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There was a time when politics was a profession, to the point where those who devoted themselves to it even received a certain recognition. Mistakes they and others made, economic crises and the growth of right and left-wing populisms led to this perception being substituted by something close to its opposite: it is positive to have never been a politician if you now want to be in public life. There is no perfect system, undoubtedly, but the selection of electoral candidacies here and elsewhere by looking everywhere except in the parties themselves, ends up creating not a pool of politicians for the future, but rather, a problem. In recent days, as many as four different people have commented to me that they have had offers to join different parliamentary candidatures - and all of those by more than one political party. Some of them will even end up joining a list and their decisions will end up depending on the best offer they receive. It's that simple.

In this regard, the Spanish, municipal and European elections will be a real surprise package, since there is no party that is resisting the sign-up trend. In Catalonia, the latest especially-resonant signing was that of Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, well-known controversial chat-show guest who has become number one for the Popular Party (PP) in Barcelona. Pablo Casado believes that she's a good choice to head the list, even though he knows, basically, that in Catalonia, there are pro-independence people, who he wants to combat, and Catalan is spoken, which doesn't matter to him because she speaks Spanish and that's sufficient. And her political record? She was a Spanish deputy for two legislatures, between 2008 and 2015. Her parliamentary activity was scarce, especially in the four years of the second legislature, when it appears she asked no oral questions, made no requests for appearances, no requests for reports and no requests for commissions, subcommittees or expert discussions. Only this: 9 written questions. All this, to compete with Ines Arrimadas.

In order to solve their lack of talent, the Ciudadanos (Cs) party, have approached, for example, Marcos de Quinto to work in tandem with Albert Rivera in Madrid. Who is Marcos de Quinto? His CV says he was vice president of Coca-Cola until September 2018, when he moved to Portugal, where, as it happens, he paid less taxes than in Spain. One of his companies has a very dubious record: it received subsidies in 2016 and 2017 to a value three times as high as its turnover. The first positive impact made has ended up being an unexpected problem. Sometimes this happens with signings: they dazzle for a few hours and then the problems last for quite a lot longer.

And this spring marketplace is completed by the party who has signed up more than any other,Vox, which had the smallest team of its own. Vox fishes in all the favourite spots of the extreme right but of particular note are the number of high-ranking military figures, in the reserve or on leave of absence, that have already been announced. Three generals in the land, sea and air forces heading the lists of Cadiz, Castellón and Alicante; another divisional general from the Spanish army's logistics corps is number one for Pontevedra, there is an infantry colonel standing in Melilla and even a legionnaire whose identity has not yet been revealed. If Vox obtains significant parliamentary representation, there will never have been so many military officers in Congress since the end of Franco's Cortes.

Meanwhile, Cs, not wanting to be outdone by Vox, have also announced the signing of a reserve artillery commander in one of their candidacies. More than fresh air it looks like something else. With the permission of the Central Electoral Commission.