It is possible that all Spaniards remember these general elections of July 23, 23. Also a campaign that has been exciting, considering that exacerbated feelings are not always desirable in a politically polarized country such as Spain is now.
But emotions arise after a very hard pandemic experience (you know what it is) and a war that has broken the recovery of an economy that should focus on the energy transformation urged by climate change.
In those we were, with an uncooperative opposition that referred to the executive with the singular nickname of Frankenstein government, for being constituted with the collaboration of Podemos, a party located to the left of the socialist party, and adding specific agreements with the nationalist or independence parties; That was when the president called the general election.
In reality, Pedro Sánchez had no other formula in this legislature to carry out the laws that have defined his mandate than to use the support of the small parties that represent the different nationalities of the State.
A worker cleans the street after celebrations at the headquarters of the conservative Popular Party in Madrid, Spain. AP Photo
It has been four hard, harsh years, in which rudeness, hoax, half-truth, insult have been resorted to as never before, at a level that we did not know even in a country as vehement as ours. Media related to the Popular Party have fed daily hatred of Sánchez, defining him as a psychopath, egomaniac, unscrupulous individual who was selling the unity of Spain for the dirty ambition of remaining in power.
They have also been dispatched against the leader of Sumar, a formation that has brought together several leftist parties and that aspires to a new coalition government with the Socialists. Yolanda Díaz is a brilliant woman, minister of labor with Sánchez, who took essential measures to protect workers during the pandemic and was the architect of the labor reform.
In recent times the old school ways to the presence of women in public life have sprung up and there have been several conservative politicians who have been exposed with behaviors that were believed to be overcome.
What was expected, because the polls have proclaimed it, is that the Popular Party won by a landslide and Sánchez received a punishment of such caliber that it would remove him from public life. This has not been the case.
But that has not happened. There is a Spain that has feared going backwards in rights and freedoms, there is a country that has defended them and that was afraid that Vox would drag the Popular Party towards extremist positions as is happening in not a few European countries.
Socialist Workers Party leader and current Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, applauds during an executive committee meeting in Madrid. AP Photo
The pacts between the right and its extreme left by the municipal and regional elections have had a clarifying effect that has mobilized a left that shelters its disappointments in abstention or in the ranks of the Popular Party.
It is clear that there is fear of backsliding. Spain jealously defends its civil rights and has seen how those who deny the existence of gender violence or advances in the well-being of LGTBI people could reach the government of the nation. We also feared (I use the first person plural) climate change deniers, whose effects on the Mediterranean are already atrocious, or fiscal setbacks.
These fears are what have encouraged a vote that was considered lost in the first part of the campaign after a debate in which Sánchez let himself be dialectically beaten by Feijóo, the conservative leader, who lost his moderate mask to show a face not well known outside Galicia.
From that low moment, the vehemence on the left awoke from its lethargy and the campaign so far somewhat plumb was transformed into a fervent struggle for the vote for the parties of the left.
Many of us have supported these parties from our public tribunes for fear of regression, of regression. Now we are faced with the question of whether it will be possible to govern or we will return to elections. Perhaps Sánchez will gather, as on other occasions, that strange magic with which he changes the course of history. What is clear is that at least, after the dizzying counting of the votes, many of us breathe a sigh of relief.
(Excuse me for this outrageous text, somewhat confusing, but you will understand me very well if I confess the difficulty of having to tell you what one's own country is like).
*Spanish writer Her latest novel is "En la boca del lobo"
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