Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight.

And, lo, has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light!

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable

Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’

Cosas de España

Both the PM and the leader of the Oppostiion have set out their respective stores in the last few days – Pedro Sanchez to El País and Alberto Feijoo in The Times. The write-up of the former is in Spanish and behind a paywall here but a machine translation can be found below. Feijoo’s interview can be found here.

If you’re more interested in property than politics, here’s Mark Stücklin and friend on current market conditions. But you won’t escape politics entirely, as the podcast is entitled: Spanish politics and the political risk of buying property in Spain. The number of Brits buying has naturally reduced but they still lead the foreign-buyers pack. At least for now. Up here in Galicia they’ll soon be outnumbered by the North Americans who’ve discovered this ‘secret’ region in the last 2 or 3 years. Very possibly via a camino made by themselves or friends. Which reminds me, I’ll have the pleasure of dining with 23 ladies from California in October . . . After giving them my free tour of Pv city’s old quarter.

Click here if you’re interested in paying for an un-free private tour of Gaudi’s madcap Barcelona cathedral. Which still has a way to go.

While I was away for 2 months, the weather in Galicia was both very warm and very wet. This morning I walked down a clay-and-stone road in the forest behind my house, where in 23 years I’d never seen so much vegetation encroaching from the sides. Normally, I would have turned left here, down a narrow path:

but the weather has combined to make it impassable without a machete. No wonder my garden was as bad as it was when I arrived.

The mustiness smell in my house has gone, to be replaced by a heady mix of methylated spirit and insecticide. The latter was for the ants but mentioning it has reminded me that, when I opened the rubbish bin in my kitchen on Saturday night, I was met by a horde of fruit flies who’d taken up residence there. And bred. I’ve put out the vinegar traps that worked a few months ago but they seem to have got wise to these and are ignoring both the cheap vinegar and the more expensive stuff. Unless those genetically averse to it have outbred the others.

After getting back at 8 on Saturday evening, I went into town at 9 for a drink with friends. Within a few minutes, I experienced one of my almost-daily bugbears – cars not stopping when I have the right of way at the pedestrian crossing down by O Burgo bridge. But are too close for me to force the issue by walking onto the crossing. Great to be back!

Yesterday morning, I bumped into my lovely ex-neightbour – the one who’d said she’d come to Madrid to comfort both me and my daughter but then never did. She didn’t mention it and I was too British to ask why not. I think I’ve said that I’d, anyway, put it down to a kind Spanish intention rather than a plan. So had never expected it to happen.

Portugal

One in three investors in the country is Galician, making Gallegos the largest group of these. Says the VdG: Nearly a billion euros have arrived from the neighboring country[i.e. region]. Galicia dominates the ranking with a great advantage, since the second, Luxembourg, has invested only just over €190m in the same period. Most of the foreign funds were allocated to industry, food and commerce. In the case of those from the Central European Grand Duchy, experts believe it is more down to “tax avoidance”. Cynical?

Quote of The Day

A Times columnist: I was nearly killed by an e-bike – this dangerous fad has to be stopped

Finally . . .

I spent 4 hours working in my back garden yesterday – in between showers – and did another 2 hours this morning. My aching muscles have reminded me of that old joke about a conversation in a bar:

• I’m a little stiff from badminton.
• I don’t care where you’re from, piss off.

For new readers:- If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.

THE SANCHEZ INTERVIEW

Pedro Sánchez: “Much more dangerous than Vox is that the PP assumes its policies”

The President of the Government stresses in an interview with EL PAÍS that “repealing what works flu affectst he economy” and that “any error will have a high cost.” The socialist leader believes that the coalition would be “easier” with Sumar: “With Díaz we work loyally.” And he maintains that the PSOE “has the responsibility for Spain to continue advancing”
Pedro Sánchez (Madrid, 51 years old) has been chaining seemingly impossible victories throughout his career. This time, after the hard defeat in the municipal elections, he is not the favorite for the general elections on 23-J either. But he hopes to turn it around thanks to the reactivation of the progressives before the autonomous pacts of the PP and Vox, which would now reach La Moncloa, and also with the regrouping of the left in Sumar. And he continues to aspire for the management of these difficult years to be valued. The interview was conducted on Friday .

