Spain's Partido Popular's convention in Madrid this weekend has certified a return to the past of several decades ago. The only parts from the 21st century are the music, the lights and questions related to the staging. All the rest has much more to do with those seven Francoists who founded the Alianza Popular in 1977 than even with that PP which, with a centrist sheen, pacted with the now extinct Convergència i Unió and Arzalluz's Basque PNV in Madrid in 1996. That turn to the centre has gone with the wind and the hurricane of Spanish politics has brought back José María Aznar as the only point of reference for the Spanish right.
Whilst on Friday PP fondly welcomed Rajoy, on Saturday it legitimised Aznar as the visionary of the right. The reunifier. His speech wasn't suitable for children. Aznar wants war in all senses with his two eternal enemies: the left and Catalan nationalists, today independence supporters. He's aimed right both of them: the first, usurpers of the Moncloa government palace; the second, straight-up coup plotters.
His words about Catalonia are a perfect shield both for Albert Rivera and Ciudadanos and for Santiago Abascal and Vox. Simply, there's no difference. They coincide on their diagnosis; they agree on the measures to adopt. Their prescription: break up the "coup d'état" and end with all its plots. In translation, that's nothing other that a new, lasting article 155, the recovery of powers like education and police and the end of the independence of the public media, TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio. It doesn't end there: the banning of parties and pro-independence bodies and various other things are on the agenda.
The Spain which gives the orders, which isn't basically the political Spain, has already ruled out that Pedro Sánchez is going to cling to office and not call a Spanish election either in March or with the municipal elections in May. "His honeymoon is over; it was October. And now it's all going badly," many of them say. May's results will sweep PSOE from municipal councils and autonomous communities and the trio of PP-Cs-Vox could end up being dominant. That's what Aznar is playing for. Sánchez talks more than he does, whilst his deputy PM, Carmen Calvo, repeatedly deceives Catalans Aragonès and Artadi. And Podemos passes its time blowing up its leaders and cracking into a thousand pieces.
That said, Aznar is playing with no rival. If there was a strategical agreement in Catalonia between Junts per Catalunya, Esquerra and CUP, it would be different. When they've got one, if they get one, it may be too late.