Without a doubt, now Pedro Sánchez’s speech with the amnesty sounds fake, forced and self-interested. No more, in any case, than that of his most forceful detractors who accuse him of being an autocrat. The latter, specialized in unscrupulous shock and the stigma of the opponent, did not criticize in the same way that Alberto Núñez Feijóo tried to approach (absurdly and clumsily) Junts.
They say everything about Sánchez, as well as his flagrant changes of judgment and his convenient line of argument. Does he deserve it? In large part yes. More than his PP antagonists? Because? Just because he is more successful than them?
That being the case, now Sánchez has the right to turn again, but a large part of his difficulty in doing it again with a happy ending is that with respect to Catalonia (that of the “social conflict”, according to him, not so long ago), with respect to Junts and Carles Puigdemont, the turn involves maneuvers and rhythms typical of the course change of an ocean liner, not of a simple speedboat.
The difficult maneuver to turn this particular dialectical and political transatlantic is the result of the dialectic of the “era of confrontation” that has been theorized so well by Christian Salmon, skilled theorizer of the story (storytelling) in a politics given over to the constant clash that puts dialogue and negotiation increasingly difficult. By the way, two different things.
And despite everything, agreement is not impossible, contrary to what logic and the strict use of reason might indicate, for the simple fact that neither one thing nor the other dominates in politics (or in general in our lives ). But the agreement for Sánchez to be president can’t be taken for granted either because, equally, everything has a limit.
In the coming weeks we will see these borders between what is possible and what is impossible, for some and for others, depending on what they can defend with a minimum of credibility before the respective parishes, in the key of “up until four days ago you he said that, now I do this”. And the operation may not be easy at all for Sánchez, but neither for the pro-independence parties, especially for Junts.
Puigdemont’s are now very, very quiet, and this is indicative. They know they are in the center of the board. They have been put here by the naughty ballot boxes, the angry antagonists of Sánchez and the skilled negotiators of the PSOE. But they will have to show a lot of skill in order not to waste all this capital, as they have pointed out, as ERC has done so far. If this last scenario occurred, the ballot boxes would have given them on 23-J a poisoned gift, very difficult to digest and with incalculable negative consequences for the present and the future.
Otherwise, if the miracle works in the purest Sánchez style, Puigdemont will also have shown once again that he possesses an enviable resistance manual. But, I insist, just as Sánchez’s speech does not allow him to grant any amnesty, that of independence means that amnesty cannot be enough, nor any amnesty. The deal does not look as done as some are selling it.