Q. In the 28-M elections, the PP and Vox grow. Is Spain turning to the right, as is happening in a good part of Europe?
R. Spain is no stranger to this reactionary current. But on 28-M what there was was a concentration of the conservative vote in two political forces, the PP and Vox, a PSOE that receded minimally, although it lost institutional power, and a very marked dispersion in the electorate to the left of the PSOE. There has been a very important mobilization of the conservative electorate, and weak of the progressive electorate. This is what we have to reverse in the face of the 23-J elections.

Q. The transformations necessary for the ecological transition are leaving losers seeking refuge in the extreme right. How to recover the middle classes for the progressive vote?
R. We have governed for the social majorities. The PP and Vox are not proposing a political project for the majorities. Two out of three Spaniards agree on taxes on large fortunes, energy or financial, or on policies to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Q. Ciudadanos voters have gone en masse to the PP. On the right, not a single vote is lost. However, those who have not voted for United We Can have not gone to the PSOE, they stay at home. Because?
R. After 28-M we are in a new political scenario. The Spanish have information that they did not have before. The PP and Vox, now openly, assume that they have to govern in coalition. And also there is no dispersion to the left of the PSOE. Today there is a new political project, led by Yolanda Díaz, called Sumar. In any case, the PSOE has a non-transferable responsibility, because the PSOE’s victory will largely depend on whether Spain continues to advance in the coming years.

Q. In the previous campaign, you appealed to the management, and the right to emotions, with an idea: “Kick Sánchez out.” Is the new policy no longer about management, but about emotions?
R. I think that both things work in politics. The PP and Vox do not have a political project beyond repealing sanchismo. If a year ago I had said that the Spanish economy was going to grow at 2.1% in 2023, after a pandemic and in the middle of the war, that we were going to double the growth of the euro zone, that we were going to create more jobs than Italy, France or Germany would have told me that I was being optimistic. But it is happening. And it is not by chance. Repealing what works is gripping the Spanish economy. I believe these five years are a collective success story as a nation. We have overcome a pandemic, we have set an example to the world in vaccination and we are dealing with one of the biggest inflationary crises in decades.

Q. The right appeals to an epic, that of throwing out Sánchez. What epic do you appeal to?
R. To advance, for Spain to continue advancing. Repealing is not a political project, it is going back 5, 15 or 20 years.

Q. How will you make that economic management or social protection policies have the answer at the polls that did not have the 28-M?
R. What the electoral result of three weeks ago tells us is that we are three points behind the PP. The conservative bloc obtained 39%, far from what some polls say that place it at 49%. I think we can turn it around. The parties that want to repeal reforms that we have agreed with Brussels and with the social partners are putting the receipt of European funds at risk. The PSOE and the progressive coalition government have a defined, concrete, clear economic plan, and we have nothing in front of us. Any error in economic policy will imply a very high cost.

Q. Have you read the agreement between the PP and Vox in the Valencian Community? What are the consequences of exporting it to the Government of Spain?
R. A few months ago, a European leader told me that the elections in Spain are very important, because if there is a shift to a PP government with Vox, the balance within Europe will be upset. There is something much more dangerous than Vox, and it is a PP that assumes Vox’s postulates and policies. And this is what we are seeing: the denial of political, social and scientific consensus. The fact that the Government of the Valencian Community does not raise a single sentence on climate change is a dangerous denialism for foreign investment. Denying gender violence can only be going backwards. This is what we are playing on the next 23-J.

