This weekend marked 13 years since the 2010 general strike. These were the death rattles of Rodríguez Zapatero's government and the crisis was beginning to make the situation for millions of families unsustainable. No one on social media remembered the event. That Spain is not facing a similar protest today is essentially due to two reasons: the different response promoted by European governments to the pandemic and inflation, understanding the situation and making more right decisions than wrong ones, and the creation of jobs. . It is true that the still high unemployment is one of the great economic problems in Spain, but having more and better salaries is a key element to understand the moment.
Today there are no serious economic turbulences like those of 13 years ago, but there is a political environment that is beginning to be unbreathable. The noise has settled in the political debate and there are days when we cannot speak of constructive confrontation, but of pure mud.
The PP would do well, for the good future of politics, to stop the leaders who justify scenes of harassment of Óscar Puente on the AVE. Vox would do well to stop stating that pro-independence parties should be outlawed. The PSOE did well to strike down its former councilor in Madrid, Viondi. Pablo Iglesias is no longer there, who was always accused of being irritable when it was he and his family, in reality, who had a group of harassers at the door of his house for weeks. No scratch is admissible. The problem is that now Congress is no longer surrounded, now it is anti-politics within it.
During the last legislature, Vox coined a term to refer to the coalition Executive: “illegitimate government.” They repeated it time after time, even during the worst of the pandemic. That caught on. Last week, a similar qualification came out of Feijóo's investiture debate: “Government of lies.” Yesterday he insisted. This future is dangerous; It is as if politics had been infected by the hyperbolic environment of social networks.
And the worst is yet to come. Weeks of strong agitation, superlatives, hyperventilation are coming... Of disaffection, in short. The possible amnesty law will cause even more curves and the vehicle may derail. Because what the PSOE is negotiating is a government for four years. Until the end of 2027! There are those who can take a long time. That is why calm is necessary and that digital activism does not invade the political debate. We can regret it.
