Today’s politics is based on the idea that the truth is on our side. More or less like the driver who, when he enters the opposite direction on a freeway and realizes that the cars are coming head-on, is convinced that it was not his fault, but everyone else’s. It is possible that this act of faith in oneself increases his self-esteem, but what is certain is that it goes against his interests. And above all, an attempt against his own safety.

In politics, we are getting used to the fact that the opposition must say no to everything, including what benefits them. It is more important to delegitimize the opposite than to profit from it. It has just passed the Senate, where the popular people have an absolute majority. Their strategy of confrontation has led them this week to overturn the path of budgetary stability of the Spanish Government, which is the only parliamentary initiative in which the Upper House has the last word, despite the fact that this means reducing public spending the autonomous communities and the town councils. With this decision, it delays the approval of the budgets, a fact that could be understood, but in return it damages the autonomies. Overturning the socialist proposal, the deficit ceiling becomes more restrictive. And who does it harm? Well, it mainly harms the PP, which rules in eleven autonomous regions and in the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and the 3,200 councils where it governs (40% of the country).

What was the argument that Senator Eva Ortiz (PP) uses to defend her position? No economic reason, of course, but ideological: “His Government is the biggest threat to democracy”. Vice-president María Jesús Montero replied: “Their position has no political logic, since they are acting against their own interests and that in politics makes no sense.”

In reality, it makes perfect sense in this surreal game in which Spanish politics has long been established, where “no to everything” is the opposition strategy. Shooting yourself in the foot, that’s okay, because we’ll always have the other one to lean on. In the movie, John Wayne in El Dorado spends the entire tape with a bullet in his body, which conditions his movements. But the PP have not seen the film, nor have they listened to their barons.