With Friends Like This

 Argentina is an interesting country. It was – and should be – immensely rich. Indeed, a hundred years ago, it was the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world. Today, it is bankrupt with inflation running at 280% annually.  

The giant South American state has an interesting president who wants to reverse the economic collapse of his country. One can easily appreciate why that would be a good idea, but perhaps the self-styled anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei is not the best person for this mighty task. He wields a chain-saw in his campaigns – cut taxes and cut services, he says. If you can’t make it till the end of the month, that’s your problem he says.  Social justice is immoral he says. Socialism is a cancer according to Milei, a message which goes down well with the right-wing opposition in Spain (and elsewhere).

Milei was here in May, invited by the Vox leader Santiago Abascal (‘a good friend when I was just a Nobody’, he says). It was a private visit – of sorts – and he didn’t check in with the Government, the foreign minister or the Royal Palace. He did however remember to insult Pedro Sánchez and his government (and his wife) and it duly caused a diplomatic rift. The Spanish ambassador has been recalled from Buenos Aires and there things stand.

Then, just last week, Milei was back in Madrid to receive a prize from the regional president (who notably failed to invite Alberto Núñez Feijóo to the bun-fight). The occasion was a medal – the Medalla Internacional de la Comunidad de Madrid – very nice. Other past honourees of this medal include Esperanza Aguirre, motorcycle hero Ángel Nieto and the Movimiento Contra la Intolerancia.

This rather off-centre gesture was evidently another political swipe by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who stands to the right of the Partido Popular – a potential candidate who is likely taking votes back from Vox and certainly a more attractive contender for eventual president of Spain than the grey Sr. Feijóo.

On the other hand, the Spanish media noted the behaviour of Ayuso as described by the conservative British Telegraph to be ‘deep disloyalty’ towards her country (and her party) and that she is ‘a far-right firebrand’.  We also learn that a German newspaper, Der Freitag, once called her ‘A Spanish Marine le Pen’.  

A prettier version, I grant you.

Regrettably, in an unfortunate example of friendly fire, Milei spoke to the gathered masses of the president’s companion being under investigation (he meant Pedro Sánchez’ wife, but, confusingly, Díaz Ayuso’s other half, Alberto González Amador, is also under investigation over a number of white-collar crimes).

Unlike Begoña Gómez, he’s probably guilty of all of them.

In short, it’s all what the Spanish call un culebrón: a soap opera.

While Milei’s experiment with Argentina may turn out to be precisely the medicine that that country needs, unlikely as it may be, his fiddling with European matters of state are causing indignation – even among the core of the Partido Popular which now considers that it has had enough of Ayuso’s evident plotting.

Who else has she got up her sleeve? A genocidal president? A convicted felon?

They remember how she blew out the last PP leader Pablo Casado and they wonder if it could happen again.

‘She’s not just standing up to Pedro Sánchez’, says an opinion piece at LaSexta, ‘she also confronting Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who doesn’t appear to have either the power or the resolve to clip her wings’.

 

The European Elections (Spain)

 Things became a little heated over the weekend, as we arrived at ‘el día de reflexión’ (when campaigning is over, the politicians traditionally go to the beach or stay home with the kids and the media must talk of other subjects) and then the Sunday vote for the European elections – where Spain will provide 61 of the 720 MEPs.

Not everywhere was quiet on the Saturday, as (unbelievably), the Madrid Superior Court of Justice allowed a type of prayathon outside the headquarters of the PSOE in Madrid – you know the drill, people wrapped in flags and calling for Christ the Lord …and the resignation of Pedro Sánchez.

The things which make Spanish democracy interesting.

On Sunday, a few anecdotal stories made the news. Pedro Sánchez and his wife being insulted outside the polling station. One of the list of Alvise Pérez’ Se Acabó la Fiesta (the party that makes Vox look soft and wet) Vito Quiles – a popular fake-news journalist – was asking for the vote on Sunday on his Twitter account. A gussied-up drag-queen called Pitita in charge of a Barcelona polling station (‘there wasn’t time to change for the evening gig’ she/he says).

One editorial over the weekend reckons that the Judge Peinado (the one chasing after Begoña Gómez) and Alberto Núñez Feijóo (I’ll be glad when I don’t have to type that name any more) were converting the European elections into a plebiscite against Pedro Sánchez. 

 The PP candidate for Brussels Dolors Montserrat, with Feijóo and Ayuso. The poster-man on the left appears to be sending us a warning. 

In other news, the PP were found to have made an advert using the AI-created fake voice of José Luis Zapatero in an attempt to win over voters.

