Beyond the debate on the granting of the amnesty to obtain the votes for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, another controversy is beginning to open about whether anything goes in politics to achieve power. The last to formulate it was Felipe González, who stated in a speech in Seville, where he went to collect an award, that "he who is not controversial is one who swallows everything."
The writer Carlos Fuentes warned that politics is the art of swallowing frogs without making gestures and putting on a good face. But González did not discuss the forcefulness of the phrase, but rather the size of the batrachian. These words were spoken by the former president after the expulsion of Nicolás Redondo Terreros, historical leader of the Basque socialists, for publicly and repeatedly disagreeing with the party leadership.
González even said that Redondo Terreros' father, in his capacity as general secretary of the UGT, called for a general strike and it did not occur to him to expel him. But the former president did not want to go further. He does not want to add fuel to the fire, when there is no specificity about the amnesty and when the popular people want to put the country on a war footing.
The pardons already aroused tensions in the socialist universe, but then the President of the Government explained that they were part of the reunion strategy and time has proven him right. The pardon measures have normalized Catalan political life and pragmatism has prevailed over radicalism, while empathy has won the hand over confrontation.
Certainly, the existence as expatriates in Belgium of former president Carles Puigdemont and two former ministers is something that Sánchez knew he had to resolve in this legislature if he were to repeat in Moncloa. The problem arises when he has not had time to build a story and everyone sees that it is the price of the seven votes he needs. And almost as important, the independence movement is repeating that it does not renounce unilateralism, that is, to do it again. An amnesty cannot be granted without the amnesty party acknowledging that it chose the wrong path. Churchill said that it is not possible to swallow everything, because sometimes even his own words become indigestible.
