For the past 17 days, around a thousand people, sometimes a few more, have been gathering daily in Calle Ferraz in Madrid, in front of the headquarters of the Socialists (PSOE), to protest against the political agreement between that party and the Catalan pro-independence political groups on the amnesty, the re-election of Pedro Sánchez as prime minister and to vocalize a range of insults, especially against Carles Puigdemont. Sometimes without any violence and on other occasions with arrests and confrontations between the police and the demonstrators. Well-known figures from the People's Party (PP), such as Esperanza Aguirre, and numerous leaders of far-right Vox have made appearances there, starting with party leader Santiago Abascal.
These rallies have been accompanied by news that is a reflection of the current political violence, which has multiple facets and involves actors from different groups, thus making it clear that the current polarization will not be something transitory, but will become part of everyday life. Among other reasons, because the right - or rather, the rights, those who are professionally engaged in politics, but also those who practice politics - have decided to take the confrontation to the streets and aim for destabilization. We will continue to see examples, because everything is in an embryonic phase, but the course has been set and the field of play defined.
Meanwhile, we read news stories that are alarming and above all a symptom of the prevailing climate. This Saturday, the police confiscated a pistol from a soldier at one of the security checkpoints outside the Calle Ferraz headquarters. The owner of the weapon is a warrant officer, a student of the Zaragoza Military Academy and the gun was his own property, he declared. Laura del Río, former mayor and councillor of Gomezserracín, in Segovia province, has published a message on Facebook in which she literally states that Pedro Sánchez deserves "a shot in the back of the neck".
Roberto Martínez, first deputy mayor of Gimenells i Pla de la Font, in the Catalan county of Segrià, a member of the PP, has spread a message joking about the assassination of the Spanish Prime minister. Martínez shared an image of the assassination of Kennedy riding in the car in which the massacre occurred in Dallas in November 1963. The PP councilor had replaced the late US president's face with Sanchez's and wrote: "I've had a dream' and 'I hope he's just as good a shot'.
These are three isolated actions, but it is clear that they are much more than that: they are the result of the climate created by politicians, the media, economic sectors, the military and judges who are confronting the agreement reached by a group of political parties to facilitate the investiture. We will have to see how the Spanish government responds to all this, and the first evidence will be seen in the composition of the new cabinet, where we need to look closely at the continuity or not of two important members of the executive. The minister of defence, Margarita Robles, and the head of interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. Two highly questioned ministers, but with their particular manuals of resistance and well-known connections with the right.