The European Parliament is important – it decides around three quarters of all laws, and one can only imagine where things would have gone if the far-right were running the shop when the pandemic hit. For a start, we would all be taking the horse-diarrhea drug ivermectin or worse still, denying that there was even a health issue.

So, the results (here in Spain): The PP got more votes than the PSOE, returning 22 MEPs to Brussels (against 20 for the socialists). Vox has six and the remarkable Se Acabó la Fiesta arrives with three seats (and very nearly 4.6% of the vote). The ongoing squabble between Sumar and Podemos did neither of them any good (just 3 and 2 MEPs respectively) and Ciudadanos – unsurprisingly – disappears.

Did the Begoña Gómez story make an impact? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Across Europe, the big winners were the far-right anti-immigration parties. Nevertheless, the pro-European centre-right held.

Those poor immigrants – blamed by the left for allowing the racism of the right to flourish.

An American report sums up the situation in Europe: ‘For decades, the European Union, which has its roots in the defeat of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, confined the hard right to the political fringes. With its strong showing in these elections, the far right could now become a major player in policies ranging from migration to security and climate…’

Pedro Sánchez Addresses the People

 From Business over Tapas: 

Begoña Gómez has abruptly been called to testify on July 5th over the accusations of crimes of influence peddling and corruption in business. elDiario.es says that the order, artfully given just days before the European elections, is based solely on the spurious complaint from Manos Limpias, which comes from press cuttings. Both the UCO (Serious Crimes Unit) of the Guardia Civil and the chief prosecutor for Madrid say that there are no crimes to answer. Indeed, even the ‘witnesses’ have yet to be interrogated by the crusading judge. Lawfare? Nooo.

 ...

Pedro Sánchez has written a ‘Letter to the People’ (here) regarding the charges against his wife Begoña Gómez.

He says:

Tuesday, June 4th. My wife and I have learned today, through the media, of the summons to Begoña as being investigated on July 5. This decision has been announced just five days before the elections to the European Parliament are held, which is rather peculiar. Usually, the unwritten rule has been followed of not issuing resolutions that could affect the normal development of an electoral campaign and, therefore, the citizen vote. In this case, it is evident that this practice has not been respected. I leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusions from it. I would like to tell you that we are both absolutely calm. There is nothing behind this accusation, just a crude setup promoted by some right-wing associations.

However, there is a political reading that I feel obliged to share with you. As you may remember, in an earlier letter I denounced the drift of the reactionary coalition led by Sr. Feijóo (PP) and Sr. Abascal (Vox), to use all means within their reach in order to break me on both the political and personal level. Their goal is for me to give in, to resign. Even, as we learned yesterday, trying to force my departure from the Presidency of the Government with a motion of censure through an unnatural alliance. For them, everything is worth it.

What they did not achieve at the polls, they intend to achieve in a spurious manner. I know that as the frustration and impotence of this reactionary coalition increases, the pace of the fake-news mud machine was not going to stop, but rather accelerate. Faced with this certainty, I asked myself a few weeks back whether or not it was worth continuing in the exercise of my responsibilities. I want to tell you that my decision to continue leading the Presidency of the Government is firmer than ever. That the task of the progressive government coalition is more necessary than ever. Our horizon remains unchanged: to consolidate the strength of economic growth and job creation (as we have just known today), to redistribute the fruits of that growth between the middle class and workers to fight against the great injustice of inequality; to regenerate democratic life demanding fair play above the mud that some try to spread, to make advance in rights and freedoms without taking a single step back; and to contribute to peace in the world, with special attention to both Ukraine and Palestine.

These next few days, you will witness a careful choreography designed by the far-right coalition to try to condition the elections and weaken the Government. Begoña and I know perfectly well why they attack her. Neither of us are naive. They do it because she is my partner. She is a hard-working and honest woman who claims her right to work without giving it up for the responsibilities of her husband. A right that I defend in my family life and for which I work as President of the Government of Spain to guarantee that men and women have the same opportunities and the same rights.

These days you will read and hear a lot of noise and even more fury in those digital tabloids created to spread hoaxes, on the television and radio talk shows in the service of amplifying this misinformation, and in tribunes where Sr. Feijóo and Sr. Abascal will be found. All lies. A big hoax. One more. As for me, you may rest assured: they won't break me. And, given that they are trying to interfere in the electoral result of June 9, I hope their promoters - Sr. Feijóo and Sr. Abascal - find the response they deserve at the polls: condemnation and rejection of their machinations. There are a few days of noise left before the elections and a few more to come before the summer. But there are also more than three years of Government, of progress and advances.

Sincerely,

Pedro Sanchez