year, as explained today in La Vanguardia, Carles Castro, an expert in electoral sociology.
Division in the Government for the rectification of the law of Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Equality (only if it is yes). It is highly probable that next Tuesday, for the first time so far in the legislature, PSOE and Unidas Podemos will vote separately in Congress on a matter of high social sensitivity. There are less than three months left for the celebration of local and regional elections (12 communities) that will take the pulse of society.
“A sordid corruption scandal weakens the Socialist Party before local elections.” This is how Sandrine Morel , correspondent for Le Monde , headlined yesterday . The so-called Mediator Case seems encapsulated in the Canary Islands, but the summary filed by the judge of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, María de los Ángeles Lorenzo-Cáceres, contains images. And a picture is worth a thousand words. The photos of a socialist deputy in a Madrid brothel have more drilling capacity on the Spanish battlefield than a Javelin anti-tank missile in the Ukrainian war.
The case is not closed and there are nerves in the socialist parliamentary group since the deputy in question, Juan Bernardo Fuentes, organized dinners with fellow party members. The Mediator case is honey for the media in the digital click era and a juicy morsel for the opposition, as long as the Popular Party does not end up appearing in the spider web. For now there are only slight indications of it.
1,700 kilometers from the Peninsula and with an advantageous tax regime, the Canary Islands are seven microcosms that are difficult to decipher. Only some canaries and the Civil Guard really know what is happening in the Canary Islands. The PSOE tries to present the investigation of its deputy as an isolated case and uses in its defense the speed with which it forced the resignation of Juan Bernardo Fuentes, today known throughout Spain as Tito Berni.
The opposition will try to stretch the gum as much as possible and this will depend on the judicial evolution of the case. Division General of the Civil Guard Francisco Espinosa Navas, an expert in the Sahel and former second chief of staff of the armed institute, is in unconditional prison for his role in the plot, supposedly dedicated to trading favors. The accusation that keeps him in prison is belonging to a criminal organization. The general, now retired, was in charge of a mission in the Sahel paid for by European funds to modernize the security of some African countries. He will be inquiries in Brussels. The Sahel is today a highly sensitive issue in the European Union. Significant prudence can be seen on the part of the first opposition party in the case of the general, who rose to the top of the Civil Guard during the term of Mariano Rajoy.
The 8-M arrives poisoned for the left. 8-M started badly in this legislature: first tensions between government partners and galloping infections in Madrid. It was the moment of explosion of the epidemic. Weeks later, the right came to accuse feminists of having spread the covid as if they were the witches of Salem. PSOE and Unidas Podemos have not been able to – or have not wanted to – preserve a minimum of unitary culture within the feminist movement. The Popular Party sees the 8-M flag on the ground and wants to get closer to it. Next Tuesday he will vote in favor of taking into consideration the PSOE’s proposal to retouch the law of only yes is yes. That day, the eve of March 8, Unidas Podemos will not support the socialist proposal. Twenty-four hours later, Sánchez will try to mend the situation with the approval in the Council of Ministers of new measures to guarantee parity between men and women, also in the boards of directors of large companies.
Ferrovial will have to change the composition of its board if it is late in moving its headquarters to the Netherlands. The departure from Spain of this construction and services company has been one of the great topics of the week. The decision was not communicated in advance to the Government and Sánchez has interpreted it as a political torpedo carefully prepared by Luís Del Pino, president of a company that has obtained State contracts worth more than one billion euros in recent years. President Sánchez wanted to send a message to the entire Ibex 35, while the head of the opposition calls for general elections in May considering that the legislature has already entered a phase of decomposition. Intense debate about Ferrovial that has almost left the case of the Canary Islands in the background. The political combat is a continuous fight for the illumination of the public space.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo calls for early elections dressed in a neoprene suit so that the cases in which his party is still involved do not splash him. He has had to sacrifice the deputy Alberto Casero, called to trial in Extremadura, so as not to be less rigorous than Sánchez. The Kichen case is winding, one of the most serious issues in recent years: the use of the Police to sabotage an investigation into corruption in the PP. A court in Madrid opens a case on the Catalonia operation and communications surface between a former high-ranking official of the Ministry of the Interior and the president of the National Court, revealing an intense connection between the previous government and high-ranking magistrates. The neoprene is very thick: 5 mm.
These days Spain does not invite enthusiasm and Vox will try to catalyze that feeling with a motion of no confidence in which the nonagenarian Ramón Tamames is likely to arouse more curiosity than anything else. That motion of no confidence can end up being a dangerous loose bullet. No one could come to her confidently.
To complete the picture: closing ranks in United We Can. They will vote together on Tuesday. A rapprochement is taking place between Yolanda Díaz and the leading group of Podemos for the definition of the candidacy for the general elections, an issue that has not yet been resolved. Prominent Latin American political leaders have taken an interest in the subject. And former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero does not lose sight of him.