Governments often complain that the political noise does not let their work reach the citizens. The truth is that conflict is sometimes the way that some parties have to capture the attention of voters. When we receive dozens of informational impacts every day, only through the shock does a political position seem to make its way. As comforting as the accords are, they are also extremely short-lived. These days we are living through two exercises of interested commotion at the hands of the ends of the political spectrum, Unides Podem and Vox.
Let’s first look at the noise surrounding the governing coalition. In reality, it is not so much a matter of a confrontation between the two partners, PSOE and UP, but rather of the internal struggle in this second formation. A clash embodied in the ministers and leaders of Podemos, Ione Belarrai Irene Montero (with Pablo Iglesias the rebound) against Yolanda Díaz. The two parties are immersed in the negotiation about the electoral weight of Podemos on the electoral lists. Montero’s position, opposed to reforming the only yes is yes law as the PSOE intends, has helped him gain political weight in Podemos, while Díaz, who is actually a supporter of agreeing the modification with the socialists, has had to support in Montero so as not to get scalded. It has been shown that his authority in the space he seeks to lead was not enough to subdue the will of Podemos.
It has not been a pulse between the PSOE and UP, but between the spaces that represent Díaz on the one hand (from Més Madrid to En Comú Podem) and Montero on the other. It’s a clash of power, but it’s also a clash of two political styles. Díaz emphasized on Friday in an event with Íñigo Errejónque that “politics is not about noise or pressure”. The vice-president embodies an empathetic and not bitter leadership like the one imposed by the indelible mark of Iglesias on Podemos, convinced that only with a tough speech and marking distances with the PSOE is it possible to grow to his left.
But it’s not just a part of the left that goes all out to get partisan income from the conflict. Vox also resorts to a propagandistic censure motion to compromise the PP. The operation consists of trying to cross the current limits of the ultra-right to enter neighboring areas that have so far resisted Santiago Abascal’s formation. Vox searched to the point of exhaustion for several months for an independent candidate. The strategy is not far from that used by his representative in Italy, Giorgia Meloni, who this week presented himself at the congress of the left-wing trade union CGIL, in search of the popular vote. In that eagerness to pretend to be transversal, Vox has encountered Ramón Tamames, a member of the PCE in the seventies.
Next week we’ll see if Vox’s experiment works or not. At the moment, it forces the PP to define itself once again in relation to the ultra-right. Pablo Casadohi marked distances, sent a reprimand to Abascal, voted no on the motion and received applause but did not recover votes lost to Vox. Alberto Núñez Feijóo has announced his abstention, a symptom of a certain discomfort. The version of Tamames’ speech published by eldiario.es emphasizes that “Spain resembles an absorbing autocracy”. It is an evolution of the slogan “liberty or communism” that brought so much success to Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Or the “leave the good people alone” that Feijóo let go in the Senate. It is a more sophisticated version of Aznar’s sentence against the DGT: “Who told you the glasses of wine I have to drink…?”.
Here is the mantra of an angry government, which scolds and interferes in people’s lives. It can make its way because it is more difficult to explain that the rules, in a democracy, restrict freedoms so that they are not only enjoyed by the strong, but also by those who are not so strong. In the meantime, Podemos has decided to transfer its internal struggle also to the motion of censure. Belarra has asked that only women answer to Tamames, with the intention of her and Montero intervening, thus detracting from the prominence of Díaz. more noise
