The Spanish political class should start to get used to it: sometimes, the Catalans are right. It had to be through the arrival of the EU and the proposal by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to close the external borders of the Union for 30 days due to coronavirus that the Spanish government made up its mind to do the same with its land borders with France, Portugal and Andorra. In the case of Portugal, it was unnecessary, since the Portuguese government had already announced - the management of Lisbon in this crisis is, for the moment, has been excellent - while the French have to let a few days go by after authorizing the first round of their municipal elections last Sunday.
Despite everything, Pedro Sánchez and his government have not taken the bull by the horns and have avoided imposing identical measures on trains and airports, since they resist a total lockdown. All this also comes right in the middle of a deep rift in the coalition government between the PSOE and Podemos on the measures to be adopted, and amidst siren songs from the establishment on the need for a government of concentration... without the left wing Podemos party. It seems that Pablo Iglesias is reticent to accept the role of silent partner in a government that to date has shied away from offering real solutions to SMEs, the self-employed and the barrage of laid-off workers which are beginning to emerge. Incidentally, this is another request from the Catalan administration to the Spanish government which has also had no response. What Sánchez did do without a care in the world was to strip the autonomous communities of their powers in the fight against the coronavirus last Saturday when he decreed Spain's state of alarm.
And while Madrid takes the reins with measures that are more apparent than real, but which, above all, have a strong political component - this virus, we'll stop it together - Spain now has the second largest total of new cases of coronavirus in the world and the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom, has warned the Spanish government that he is not seeing the isolation necessary to stop the coronavirus and that thus the chain of infections cannot be broken. And the European Parliament asks for a 14-day isolation of all those arriving from Madrid. Also, infectious diseases expert Oriol Mitjà has asserted that the Spanish emergency committee should resign, since it has made too many mistakes and has also highlighted its inability to predict an epidemic that was avoidable.
In the midst of all this, Felipe VI must be the only one who sees the coronavirus drama from the grandstand, since his problem is of another dimension: corruption in the Spanish monarchy. Although the deep state is doing everything possible to minimize the scandal of Juan Carlos I's "donation" and has come out to applaud him for taking his father off the scene, this shameful matter, of colossal importance, threatens the foundations of the institution. Felipe VI is silent, is missing, and all he does is issue a press statement. Meanwhile, Corinna, snubbed, seems to be waiting in the wings to strike a new blow. Perhaps the definitive one.
Spain's reputation has been split wide open.