Even though Pedro Sánchez's book Manual de resistencia (literally, "Resistance manual") published by Península, an imprint of Planeta, isn't on sale yet, it already needs a sequel. A new volume to explain how his personal process of resilience against adversaries, which stands out from the presentation of the book, comes back to clash against three immovable realities: Spain doesn't want to be reformed and will never accept dialogue with Catalonia, PSOE is Jacobin and lacks its own narrative to confront the right and that if his own side has already brought him down once, that could end up happening again.
Because if not, what's this political confrontation about which blew up once it was learned they were going to create the figure of a rapporteur to mediate in the political crisis between Spain and Catalonia? A simple rapporteur at a round table of political parties! Enough to infuriate the ideological right which spans various parties across Spain. We've heard atrocities like never before (and his language already leans towards the warmongering) from the mouth of Pablo Casado, saying that "the agenda we're seeing in Catalonia is ETA's agenda" and that the Catalan government was led by a group of criminals.
Former PM Felipe González, from Sánchez's own party, has taken to the floor to say that "we don't need rapporteurs nor round tables on Catalonia". Alfonso Guerra, on the same line, took the opportunity to scalp Sánchez, saying that the figure of the rapporteur equates Spain with Yemen or Burkina Faso. There are more such comments, many more, from the world of politics. Even Rivera's statements are irrelevant given the shape the topic is taking. When it comes to the media, Sánchez has lost Grupo Prisa, which had transmuted when PSOE's secretary general arrived at the Moncloa government palace. Prisa has done what it likes so much to do: an exercise in asserting its right to give the orders. He's left with TVE and little more. It reminds you of Adolfo Suárez in 1981. And all of this on the eve of the demonstration called in Madrid for Sunday to throw out Sánchez and defend the eternal Spain.
The debate over the rapporteur joins that over the Spanish budget. After PDeCAT's announcement that this Friday it will present a wholesale amendment, like Esquerra did on Tuesday, everything is now pending on the vote on Tuesday or Wednesday next week in the Congress. The independence movement has no reasons to allow it to move through the Congress. The Spanish government hasn't done its homework and Carmen Calvo has been saying one thing in public and another in private. She would close agreements in the Moncloa or in Barcelona with Aragonès and Artadi and they'd last hours. But in politics there's always a last play. A last move. What's the best tactic to keep the topic of the rapporteur alive, the great trump card of the independence movement? Can you be an enemy and ally at the same time? Politics is also about that.