El procedimiento es conocido: gastar sin responsabilidad, disparar la deuda, comprometer recursos públicos, multiplicar los organismos y las estructuras clientelares, elevar la presión fiscal y trasladar las facturas a los ciudadanos y a las generaciones venideras.
Después, cuando llega la derrota, los responsables se marchan, pero las consecuencias se quedan.
El próximo gobierno tendrá que enfrentarse a unas cuentas públicas deterioradas, a compromisos financieros difíciles de satisfacer, a una administración politizada, a servicios básicos degradados, a unos transportes dañados y sin mantener y a una sociedad castigada por años de mala gestión.
Esta conducta revela una concepción profundamente inmoral del poder, la de considerar que España pertenece al partido que gobierna y que el Estado puede utilizarse como patrimonio particular, incluso cuando se aproxima la hora de abandonarlo.
No basta con dejar una herencia económica complicada; lo peor es dejar también una sociedad enfrentada, unas instituciones debilitadas y una opinión pública manipulada para que el sucesor fracase.
Es una forma de intentar gobernar desde la oposición antes incluso de haber abandonado el Gobierno, una estrategia de asfixia destinada a impedir que la alternativa política pueda demostrar que existe otra manera de administrar España.
Si esta tierra quemada se consuma, estaremos ante una irresponsabilidad de dimensiones nacionales.
Por eso, cuando Sánchez abandone el poder, el nuevo Parlamento debería constituir una comisión de investigación rigurosa, independiente y documentada para examinar la gestión económica, el endeudamiento, el destino de los recursos públicos, los compromisos adquiridos y las decisiones que hayan podido perjudicar deliberadamente al Estado.
Y, cuando aparezcan indicios de ilegalidad, deberán remitirse a la Justicia para exigir las responsabilidades correspondientes.
En democracia, los gobernantes no pueden disfrutar de impunidad política mientras los ciudadanos pagan durante décadas sus errores, sus abusos y sus despilfarros.
Quien administra el dinero de todos tiene la obligación de responder por él.
España no puede aceptar que cada alternancia política se convierta en una operación de demolición del país para hacerle imposible la vida al sucesor.
Gobernar no consiste en preparar la ruina del adversario, sino en servir a la nación. Y quien utiliza el poder para destruir las posibilidades de recuperación de España demuestra una maldad casi infinita que exige un castigo ejemplar.
Francisco Rubiales
English version:
Sánchez's Scorched-Earth Policy: The Plundering of Spain's Future
By Francisco Rubiales
Sánchez's «scorched-earth» policy consists of plundering Spain's future in order to protect the present interests of those in power.
This is what Pedro Sánchez is doing, fully aware that his government is already slipping out of his hands.
The scorched-earth policy is perverse. It consists of governing badly, squandering public money, indebting the country, weakening its institutions and, as the time to leave office approaches, preparing a landscape of ruin so that the next government will have its hands tied.
This is the scorched-earth approach that Spanish socialism seems to have turned into a tradition whenever it loses power. It happened in 1996, happened again in 2011 under Zapatero, and Pedro Sánchez now intends to repeat the same operation, but on an even more serious scale: leaving the next right-wing government a poisoned economic, institutional and social inheritance, together with a political machinery ready to obstruct any attempt at reconstruction.
The method is well known: spend irresponsibly, drive up public debt, commit public resources, multiply agencies and patronage-based structures, increase the tax burden and pass the bills on to citizens and future generations.
Then, when defeat comes, those responsible leave, but the consequences remain.
The next government will have to confront deteriorating public finances, financial commitments that are difficult to meet, a politicised administration, degraded essential services, damaged and poorly maintained transport infrastructure, and a society punished by years of mismanagement.
This conduct reveals a profoundly immoral conception of power: the belief that Spain belongs to the party in government and that the State can be treated as private property, even when the time to leave office is approaching.
It is not enough to leave behind a difficult economic inheritance; the worst part is also leaving a divided society, weakened institutions and public opinion manipulated in such a way that the successor is set up to fail.
It is an attempt to govern from opposition even before leaving office, a strategy of suffocation designed to prevent the political alternative from demonstrating that Spain can be administered in a different way.
If this scorched-earth policy is carried through, we will be facing an act of irresponsibility on a national scale.
That is why, when Sánchez leaves office, the new Parliament should establish a rigorous, independent and properly documented commission of inquiry to examine economic management, public debt, the use of public resources, commitments undertaken and decisions that may have deliberately harmed the State.
And whenever evidence of illegality emerges, it must be referred to the courts so that the appropriate responsibilities can be established.
In a democracy, those in government cannot enjoy political impunity while citizens spend decades paying for their mistakes, abuses and waste.
Anyone who manages public money has a duty to account for it.
Spain cannot accept that every change of government should become an operation to demolish the country in order to make life impossible for the incoming administration.