Q. There is a transfer of votes from the PSOE to the PP, all the post-election polls detect it. Do you trust that the agreement in Valencia with Vox can stop it?
R. We have the duty to warn Spanish society about the serious consequences that a PP government with Vox can have. On 28-M something became clear, and also this Saturday, and that is that if PP and Vox add up, Santiago Abascal will be vice president of the Government. That is not denied by anyone.

Q. Has the PSOE lost the women’s vote, one of its great banners?
A. If one analyzes the data objectively, the main voters for the PSOE continue to be women. They are the ones that support the electoral base of the PSOE. During these five years, the progressive coalition government has made a policy in favor of equality, with the minimum wage, the revaluation of pensions. We are allocating 320 million euros in 2023 to gender violence policies, when in 2018, in the last Rajoy Budgets, 80 million were allocated.

Q. How much damage has the management of the law of the only yes is yes done in that female vote?
R. The reform, indeed, was a mistake. I have recognized it as such, I have apologized and we corrected it. But the commitment of the PSOE and the progressive coalition with the welfare, rights and freedoms of women is unequivocal, total and resounding.

Q. A year and a half ago, this newspaper published a survey in which it was concluded that this government was doing good things, but was disliked. Do you already know why they fall badly?
R. This is a government that has had to face a pandemic, we have had to confine millions of Spaniards to be able to protect ourselves against an unknown virus. We were coming out of the pandemic, and suddenly Putin invades Ukraine. And the PSOE continues to maintain 28% support. We have shown that we can achieve great transformations with social peace. The right, what has always said? That the best social policy is job creation. Well, we have created employment like never before and we have carried out social policy like never before.

Q. And then why didn’t they sweep the 28-M elections? What went wrong?
R. The other day, in Moldova, a European leader told me: “If I had the inflation that Spain has, I would be skyrocketing in the polls.” I think there is a barrier that has a lot to do with misinformation, hoaxes and lies spread by media aligned with the most conservative theses. And also an unfair opposition that blocks. The PP says “it is Sánchez or Spain”. This dilemma is very dangerous, because what it means is that those who do not vote for the PP or Vox, we are not Spain, we are the anti-Spain. I remember something that Pedro Zerolo said: “The difference between the right and the left is that we all love Spain, but they defend a model of society in which we do not fit, and we defend a model of society in which everyone fits.” world”.

Q. If you pay attention, all the wear factors you are talking about are exogenous: the pandemic, the opposition, the media. Do you admit any of your own mistakes?
R. I have recognized an error, for example, the law of only yes is yes. It is a mistake that I regret, and I corrected it. From there, I have had to make very difficult, risky and I would even say controversial decisions. Until now he has not asked me anything about Catalonia, and it is not by chance. Catalonia has been a monotheme in Spanish politics for the last 10 years. Today it is not. I know that there are many Spaniards who voted for me in 2019 and that today, perhaps, they are thinking of not voting for the PSOE because they did not understand measures such as pardons for the leaders of the procés. But you have to look at how Catalonia is now. Politics is solving problems.

Q. Regarding Catalonia, indeed, the situation is much better than it was in 2017 or 2018, and yet those who have promoted this search for dialogue have been penalized by the polls. To the PSOE in the whole of Spain and to ERC, in Catalonia. Is looking for solutions to conflicts not profitable electorally?
R. They are difficult decisions. But today the situation in Catalonia has nothing to do with that of 2017, 2018 or even 2019, in the middle of the elections, when we saw the containers burning in the streets of Barcelona. Today that does not happen. Today the PSOE is the leading political force in Catalonia, a constitutionalist party, a party that defends the union of Spain. And I think this is great news for Spain.

