Between the options Jürgen Klopp or Xavi Hernández, between going or staying, Pedro Sánchez chose Xavi. Personally it disappoints me. Slims down your figure. But as a citizen I appreciate it. If the right returned to govern in Spain, Catalonia would once again be a madhouse, like Barça. Klopp announced he was stepping down as Liverpool manager and there is no doubt he will be true to his word. Xavi announced that he was leaving his position as Barça coach and changed his plans. Sánchez did not announce it exactly, but he gave the impression that he was leaving his position as president of the Spanish Government, and he stayed. I reaffirm my opinion that Klopp is a great and that the other two are not. It is that, beyond the fact that the German exudes charisma like few in any field, the act of resignation contains greatness in itself.
Executed from a position of strength, it is a poetic gesture. I also think of Éric Cantona, who left football when he was still at the top as a player. Next to Cantona, all his contemporaries are dwarfs. But since I’m talking about poetry, I’ll turn to literature, to one of Shakespeare’s great characters, General Coriolas. Roman political villains mount a campaign of harassment against him, a man who values ??his honor above all else. Coriolas leaves Rome but not without first looking back as he leaves the city gates and affirming that the Romans have not banished him. On the contrary “I banish you!”, he declares. “I banish you!”
The sentence moves me. In its contempt for moral pettiness, it is an eternal cry for human dignity. Remember Don Quixote when he says “Sancho, let the dogs bark, it is signal that we ride”.
I don’t know what the mental processes were that led Pedro Sánchez to decide, after five days of reflection, to stay on as head of government. Maybe it was all “a little play”, as some say, but I doubt it. Perhaps – more likely, I think – his PSOE co-religionists reminded him that out of loyalty and responsibility he could not abandon them or the country. Well, not everyone: well there is Felipe González, with the possible exception of Vicente del Bosque, the most brilliant leader of Spain since democracy, reduced today to a caricature of that classic, an old comedian unable to accept that his time on stage is over.
Getting to the point (forgive the unnecessary but irresistible Felipist digression): I think Sanchez has missed an opportunity. If he had left the echo of his gesture would have gone around the world. Maybe not the best for Spain or Catalonia (or you know), but certainly a shame for humanity. Sánchez would have been recognized today and always remembered as a figure who disdained the filth into which politics in the Western world is becoming more and more every day. It might have made those who think it’s normal to wallow in the mud, like Trump, think that they will do anything to get or keep power. It could have redirected, a little, at least, the course of history.
But no. Instead of generating applause, the world’s reaction to Sánchez’s decision will be a general shrug of the shoulders. Ah, of course, another politician. Business as usual. Let’s turn the page. After a few days in which Spain has captured unusual global media attention, we return to the default mode: indifference to what is happening here. In politics, I say.
The irony is that, after this entertaining episode in Moncloa, the fate of Barça and even that of Xavi Hernández, a character known to ten times as many people, is and will continue to be much more interesting outside of Spain (and perhaps inside) humans than Pedro Sánchez. I use the word irony because the resolution of the Sánchez dilemma has, or had, many more consequences for planetary well-being than whether or not next season Xavi succeeds in converting the youth talent at his disposal into titles.
But here we are. Football and politics return to the places that touch them and we can resume the interrupted question: why did Xavi decide in the end to stay? No idea of ??the answer, but I imagine it contains quite a bit more prose than poetry.
