The sad political spectacle that acting Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has made us endure, since April 28th, has come to an end and Spain is heading into a general election on November 10th which has no motive other than the desire to govern with a few more seats and, as we have seen in this last day, to try and construct an accord with Ciudadanos (Cs) leader Albert Rivera by Christmas. However, Sánchez needs more deputies to do this and to take the edge off the chant of "With Rivera, no!" that his Socialist (PSOE) base echoed loudly at party headquarters in Madrid after their election victory. Sánchez wants to turn that "With Rivera, no!" into a "With Rivera, not at the moment".
Although the Socialists' starting point in this venture is that the polls on 10th November are risk-free, any election is an unknown quantity and when tactical approaches become very involved, there is the risk of electoral backfire or of an unpredictable last-minute electoral alliance being formed. Sánchez's advantage in the polls would dissolve, for example, if the right were to put together an alliance in the Senate or to opt for joint candidatures in the electorally-smaller provinces. Today all of this is political fiction but, until the last minute, it's all possible.
We are going to experience a campaign based more on emotions than realities. Thus, the Socialist leader is clearly going to wave the flag of Spanish unity after having broken off any relationship with the Catalan independence parties, perhaps even throwing in some unnecessary gesture of humiliation, and also defending the use of article 155 of the Constitution against Catalonia. This is the cut of his electoral suit and he's already been wearing it for some time, having drafted a campaign script which casts the pro-independence parties as the only bad guys in Spanish politics.
The Spanish general election has a first consequence in Catalonia: it delays all scenarios for a Catalan election until 2020. And, in the middle of all this, there will arrive the Supreme Court's verdict on the 12 pro-independence leaders. There is a lot of water still to flow under the bridge before November 10th. One might hope it won't turn into an ordeal for Sánchez and that the bed of roses he has chosen does not turn out to be a bed of nails.
Translator's note: The Italian title of this article 'La commedia è finita' - literally, "The comedy is over"- is the famous final line to the Ruggero Leoncavallo opera Pagliacci, which tells a story of love and betrayal set in a commedia del arte performing troupe.