Pedro Sánchez is showing a determination and boldness uncommon 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 passed the investiture and still the legislature with the certainty of the winner. The most curious thing is that its strength is born from the weakness of its 121 seats and the need of its heterogeneous partners to support it for fear of the uncertainty of new elections. Fear also plays a role in politics.
I don’t know if he has read the philosopher Hölderlin, who wrote that where danger grows, so do the possibilities of salvation. There is no obstacle that he resists, no contradiction that he does not overcome. He wields power like the Renaissance prince who inspired Machiavelli.
If Pablo Iglesias’s Podemos split from Sumar’s, they will put another table in front of them, because the purples are not against Sánchez but against Yolanda Díaz. If Junqueras asks for another table to be no less than Puigdemont, then another table is placed. And if the Basque nationalists request two, one for Bildu and another for the PNB, then two more tables. And if there was the case of a table to discuss currents within the PSOE, no problem.
If the goal is to guarantee coexistence and that the right-wing does not jump the wall that Sánchez himself erected on the day of his inauguration, this will not depend on the president but on the imponderables who always play a big 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, that one day converge in their interests and vote to throw out what has power.
The forward flight of Pedro Sánchez is spectacular, perhaps reckless. If it goes well, history will recognize it. But if it spoils and loses its own discourse along the way, forced by so many conflicting interests of its many partners, the greater the failure will be. Not only for him but for the PSOE, which is an indispensable part of the proper functioning of Spanish democracy. The fate of the PSC and Salvador Illa, for better or for worse, is linked to that of Sánchez. The various elections planned for 2024, starting with the European ones in June, will be the first test.
