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"I would like to... but it's just that I can't." That was how Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy replied to a question from one of the spokespeople of the parliamentary parties in the debate on pensions held this Wednesday in the Congress of Deputies. Meanwhile, in the streets, public protests on the question are only growing and quite surely will be a topic of intense debate in the coming months provided that the opposition shakes the dust off themselves and accepts that, whether they like it or not, their role is to be an alternative to the government and not constantly a prop for their policies. The parliamentary debate wasn't very interesting and the arguments used very stale. So much so that Rajoy, with his repeated explanation that "what would I like more than to raise them... but I couldn't" (pensions, that is) got rid of his cameo colleagues from this legislature, now PSOE, now Ciudadanos. Albert Rivera lost an opportunity but surely the polls will continue catapulting him towards victory.

In the same plenary session the prime minister also told Catalan deputy Joan Tardà that he couldn't move the political prisoners closer to Catalonia. Although, in this case, he didn't say "what more would I like" but limited himself to saying that he couldn't interfere. When the president of Catalonia suggested to him in September 2012 starting discussions to reach a fiscal pact similar to the economic agreement with the Basque Country, the Moncloa government palace had no doubts: "It's just that we can't". And nor could they sit down to negotiate for a referendum (whatever format or questions) as asked for by 80% of the Catalan Parliament and across the spectrum of Catalan society. "Let's see if this is understood... I just can't". And we would find more examples from the first 2014 consultation on independence to negotiating on no applying article 155 of the Constitution. "It's just that I can't..."

And someone, who imagines the governor as having all means at their disposal (and we could put many cases on the table), can only think that this "It's just that I can't" tagline is as similar as possible to the "please come back tomorrow" which wasn't a 'no' either, but a way of putting off the issue. The issue is that pensioners don't have much time and, on top of that, know that retirement age will be ever older and pensions ever lower, an equation which, now the pension pot is almost empty, offers an outlook somewhere between alarming and very alarming. Perhaps because of this, given the impossibility of giving a satisfactory answer, the "it's just that I can't" is the best possible option. Because the other solution would be worse: telling the truth.