The seething cauldron of Spanish politics had calmed down somewhat after the change in leadership of the PP. It’s not that the arrival of Alberto Núñez Feijóo fleshed out his relationship with the government, but the language of the former Galician President, away from the incessant accusatory hurricane of Pablo Casado, had eased the atmosphere. The Pegasus scandal and the sacking of Paz Esteban as director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) ended these weeks of relative calm. As the government tries to rebuild its parliamentary alliances, the opposition has returned to the old discourse, declaring a dying executive which, in Feijóo’s words this Wednesday, is “launching the foundations of democracy” and turning the country into an “institutional Crisis” has overthrown”.
It’s the second time in 27 years that a scandal has resulted in an intelligence chief. The overthrow of General Emilio Alonso Manglano in 1995, also due to a wiretapping of politicians and journalists, was one of the great episodes of an era, the death rattle of Felipe González’s government, in which the word tension – already – became forever – in one of the most used terms in Spanish political vocabulary. Some echoes of all this could be heard this Wednesday in the House of Representatives and in the headquarters of the first opposition party.
The Prime Minister arrived at the weekly scrutiny meeting ready to present the official justification for the dismissal of the director of the CNI, which Defense Minister Margarita Robles had stubbornly avoided the day before. Pedro Sánchez’s statement surprised no one. He distanced Esteban’s downfall from espionage against the Independentistas, attributing it solely to the “clear failure of communications security”, i.e. the invasion of his own phone by the spyware as well as those of the defense and home secretaries.
Sánchez’s confrontation with the PP spokeswoman alone showed that something had changed in the mainstream parties. Cuca Gamarra uttered the words “institutional crisis” for the first time. And shortly after Feijóo ratified it. The leader of the PP appeared at his party’s headquarters in Santiago, where he spent 10 minutes reading out a statement full of somber adjectives with a solemn gesture to spread the idea that Spain was experiencing a particularly serious moment. He did not call for elections as he did days ago, but announced that the government, “the worst thing in democracy”, is “burning itself out”.
It has happened several times since the legislature began, with particular violence in the worst days of the pandemic, and now it’s cropping up again: the opposition denies the government any ability to continue to command the country. Vox has promoted the idea among its lawmakers that the executive branch is “counting its days,” and the mantra is now repeated whenever a representative from that party intervenes in Congress. “Frankenstein [como denominan a la coalición de Gobierno] it will be undone in the eyes of everyone,” announced his spokesman, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros. Ciudadanos, which provided emergency aid to the government at such crucial moments as the state of alarm or labor reforms, has been in the trenches for weeks and, despite the bleak omens of the polls, is also proposing to call elections. The opposition sees the parliamentary alliances of Sánchez as faltering and has begun to further shake this precarious framework.
The best news for the government is that hostilities with the ERC have eased. This was shown by the duel in the control meeting between his spokesman Gabriel Rufián and the defense minister. Rufián continued to attack Robles for his “toxic patriotism”, but he did not specifically call for his resignation, nor even refer to the dismissal of the director of the CNI. Yes, his party leader, President Pere Aragonès, did it in Barcelona in even more worrying terms for the government. “Nobody should consider the crisis solved,” Aragonès warned in parliament. Not only the ERC, but also the two Basque nationalist groups insist that the executive must offer more, a commission of inquiry or at least the documents explaining the espionage with court approval must be declassified.
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The first test of how far Esquerra is willing to keep its finger on the pulse will be seen Thursday with the vote on a decree and three laws, including national security reform, that the executive branch hopes to push forward in worst-case approval the PP.
On the same day that the CIS confirms that the citizens are tired, the political noise in decibels increases. More than 90% call for the political tension to be reduced. It goes without saying that the barometer for May was 40dB. For EL PAÍS and SER, respondents were asked what qualities they value most in politicians and only 7% chose “good manners”.
In this ardent climate, the parties for the elections in Andalusia on June 19th are starting. In Congress, the campaign has already begun, with Vox candidate Macarena Olona being the most active. Olona uses it to the last day in Madrid and this Wednesday turned an interpellation to the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, into a demonstration of the things she is willing to do “if she is President of the Board of Directors”. At Olona, a dog-faced debate is always guaranteed. Among other things, he told Montero: “You don’t know what a woman is.”
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