Pedro Sánchez is showing a determination and audacity rare in politics. So many tables to deal with such different parties and with such disparate agendas can lead to a big mess. But he has overcome the investiture and faces the legislature with the security of the winner. The curious thing is that its strength comes from the weakness of its 121 seats and the need of its heterogeneous partners to give it support for fear of the uncertainty of new elections. Fear also plays in politics.
I don’t know if you have read the philosopher Hölderlin, who wrote that where danger grows, the possibilities of salvation also grow. There is no obstacle that resists him or contradiction that he does not overcome. He wields power like the Renaissance prince who inspired Machiavelli.
If Pablo Iglesias’ Podemos splits from Sumar’s, another table will be set because the purple ones are not going against Sánchez but against Yolanda Díaz. If Junqueras asks for another table so as not to be less than Puigdemont, then another table is set up. And if the Basque nationalists request two tables, one for Bildu and another for the PNV, then two more tables. And if there were a case of a table to debate the currents within the PSOE, there would be no problem.
If the objective is to guarantee coexistence and that the right does not jump over the wall that Sánchez himself built on the day of his inauguration, that will not depend on the president but on the imponderables that always play a great role in politics.
The imponderables are those vital forces that flow under the waters of every society, creative, ignored by parties, administrations and their officials, who one day come together in their interests and vote to oust the one in power.
Pedro Sánchez’s escape forward is spectacular, perhaps reckless. If it goes well, history will recognize it. But if he breaks down and loses his own discourse along the way, forced by so many conflicting interests of his many partners, the failure will be greater. Not only for him but for the PSOE, which is an indispensable piece for the proper functioning of Spanish democracy. The fate of the PSC and Salvador Illa, for better and worse, is linked to that of Sánchez. The several elections scheduled for 2024 will be the first test.