Q. Bildu has been one of the great themes of the previous campaign and it already appears in this one. Why is it so difficult for them to explain the agreements with Bildu? On Thursday the opposition called for the resignation of the government delegate in Madrid for a few words about Bildu’s parliamentary support in difficult times, and he later apologized.
R. It is paradoxical, isn’t it? Because when the PP supports laws promoted by Bildu in the Basque Parliament, I do not see that in the conservative media it appears in four columns on the front page. And it is also paradoxical because when they talk about ETA, an organization that democracy defeated 12 years ago, they deliberately forget to remember that Aznar approached ETA prisoners in the midst of an escalation of violence, that he negotiated with ETA and called them Basque National Liberation Movement. The distance that the PSOE has with Bildu is abysmal. Abysmal. We do not have a government agreement with Bildu. We have approved a pension reform with many political parties, including Bildu, but also the PNV, ERC, Podemos. And, for example, one of the main measures or commitments of the Government has not come out, such as the repeal of the so-called gag law, because we did not compromise with some of the demands of Bildu and ERC. We approved the labor reform with ERC and Bildu against and the vote in favor of Ciudadanos. This Saturday, in Pamplona, the PSN gives the Mayorship to UPN [the Navarrese conservatives, and not to Bildu].

Q. And in Barcelona? The PP has voted for the PSC.
R. Barcelona once again has a socialist mayor, as in its best moments. A great success. Colau’s resignation left the PP, which was willing to support a pro-independence mayor rather than a socialist government, without arguments. Now begins a very exciting stage for the coexistence and transformation of the city.

Q. And among your voters, have you done enough pedagogy on the Bildu issue?
R. You have to differentiate between what is a government agreement and what are specific parliamentary agreements. A government agreement is what we have seen between the PP and Vox. With directors, with programmatic government agreements. And another thing is that the reforms are made with some parliamentary forces or with others. The important thing is not with whom, it is what. And the what is the revaluation of pensions and the reconstruction of the Pact of Toledo.

Q. You have presided over the first coalition government since the recovery of democracy. He went from not sleeping with the expectation of governing with Podemos to doing so during four very intense years. What balance does it make?
A. Very positive. It is one of the most transformative and reformist governments in the history of our democracy. We have passed 200 laws. Now we no longer need to approve so many, but to consolidate these.

Q. What would you not repeat of what you have done in the coalition government?
R. We have not had a surplus of reformist momentum, but we have had plenty of decibels in the internal debate of the progressive coalition government.

Q. Would you repeat the coalition?
R. The PSOE goes out to win the elections. All the candidates aspire to govern alone. But assuming a fragmented reality, I understand that after July 23 we will form a progressive coalition government with Yolanda Díaz and Sumar. Which, by the way, can be an easier and more functional coalition government, because we have worked loyally and effectively on all the laws that have had to do with Yolanda Díaz and what Sumar represents today.

Q. I was speaking before about the error of only yes is yes. Does she regret not having dispensed with Irene Montero in the Government, as some in the PSOE requested?
R. The discrepancies that we maintained from the PSOE with Irene Montero on this issue are public and notorious. What I tried from the beginning is to reach an agreement with my coalition partner. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be like that. I assume the error of the law in the first person and I apologize and apologize especially to the victims of these sexual assaults. From then on, what I, above all, have always put before it is institutional and political stability. I believe that the performance of this progressive coalition government has left a good taste in the mouths of progressives in this country. But I insist, the context we are facing is so unprecedented, however serious, complex, that, obviously, this has its electoral repercussions.

Q. The division of feminism has torn apart a movement that enjoys enormous vitality. You have experienced the fracture within your party and it has occurred during your term. What responsibility do you assume in this fracture of your government?
R. I think that all those people, men and women, who consider ourselves feminists have to be aware that feminism is above all inclusive. Making feminism a tool for social confrontation is a mistake. We have to rebuild that unity in feminism, give it back its capacity for social integration.

Q. Has it been another mistake to keep the questioned José Félix Tezanos at the helm of the CIS, who was also not successful on 28-M?
R. You may or may not agree with the interpretations and estimates that can be made from the CIS, but, of course, what cannot be discussed is the quality, transparency and publicity of all these raw data. The PSOE is three points behind the PP and, therefore, victory is possible. I believe that there is a party and I believe that it is worthwhile for that progressive Spain to come out and vote. The demobilization that we saw on May 28 of that progressive Spain has as a consequence that today we have PP governments with Vox in many town halls and autonomous communities.

