I take this title from Saint Gregory the Great, who rebuked bishops who are silent when they should speak, calling them “mute dogs incapable of barking.” I do not want to be one of these, and that is why I give an account and reason for my criticism of the government action of President Sánchez, compatible with my firm defense of the Socialist Party. I always voted for the UCD and, since its extinction, I have been a faithful traveling companion of the Socialist Party.
The reason for my decision was twofold: 1) It seemed to me that, as the PSUC did exemplarily before, the PSC was the party that could best integrate immigrants from the rest of Spain into Catalan politics. 2) I thought then, as now, that the social democratic policy carried out with energy, rigor and prudence is the best way to achieve coexistence in peace and justice. And I do not regret it, on the contrary: I highly value what the Socialist Party contributed to the transition and the consolidation of democracy in Spain.
There are episodes that show the good work of those years. Thus, it was the right (UCD) that carried out the tax reform and the secularization of family law (civil marriage and divorce, something that today seems nothing, but that in the eighties raised blisters), and it was the left (the PSOE) who did the industrial reconversion. In other words, each political force did what the other could not have done. There was something that united everyone and went beyond partisan interest: a sense of community. In 1992, Spain havia tombat per bé, as they said in Catalonia of the patient who was overcoming a crisis.
But 2004 arrived (the Atocha attacks), the turning point in recent Spanish history, and that community sentiment that made the miracle –yes, miracle– of the transition possible, without the presidents RodrÃguez Zapatero (return to war) Civil) and Rajoy (appeal against the Catalan Statute) managed to preserve it; in fact, the two contributed to liquidating it.
And, after them, came President Sánchez, whom I have voted for in the two calls he has won to date. Therefore, my negative assessment of his presidency is due to his alliances and his way of governing (abuse of decree law, institutional colonization…). I insist that: 1) I have never considered his government illegitimate. 2). I value his management successes in social policies, I support pardons and I praise his personal performance in international politics.
But, despite this, from the beginning I was wary of the coalition with the Podemite radical left and of the legislature’s pact with the independentistas. Because? For being clear that both pursued and pursue the destruction of what they contemptuously call the ’78 regime, each for their own reasons: a) to implement a model of authoritarian social constructivism, and b) to achieve the independence they crave. Which implies in both cases the destruction of Spain as a historical entity and political project for the future.
In the well understood that Spain is, for me, a human community formed over the centuries by geography (the inevitable peninsula) and by history, and legally articulated in the form of a State, which constitutes an area of ​​solidarity that generates of rights and obligations. With the precision that this State must be federal –not confederal– because the plural reality of Spain requires it.
That is the reason for my root criticism of President Sánchez, whose continuity at the helm of the government I consider a serious risk for Spain to subsist as a political entity of solidarity. That is why I distinguish between President Sánchez and the Socialist Party, sometimes divided throughout its history, but with essential contributions to the common heritage, and absolutely essential for Spain to develop in peace and justice.
Hence my complaint that few voices have emerged within it, which, faithful to the best socialist tradition, have distanced themselves from the radical-populist drift of the president. Because, when Pedro Sánchez has passed, the Socialist Party must continue on its way. What will those who have kept silent do then?
