One cannot help but feel terribly ashamed when, without even blushing, the candidate to form the new government in Castilla y León, the president of the People's Party (PP) in the region, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, now invested, proclaimed that the agreement with Vox that allowed him to take power will "improve the quality of democracy." Mañueco must have little sense of democracy and a poor opinion of his fellow citizens to say something as stupid as this after giving in to Vox in order to retain the presidency. For the supposed achievement of a better democracy, he has given the far right the speaker's position in the regional legislature, plus the vice presidency and three ministries in the government. Congratulations.
Meanwhile, the person laughing at everyone at party headquarters in Calle Génova must be Alberto Núñez Feijóo, newly elected PP president, who has managed to fool everyone with his appearance of false centrist. But he is crafty, this Galician. He was not wasting his time when he learned to play his cards from masters such as Mariano Rajoy or Manuel Fraga. And just around the corner are the Andalusian autonomous elections, with speculation that they will be held before summer. There too, Vox is hoping to form a grand pact with current president Juanma Moreno, now dependent on Ciudadanos (Cs), although, as in so many other places, Cs is heading for extinction and will leave its space to the far right.
Castilla y León, Andalusia and the third piece is Madrid, where this Monday the party gave the green light to the regional congress which will extol Isabel Díaz Ayuso as the absolute leader of the Spanish capital. Feijóo places her on the throne that Casado denied her and that ultimately cost him his job. The Galician, who is not very fond of entanglements, sees that the poll numbers published since he came to power, with Vox or without Vox, are clearly on the rise and that any path is good, including that of the PSOE, if necessary, to reach government.
What must those in France think of all this? North of the Pyrenees, ever since Sunday night when the results of the first round of the presidential election were known - and before as well - the talk has been of the cordon sanitaire to keep out the far right led by Marine Le Pen, but here, the PP will make use of any pact it can get. The Spanish right can be dressed up in sheep's clothing, but the Francoist temperament which is part of its origin, no matter how much it bothers them to recognize it, makes its presence felt so often that in Europe it would be difficult to pass a minimum screen of democratic quality.