Governing does not mean preparing the ruin of one's political opponent; it means serving the nation. Anyone who uses power to destroy Spain's prospects for recovery displays an almost boundless malice that demands exemplary punishment.
Francisco Rubiales
Después, cuando llega la derrota, los responsables se marchan, pero las consecuencias se quedan.
El próximo gobierno tendrá que enfrentarse a unas cuentas públicas deterioradas, a compromisos financieros difíciles de satisfacer, a una administración politizada, a servicios básicos degradados, a unos transportes dañados y sin mantener y a una sociedad castigada por años de mala gestión.
Esta conducta revela una concepción profundamente inmoral del poder, la de considerar que España pertenece al partido que gobierna y que el Estado puede utilizarse como patrimonio particular, incluso cuando se aproxima la hora de abandonarlo.
No basta con dejar una herencia económica complicada; lo peor es dejar también una sociedad enfrentada, unas instituciones debilitadas y una opinión pública manipulada para que el sucesor fracase.
Es una forma de intentar gobernar desde la oposición antes incluso de haber abandonado el Gobierno, una estrategia de asfixia destinada a impedir que la alternativa política pueda demostrar que existe otra manera de administrar España.
Si esta tierra quemada se consuma, estaremos ante una irresponsabilidad de dimensiones nacionales.
Por eso, cuando Sánchez abandone el poder, el nuevo Parlamento debería constituir una comisión de investigación rigurosa, independiente y documentada para examinar la gestión económica, el endeudamiento, el destino de los recursos públicos, los compromisos adquiridos y las decisiones que hayan podido perjudicar deliberadamente al Estado.
Y, cuando aparezcan indicios de ilegalidad, deberán remitirse a la Justicia para exigir las responsabilidades correspondientes.
En democracia, los gobernantes no pueden disfrutar de impunidad política mientras los ciudadanos pagan durante décadas sus errores, sus abusos y sus despilfarros.
Quien administra el dinero de todos tiene la obligación de responder por él.
España no puede aceptar que cada alternancia política se convierta en una operación de demolición del país para hacerle imposible la vida al sucesor.
Gobernar no consiste en preparar la ruina del adversario, sino en servir a la nación. Y quien utiliza el poder para destruir las posibilidades de recuperación de España demuestra una maldad casi infinita que exige un castigo ejemplar.
Francisco Rubiales
English version:
Sánchez's Scorched-Earth Policy: The Plundering of Spain's Future
By Francisco Rubiales
Sánchez's «scorched-earth» policy consists of plundering Spain's future in order to protect the present interests of those in power.
This is what Pedro Sánchez is doing, fully aware that his government is already slipping out of his hands.
The scorched-earth policy is perverse. It consists of governing badly, squandering public money, indebting the country, weakening its institutions and, as the time to leave office approaches, preparing a landscape of ruin so that the next government will have its hands tied.
This is the scorched-earth approach that Spanish socialism seems to have turned into a tradition whenever it loses power. It happened in 1996, happened again in 2011 under Zapatero, and Pedro Sánchez now intends to repeat the same operation, but on an even more serious scale: leaving the next right-wing government a poisoned economic, institutional and social inheritance, together with a political machinery ready to obstruct any attempt at reconstruction.
The method is well known: spend irresponsibly, drive up public debt, commit public resources, multiply agencies and patronage-based structures, increase the tax burden and pass the bills on to citizens and future generations.
Then, when defeat comes, those responsible leave, but the consequences remain.
The next government will have to confront deteriorating public finances, financial commitments that are difficult to meet, a politicised administration, degraded essential services, damaged and poorly maintained transport infrastructure, and a society punished by years of mismanagement.
This conduct reveals a profoundly immoral conception of power: the belief that Spain belongs to the party in government and that the State can be treated as private property, even when the time to leave office is approaching.
It is not enough to leave behind a difficult economic inheritance; the worst part is also leaving a divided society, weakened institutions and public opinion manipulated in such a way that the successor is set up to fail.
It is an attempt to govern from opposition even before leaving office, a strategy of suffocation designed to prevent the political alternative from demonstrating that Spain can be administered in a different way.
If this scorched-earth policy is carried through, we will be facing an act of irresponsibility on a national scale.
That is why, when Sánchez leaves office, the new Parliament should establish a rigorous, independent and properly documented commission of inquiry to examine economic management, public debt, the use of public resources, commitments undertaken and decisions that may have deliberately harmed the State.
And whenever evidence of illegality emerges, it must be referred to the courts so that the appropriate responsibilities can be established.
In a democracy, those in government cannot enjoy political impunity while citizens spend decades paying for their mistakes, abuses and waste.
Anyone who manages public money has a duty to account for it.
Spain cannot accept that every change of government should become an operation to demolish the country in order to make life impossible for the incoming administration.
Governing does not mean preparing the ruin of one's political opponent; it means serving the nation. Anyone who uses power to destroy Spain's prospects for recovery displays an almost boundless malice that demands exemplary punishment.
Francisco Rubiales