Q. You ended the year 2022 causing a lot of political tension, with the run over reforms of sedition and embezzlement to serve your ERC parliamentary partners. Did they miscalculate the social effect of those reforms that the Supreme Court has ignored, with which they will barely have an effect?
R. Politics is to solve problems, provide solutions to serious conflicts that have undermined the cohesion and unity of Spain, such as the conflict in Catalonia. For seven years, the PP Administration denied the conflict. And he also added gasoline to that fire that caused the independence movement. I know it’s difficult, that I’ve had to make decisions that some people don’t understand, but I asked for that vote of confidence and the results are there. Today in Catalonia the independence movement does not have the social support it had five years ago and the first political force is constitutionalist. I believe that, with the facts, also with my mistakes, I have shown that I have worked for that stability and for that coexistence.

Q. Europe seems to be between two giants about to start a battle. What should be its role in the new international order and what is the place of Spain?
R. Europe can be the architect of this new international order. We can be in artificial intelligence, proposing a humanist perspective of digital transformation. In fact, one of the proposals I made to President [Joe] Biden on my visit to Washington was why we don’t work together with Europe and the United States on a regulation, along with other major nations of the world, to control the development of intelligence artificial. Europe has to be a voice that is clearly heard. And what does that imply? That it be made up of member states that have governments that are committed not to denying these challenges.

Q. One of the most frequent reproaches of the opposition to your presidency during these years is that you have ignored it in foreign policy. For example, in the relationship with Morocco, which included a historical twist regarding the Sahara. Would that change in a new legislature? Would you be willing to share these challenges with the opposition?
R. We have always extended our hand in this and in many other matters to the opposition. When he was negotiating the European funds, the PP went there to boycott its approval. When we agreed with the European Commission on the pension reform, there the PP also went to boycott again. And when we approved the Iberian solution, they boycotted again. We have faced an unfair opposition and that only the blockade with Casado and Feijóo has prevailed. It has been frankly difficult to reach large country agreements with the opposition.

Q. Feijóo says: “If I don’t win, I’m leaving.” If you don’t win, would you leave?
R. I understand that you ask me that question. But, what candidate would I be if, before going out on the pitch, I was speculating about what will happen to me or my team if I don’t win the game? We went out to win. We have governed for the majorities and they have made an opposition not for the majorities, but for some elites who do not stand in the elections, but who are very present in the explanation of many of the political positions of the right in our country.

Q. With you as Secretary General, the PSOE has drawn the fate of the French Socialist Party, the Greek Socialist Party, the Italian Social Democrats who have been or are about to disappear. If they lose the elections now, does the PSOE run the risk of breaking up or taking that path?
R. If we have seen anything over the years, it has been precisely the PP breaking in two. First in three and now in two. The PSOE is a party that maintains 28% electoral support, after a pandemic and in the middle of the war. There are few political parties in Europe that have social support like the one that the PSOE has. The victory of the PSOE depends on whether Spain continues to advance for four years and that responsibility is non-transferable. We need more time for the reforms to be consolidated. The educational reform, the pension reform, the labor reform have to take root. They can’t be trampled right now, just when they’re starting to bear fruit.

Q. What is sanchismo?
R. Sanchismo is the old strategy of the right when it is in opposition. It is dehumanizing, caricaturing, painting the progressive leader who is in charge of the Government as a selfish person, who has no scruples and who does anything to stay in power. They did it with Felipe, calling socialism felipismo; they did it with José Luis, calling it zapaterismo; and they do it with me, calling it sanchismo. But sanchismo, felipismo, zapaterismo, do not stop being socialism, which is the main transforming force that this country has had, fortunately, during the last 40 years of democracy.

Q. Why do you think anti-Sanchismo works? [The interview seems to end on this rhetorical note]