The insufferable bun-gobbler boy from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is no longer fat. Well yes but no. It is not that Augustus Gloop, which is the name of the fictional character, has improved his eating habits or increased his level of physical activity to get rid of his excess love handles. The boy, born from the imagination of Roald Dhal, has only had to wait for the arrival of better times so that the texts of the acclaimed writer are rewritten to adjust them to the moral demands of today's society. The benefit to the imaginary gluttonous child is small. The truth is that Gloop will continue to resemble a barrel and offer the perfect image of a mentally and physically unhealthy childhood, although he is no longer explicitly described as the fat boy that he is.
In the midst of this very salubrious environment in terms of morality, it is surprising that in Spain so many people have signed up to make fun of Mr. Ramón Tamames as a candidate for the presidency of Vox – a motion of censure through which will become official on Monday – for the 89 years that the economist accumulates behind him. While the world fights tooth and nail against real and imaginary phobias –Charlie and the chocolate factory as the latest example–, gerontophobia breaks out on homeland because of the yes I do of a very old man, an old man when words were not scary , to lead a vote of no confidence from the extreme right. Joe Biden, whom we Europeans are so fond of, and who accumulates so much disappointment among Americans, must still be at the age of the turkey with his 80th birthday. And the incombustible president of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, whose mettle we praise for his position, may still go out partying every night at 81. It will be that here, from the old man, what is expected is that he grunts just enough if he loses at dominoes, not that he aspires to be president of the Government replacing a handsome young man from a magazine like Pedro Sánchez.
It is not necessary to go back to the years or attribute to the character the curse of the dotage to make the famous economist ugly as such a grotesque return to the circus of today. An extemporaneous motion of censure, without any possibility of going ahead, with the main objective of sending the message to the right-wing electorate that the PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo is little less than a necessary and silent accomplice of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, portrays and not very well to those who lead it regardless of their age. Things by his name: Tamames has been everything that his autobiography says, but now he is also one more ultra-rightist. His participation as the headliner in the opera buffa that is going to be staged in Congress has no other objective than to favor Vox politically. In this case, the political affiliation is in the step forward and not in the formal militancy. Exactly the same as if the candidate had been Rosa Díez, Joaquín Leguina, Nicolás Redondo or Pepito de los Palotes.
Degrading Tamames's decision by attributing it to senility or poor aging fits perfectly with the way in which the far-right phenomenon has been regularly analyzed, not only in Spain, but throughout the European continent. A downplaying that detracts from the analysis. Neither in France did they understand in their day that first-rate intellectuals were in tune with Lepenism. And there are still those who still don't understand, because they don't want to, that Giorgia Meloni has won the stripes of Prime Minister of Italy; to mention only two countries that are close to us. The logic that the far-right creed can only be embraced from a previous pathology – senility, ignorance, poverty, etc. – forgets the fundamentals of the matter: at the populist table, extremism always ends up with cards to play. And this is the type of game that has been waged in Spanish politics for a long time. Rather than making fun of the matter, what should always be taken very seriously.
