Political deception in Spain: Iglesias leaves the government and throws himself on Madrid in the name of anti-fascism
There are those who say that Spain produces much more politics than it can assimilate. The events of the last few days seem to confirm this. On Wednesday, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso (Popular Party – PP), called early regional elections to curb a possible motion of no confidence by Ciudadanos , the party with which she governed until then. The reason is that the day before, in another autonomous community (Murcia), Ciudadanos had attempted the reversal, abandoning the majority coalition with the popular and, together with the socialists, disheartening the president in office. This initiative was then aborted because three of his advisers had changed their minds at the last moment. Fearing the same scenario, Ayuso, which the polls give in continuous growth of consensus, decided to displace everyone by calling the voters to the polls. The two motions presented in extremis by the left-wing opposition were of no use, annulled by a ruling by the Superior Court of Justice as they were recorded out of time. " Socialism or freedom " was the slogan with which Ayuso launched his campaign for re-election, pitting his liberal credentials against the left of the PSOE and the far left that revolves around the Podemos galaxy.
Yesterday, however, came the surprise announcement of the vice president of the government and leader of Podemos , Pablo Iglesias: he will leave his post in the executive to compete against Ayuso in the elections called for next May 4th. Riot in the editorial offices and secretariats for a decision that risks changing the political scenario, more at a national than a regional level. But what drives a Bolivarian vice president, who until a few years ago no one would have imagined could access the button room, to abandon his post in the central executive to run for a regional vote? First of all, the concrete prospect of the disappearance of his party from the political scenario of Madrid. The regional electoral law provides for a 5 percent barrier and for Podemos the prospects of exceeding this figure were rather uncertain until yesterday. Iglesias's candidacy tries to avoid this catastrophic horizon, which would probably decree the decline of the Podemite experience, at least in its current version. Then there are ideological reasons typical of the character: Iglesias is not a ruler, he is an agit-prop from the university classrooms, a spin-off of Chavismo whose mission is to blow up the democratic consensus of post-Francoism, in the name of socialism. of the 21st century. The opportunity to present itself as a barrier to the phantom " ultra-right " (PP and Vox for those like him are equal) that would take over Madrid and then the country is too greedy not to be grasped: " democracy or fascism " is the slogan that has coined in five minutes as opposed to Ayuso's “ communism or freedom ” ( update of the initial “ socialism or freedom ”, adapted for the occasion). Between now and May it will be a civil war without quarter – hopefully only verbal – of hyperbole and convulsions, with one important difference: that Ayuso has nothing to do with fascism, while Iglesias and communism are close relatives.
In reality, the Ayuso-Iglesias dichotomy is only in the media. There is no possibility that the latter can contend for the presidency, its function will be to stir the waters to the left, mobilize the base to bring water to the " progressive " mill, where the official candidate was and remains the socialist Gabilondo, whose protagonism is seriously in danger of being obscured by the impetuousness of Lenin of Vallecas (I'll explain this to you another time). Ayuso in the post-announcement press conference began by saying that Spain owes her a favor, that of having caused Iglesias to resign from the national government. And this is actually the first involuntary big shot scored by the president of the Community of Madrid with the early elections. But others could follow. If Iglesias, as probable, manages to overcome the barrier but not to avoid a center-right majority, his mission could be considered failed. At that point the question will be how he will manage to re-present himself as a national leader, after having staked everything on the rhetoric of the popular front and having excluded himself from the central government. By co-opting the current minister of labor, Yolanda Díaz, as vice president of the government, in short, by giving the front line to other prominent Podemite exponents, he seriously risks digging his own grave even within a party which he would hardly keep control of as a defeated.
Even from a strictly electoral point of view, his candidacy could prove to be an own goal for the left: in Madrid, 21st century socialism has never enjoyed great popularity, to put it mildly. The presence of Iglesias will have the probable effect of alerting moderate citizenship by pushing Ayuso towards an absolute majority. Even those in the center-right who do not love it, faced with the alternative of finding themselves in the government of the region with a left with Iglesias, will not hesitate to support the current outgoing president. The same goes for the electors of Ciudadanos in free exit. If until today the Orange party (also at 5 percent risk) could count on an electoral base between right and left, the presence of Iglesias could push a significant portion towards the PP, also in consideration of the fact that in the government of the capital the two formations are allied with good results. The left (PSOE, Podemos and the like), on the other hand, was already deployed in arms against Ayuso but its roof in the Community of Madrid will hardly deviate – at best – from that reached in the last electoral round, insufficient to guarantee the governability.
Whoever emerges refreshed from all this tangle is the president of the government Pedro Sánchez. Madrid had already given it up for lost and, without a shot being fired, gets rid of a loose cannon like Iglesias. In the end, he rules with the suburbs against the capital, Podemos only serves him for a numerical question and from today he will be more manageable.
What is clear is that in the Community of Madrid on May 4 a much more important game will be played than the regional elections themselves, which concerns the political future of the country at least on three fronts: the prospects of Podemos in the government led by Sánchez, the possible appeal to early elections also at a general level, the restructuring of the center-right on the PP- Vox axis and the definitive marginalization of Ciudadanos .
The post Political fraud in Spain: Iglesias leaves the government and throws himself on Madrid in the name of anti-fascism appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/imbroglio-politico-in-spagna-iglesias-lascia-il-governo-e-si-butta-su-madrid-in-nome-dellantifascismo/ on Tue, 16 Mar 2021 04:51:00 +0000.