The Drums of War

The rivalry between Pablo Casado and Pedro Sánchez is showing a clear winner. While Pablo was in Brussels last week bearding an uncomfortable Angela Merkel about how Spain is going to the dogs, Pedro has reached out to Pablo’s bitterest rival from the recent leadership battle within the Partido Popular, Soraya Saénz de Santamaría, ex-President Mariano Rajoy’s right hand and ex Vice-president of Spain (yes, 'the poisonous dwarf'), to join the Council of State - the supreme consultative organ for the Government..

Furthermore, Sánchez offered in person the position for Santamaría without consulting her erstwhile teammate Casado. 

The exvicepresidenta of the Government decided to accept the offer after a few days of reflection following the phone call of Sánchez.

The Casado plan nevertheless continues in trying to hamstring the PSOE ‘okupa’ Government at every turn.
But now, it’s going too far. Pedro Sánchez was speaking about Brexit in a full session of Parliament on Wednesday, noting the loss to the European Union (and the hard times ahead for the UK) and, with a glance towards the Catalonian nationalist party-members in the Cortes, he made the obvious but telling point that united means stronger.

But then, in the reply from the Leader of the Opposition, the future ex-leader of the Partido Popular (re my forecast from August) Pablo Casado said that the Spanish president Pedro Sánchez was a golpista, a traitor to Spain because of his handling of the Catalonia crisis. Pedro Sánchez answered with: ‘If you don't withdraw that I'm a golpista you and I will never have anything more to say to each other’.

The spokesperson for the ERC, the Catalonian Republican Left party, Joan Tardà, said in his presentation that if Casado had his way, ‘we would all be shot’.