One has the impression that Spain is very clear about where its vulnerabilities lie - basically, there are two: the Catalan independence movement and the corruption in the monarchy - and it has decided to apply the same recipe to both: about these issues, not a word can be said. Better to pay the price of being seen as a state that impedes freedom of expression and restricts parliamentary debate than, week after week, allow discussions of the breakdown of the system and the thread of economic corruption that surrounds the former head of state and his family. Indeed, after weeks of news stories about Juan Carlos I's desire to return to Spain, the ex-monarch has now been forgotten by the always-friendly Madrid media when nine months have already been gone by since he took flight to the United Arab Emirates.
With this excessively arrogant and stubborn edge, the Bureau of Spain's Congress of Deputies has refused to admit for parliamentary consideration the bill proposing an amnesty for the Catalan pro-independence political prisoners, exiles and those suffering retaliation. It is not that a plenary session of the Spanish lower house has rejected the amnesty proposal, which, no doubt, it would have done without further ado. It’s much more despicable and crude. The PSOE, the PP and Vox have prevented the progress of the bill through various legal arguments, which can exist whenever they are required to, if what is intended is to reject a debate at all costs. The PSOE and Vox: very odd dancing partners when it comes to addressing issues that have to do with the demands of the pro-independence majority in Catalonia and have an even wider majority in the Catalan Parliament.
The truth is that the Spanish parties are never in any doubt when they have to identify who their opponent really is, and correcting fluid is liberally applied to make the ideological line disappear. There is no longer a right extreme or an extreme right. There is unity and a convergence of interests around a united Spain. These days, as the pro-independence parties are presenting us with a demonstration of great immaturity, tearing each other's guts out, live, in a way that is hardly justifiable, we need to look more closely than ever at what Madrid is doing. The use that it makes of the power it has and which it employs - as it has been doing for centuries - to claw onwards whenever it can and move its pawns.
In the case of Pedro Sánchez, there is, in addition, an innate ability to manage the present and generate expectations. One such case is the pardons, the government's plan B in the face of the demands for an amnesty. The Moncloa government palace has been playing with this possibility for months, sending messages that this time it is serious. And it probably will be, someday. There have been several breaches of promise on the question since last autumn and now they maintain that it will happen in June. The political prisoners at Lledoners were given this message after the elections in Madrid. Skeptical as I am about everything Sánchez promises, I just can't believe it this time, although someday it will be true. Playing with people's liberty is not acceptable, especially after the sentences they received at the end of an unjust trial. But no one seems to remember this, like the new pillage and plunder about to become a reality through the Court of Accounts, which affects about thirty leaders who will have to post a deposit which, it is thought, will not be less than 25 million euros. It's like the amnesty: it is already decided which issues can be talked about. And which can't.