Although Josep Borrell has been permanently angry for years and he's capable of fighting with even his own shadow, not even his enemies, of whom he's got many, nor his many admirers from the most Jacobin Spain remember him making so many mistakes in a row in so short a space of time as those he's made in recent days. "He's out-of-control; nothing's going well for him," a diplomatic source says. "He's been very hurt by Pedro Sánchez," comments another of his party colleagues. "He hasn't taken the Europe thing well," a third says. It's a surprise to no one that the Spanish foreign affairs minister sees his imminent return to the European Parliament in Brussels as a dirty move by the prime minister who, to put it plainly, wants to get rid of him by any means possible. Well, not by any means, but by making him think his nomination is exclusively based on the need to strengthen their candidacy for the European election. Sánchez thinks Borrell would be very problematic after the 28th April general election, and the role in PSOE of stability and experience he gave the government at the beginning is no longer necessary.
But Madrid is, these days, bubbling with rumours with Borrell looking for a leading role. So much so that nobody believes it's all a series of chance slips by the minister. Why should Borrell have, in one week, sparked one issue after another with France, Mexico, Italy and, finally, his confrontation with the most important interviewer from German public television? Because Borrell at his most arrogant not only ended his interview with Tim Sebastian, a veteran journalist who has worked for media like the BBC and Reuters and who has various awards for his work, but also left the image of Spain in the dirt, strengthened the idea of an authoritarian state which doesn't take well to interviews it doesn't control and consolidated the idea of the lack of respect from the Spanish government to the work of media outlets when they don't agree with him in a friendly interview.
But that, likely, worries Borrell little. Very little. There are many who believe his real election campaign at the moment isn't looking for votes for Europe. It's much more ambitious: he's confident the numbers will be there and PSOE will end up reaching an agreement with Ciudadanos to invest a prime minister. Then, Borrell would cash in on his proximity to Albert Rivera's party and why shouldn't we think, then, that Cs would give Pedro Sánchez's departure from the premiership as as nonnegotiable condition. Support for PSOE from Ciudadanos, yes... but with another candidate. Who's better placed, then, than Josep Borrell? The boy from La Pobla, coming back in style. How often he'll have dreamt of it!