Mariano Rajoy’s refusal to distance himself from corrupt members of his own party proved to be his undoing, but it’s unlikely that Pedro ‘the comeback kid’ Sánchez will remain in power for long in the aftermath of the country’s biggest corruption scandal to date.
By Richard Torné
The right-wing PP government has been brought down by hubris.
As if to prove the point, in the dying hours of his premiership Rajoy was still in denial. Instead of attending Thursday’s parliamentary debate to oust him he sat at a nearby restaurant for an eye-popping eight hours, dining and most likely wining, judging by the way he stumbled out the door later that night.
The episode spoke volumes about a man who survived as head of the government for as long as he did by simply doing nothing.
Part of his approach to politics stemmed from a belief – not unfounded, as it turns out – that Spaniards are not unduly bothered about corruption as long the economy is doing well.
Blind as he was to the ongoing crisis, the Gürtel money laundering, tax evasion and bribery scandal that led to his downfall was the tipping point. But it’s not as if he hadn’t been warned.
Last month, Madrid president Cristina Cifuentes was forced to step down after an old security video emerged showing her shoplifting some years ago, and that came after allegations she had fraudulently obtained a master’s degree.
Then, a couple of days before the Gürtel verdict came out Eduardo Zaplana, a former PP minister who had served under president Aznar’s government, was arrested and charged with taking kickbacks amounting to more than 10 million euros.
Throughout it all Rajoy made light of every incident. Days ago he appeared on radio, describing the “10 or 15 cases” of corruption in the PP as “isolated”. It was vintage Rajoy.
Visibly uncomfortable under the glare of the media, he always avoided answering awkward questions and would only make a half-hearted attempt at contrition when there was no other option.
His exit leaves many doubts as to how the party will respond, but so far the impression is that the PP has yet to understand the importance of showing humility. Perhaps it believes it can play the same game as Rajoy.
But what about his nemesis? The entire country knows that the position of the new president, 46-year-old socialist Pedro Sánchez, is far from certain.
An editorial in El País, a newspaper which traditionally backs Sánchez’s PSOE party, gave a sobering assessment of the new government’s prospects, pointing out that he lacks a mandate to lead a stable government while claiming that he has no future as president. It’s hardly a ringing endorsement.
There’s no question Sánchez has risen phoenix-like from the ashes. His current trajectory began in May last year after winning the party leadership elections for the second time, much to the chagrin of the PSOE’s grandees. He had earlier stepped down in October 2016 after failing to garner enough votes to remain as leader amid a bitter squabble within his own party.
But Sánchez boasts less than a quarter of the seats in Congress, and to secure the support of the two main Catalan nationalist parties – ERC and PdeCAT- Sánchez has expressed a willingness for dialogue, something Rajoy refused point blank. But the end result will be the same – they will insist upon holding a new, binding referendum on independence, and if that happens the knives will be out for Sánchez from within his own party.
There’s also the fact that he has become president, not through the ballot box but thanks to political bartering. And while he is not currently linked to any corruption case the same cannot be said of his Socialist party. Gürtel proved to be the PP’s undoing, but the PSOE has yet to face the music about its own, and potentially much bigger, scandal involving the trial of two former regional presidents of Andalusia.
There’s a sense that Spain is hell-bent on repeating past mistakes. The scenario is eerily similar to the 1930s when left-wingers led by president Manuel Azaña struggled and ultimately failed to keep hardliners and moderates happy. Meanwhile, the right wing hovered menacingly above, waiting to pounce at the first sign of ‘insurrection’ with the excuse that it was saving the motherland. And we all know how that particular episode ended.
(June 2018)