Did You Ever Hear about Lexit?

We have elections in the UK, where no one will talk about Brexit. In France, there’s elections as well – with a likelihood of the far-right getting in (dare we ask: ‘Frexit’?). In the USA, following that dreadful televised debate between Mr Biden and Mr Trump (talk about Jekyll and Hyde) the chances for us all surviving to 2030 appear to be receding by the hour – unless someone pulls the plug on Brandon (Biden’s nickname) and they can find someone a fraction younger for November 5th. You saw – by the way – that the Supreme Court, packed with Trump appointees, just gave the Orange One presidential immunity?

Over here, we are about through with elections for the time being – the Europeans are over, the Basques and – hopefully – Catalonians are sorted (although they may have to try again in October) and the deadlock with the CGPJ (the judges’ citadel) is finally resolved, five years past its ‘best before’ date.

So let us tiptoe down to Castilla y León, a quiet and un-touristy bit of Spain run by the PP and Vox doing what they do best.

There are nine provinces in this unwieldy autonomous region (the largest in Spain): Ávila, Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid and Zamora. Before it was gathered into one administrative chunk in 1983, it was understood that León, Salamanca and Zamora were in one region and the other six were in the other (a bit like the Kingdom of Granada being the eastern half of Andalucía: Jaén, Granada, Málaga and Almería). Then (since we are on the subject), there’s the Basque Country with three provinces, which claims Navarre and its capital Pamplona as its fourth province… plus three more currently located in France: the Greater Euskal Herria (they’ll keep the capital in Pamplona while they are about it). And for variety, don’t forget Catalonia…

León was also looking to be a uni-provincial autonomy (like Madrid) in the early eighties, as indeed – apparently – was Segovia (and don’t even ask about Cartagena which has spent the last 150 years trying to remove itself from Murcia – another uni-provincial autonomy). León likes to think that it has three provinces (counties maybe) which are Ponferrada, Astorga y León, while ‘Greater León’ might be as many as seven provinces (the other four being Zamora, Toro, Salamanca and Ciudad Rodrigo).

As for its larger and not entirely welcome senior partner, Wiki says that ‘Castilla is a historic region of Spain with imprecise borders located in the middle of the country’ (mind you, there’s also a Castilla-La Mancha down the road with Toledo and other fine cities and provinces). And anyway, don’t we speak castellano?

Still, easier to lump all the 14 provinces into two regions: Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha, and how many autonomous regions do we need anyway (there are currently 17 plus Ceuta and Melilla)?

Heading north again, we discover that CyL doesn’t have a recognised capital, but its government offices are in Valladolid.

And so to the issue of the day.

The leoneses want ‘out’. Not just out of Castilla, but preferably out of León as well. That’s right, ‘Lexit’ is a thing. Their plan is two separate entities: León being one, and Castilla y the Other Bits of León We Didn’t Want being the other. Do you think it could fly?

By the way, it’s Llión in Leonés (Leonian as it were).

We wonder why – well, it all goes back to a king in 910 who moved the Asturian court to León (giving the good people of that city presumptive airs). And yes, La Constitución Española allows for changes in the regions (although, they might not have foreseen this particular proposal). A plenary vote in the provincial diputación last week favoured the idea of a three-province Léon, with the PSOE and local party in favour and the PP and Vox voting against (while – for what it’s worth – the other two provinces, Zamora and Salamanca, remain unimpressed by the idea). The mayor of the City of León mostly agrees, but thinks the single province of León should join with Asturias (yet another uni-provincial autonomy).

The government says it would accept an eighteenth region of Spain (if it comes to this), made up of León, Zamora and Salamanca, but notes that there are not enough votes (they would need a two-thirds majority) neither in the three León provinces nor in Valladolid.

Scotland take note!

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

The European Elections - will the far-right end up winning? (Uggh!)

 It seems to be an endless series of elections recently, with the Galicians, the Basques, the Catalonians and now along comes the Europeans. The three regional ballots threw up a few interesting results – the Partido Popular did well in Galicia, the two regional parties PNV and EH Bildu scored neck-and-neck in Euzkadi (the PSOE will be the decider) and the PSC (the regional name for the PSOE) took the largest vote in Catalonia, the two independent parties coming second and third, and the PP in fourth place. And, of course, the final disappearance of Ciudadanos – the oh-so-centrist conservative clone.

The news and opinion has been full of the results and the intrigues: how did our party do? Are we growing or sinking? Should we run another survey already?

Can we extrapolate the regional results for Europe?

Perhaps not. Spain only has 61 out of 720 MEPs.

But, on the other hand, the populists are doing well across Europe, so the chances are that both the PP’s Alberto Núñez Feijóo (whose platform seems to be more about destroying Spain’s government and the socialist party than providing any policies of his own), and the Vox leader Santiago Abascal, may be rewarded come June 9th.

...

Abascal was entertaining his friend the Argentine president Javier Milei the other day during the Vox ‘Europa Viva 24’ summit (I call it ‘the anti-human-rights summit’ says one lefty commentator), along with a number of other far-right leaders (a pity Trump couldn’t come, although of course he’s busy at the moment).

The conference, enthused La Gaceta, ‘brought together dozens of patriotic leaders from Europe and Latin America’. The future is ours, say the populists, or to put it another way, ‘Tomorrow belongs to me’.

‘Madrid became, this weekend, the epicentre of fascism’ said elDiario.es here.

Things then went a bit awry, when Milei told his captivated audience that Pedro Sánchez' wife was una corrupta. The Spanish president was not amused and promptly called the ambassador home from Buenos Aires. 

Unsurprisingly, the Partido Popular were careful not to defend the President of Spain, saying "Our job is to oppose the president of Spain, not the president of Argentina".

Meanwhile, Javier Milei tweeted from his flight home to his followers and admirers:  “I’m surfing on a wave of socialists’ tears. Long live Freedom, shit”.

Back in April, Milei received the ex-president of Spain José María Aznar in Buenos Aires. 

The Argentinian bruiser also met several business-leaders on Saturday, including the chairman of the CEOE (the Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organizations) – Spain having major business interests in Argentina – but was not able to fit in time to visit the Spanish president (both leaders no-doubt releasing a satisfied breath over this breach of procedure).

Well, that's what the far-right does, no? Catches up with the chain-saw guy. But it gets worse. While President Sánchez was recognising Palestine on Tuesday (together with Ireland and Norway), the irrepressible Abascal was in Jerusalem (in a 'surprise visit'), shaking hands with Benjamin Netanyahu and promising him that when he, Abascal, is president of Spain, he will tear-up any agreements and recognitions of Palestine.  

There are those who say that the photo will haunt him for the rest of his political career.

...

The drift across Europe, say the editorials, is towards the right. We see that the conservatives are bedding down with the populists (a tactic that has so far seen mixed results here in Spain, as the tail so often ends up wagging the dog).

For the flag-wavers, illegal immigration is their cause juste, although the immigrants are needed to help pay the social security and thus the pensions of an ever-aging population. They’ll also do the jobs that none of us want to do, from picking strawberries to cleaning bathrooms. 

The other pin in the populist cause is Islam, since the suspicion is that they will one day rise up and murder us all in our beds.

Probably just to shut us up.

The threat of the European far right – and its possible acceptance – gets a timely reminder of what happened less than a century ago with the cover of Der Spiegel: a German flag draped over a disturbing symbol from the past.

So, what does the European Union do and why should we vote (those who can)?

We read that ‘All 27-member states hold inclusion, tolerance, justice, solidarity and non-discrimination as crucial pillars of the European Union’.

Unless – you see – the far-right gets in.