From Galicia, whose great political heroes have moved to Madrid without (mentally) leaving the province of La Coruña, every once in a while some (interested) proposal that suggests the need for an agreement between the PP and the PSOE – the two big parties – arrives from Galicia. , which have not been so much for a long time now – to shepherd the flock (read the voters) and ensure that democracy and its hills, whose topography varies depending on the ups and downs established by each electoral appointment, agree, by mutual concord, to pass under the arch of his triumph.
Imperceptibly, but constantly, just like the orballo, the same as the litany of the waves of the Costa de Morte, the temptation to sign a pact to limit the surprises that the polls bring ends up wetting the Iberian political board. The last season of this series – which governs the list with the most votes – has the signature of Feijóo, the applicant. And his staging took place this week in the sacred Oratory of San Felipe Neri in Cádiz, cradle of the very brief Constitution of 1812, which was a parenthesis between two successive absolutisms.
Feijóo's formula is an almost exact replica of the one that Rajoy, whose Galician origin is beyond doubt, launched in 2016. He has the same ambition: to artificially amplify majorities that are not strictly such -in many elections the most supported candidacy sometimes does not sum not even a third of the votes, far from half – and annul (on a whim) the game of the political minorities represented. That the PP presents this idea as an example of "institutional regeneration" is grotesque. Much more if we take into account the recent history, not exactly peaceful, of the stormy renewal of state judicial bodies.
The context detracts from the credibility of the idea, which is a simple remake. But the problem, above all, is fundamental: reaching power democratically is not the same as coming first in an election, just as an insufficient majority, especially if it violates the legal framework, does not allow sovereignist adventures either. Nobody authorizes rulers to impose a synecdoche that confuses the part (the electoral quota of their party) with the whole (institutional).
Feijóo, who in Cádiz walked through the market square and chatted with the Phoenician natives of the Bar La Marina, famous for its churros, has found more support for his record in Andalusia than in Madrid. Ayuso wants a second round – like the presidents of the French republic – while Moreno Bonilla makes cabotage navigation between two seas.
On the one hand, he supports his leader; on the other, he does not want anyone to remember that in 2018 he reached the presidency of the Board without being the candidate with the most votes, thanks to what he himself called – referring to others – “a pact of losers”. If Feijóo's idea had been in force, the Andalusian president would never have entered the Quirinale. Maybe he wouldn't even be in politics.
It does not make much sense that this proposal, if one day it is introduced into the electoral law, whose reform no parliamentary majority has wanted to address for partisan convenience, is limited to the municipal level and does not extend to autonomous governments or be applied in general elections . If, as Moreno Bonilla says, "it favors institutional stability", such a desideratum would be transferable to any other political level other than the local one.
Taking the syllogism to the extreme (ironic) leads to a dead end tunnel: nothing facilitates institutional stability more than doing without the ballot box. The problem, of course, is that without them there is no democracy, even if simulations are invented. Biasing the opinion of the polls, which are a reflection of the political atomization of society, in an unequivocal sense does not regenerate democracy, which requires a legal framework that goes beyond an assembly vote. It restricts and puts it in a box, by preventing lawful agreements between the representatives of the citizens.
It would be more logical to go in the opposite direction and return the freedom of judgment and action to the deputies in the face of the (martial) discipline prevailing in all parties. By pointing out that "the majority of citizens are in favor of whoever wins the elections being the one who governs", the president of the Junta enunciates a tautology. The debate in Andalusia, where the reform of the Statute of Autonomy was voted for by only 36.28% of the voters, consists of looking for formulas to bring institutional representation closer to the citizenry. Not the contrary.
That Moreno Bonilla considers the possibility that municipal majorities and minorities change as a function of political agreements a problem denotes a disturbing organic conception of democracy. And it is a categorical challenge to what, at least symbolically, represents the liberalism of the Cortes of Cádiz, in favor of indirect suffrage.
Everything indicates that on 28M the advance of the PP in Andalusia, the result of which will be a prelude to the general elections at the end of 2023, will be more lukewarm than is thought. Without a sufficient transfer of nomadic votes similar to that of 19J – the president of the Junta received up to 16% of the votes cast in the regional elections – the southern right may need the nihil obstat of Vox in many local and provincial squares so as not to disappoint its expectations . And that is a problem. Especially for Feijóo, the only mazurka soloist on the most voted list.
