La huelga general del 11 de noviembre fue un fracaso por su escaso seguimiento, pero se convirtió en la huelga general más violenta desde la muerte de Franco tras dejar un balance inquietante: más de 60 detenidos, alrededor de un millar de incidencias y disturbios en ciudades como Madrid y Barcelona, donde se produjeron actos vandálicos, incendios y ataques contra comercios.
No hablamos del legítimo derecho de los trabajadores a protestar, sino de quienes aprovechan cualquier movilización para imponer su voluntad por la fuerza y pisotear los derechos de los ciudadanos pacíficos.
El Gobierno y el PSOE respaldaron políticamente la convocatoria, mientras el Ejecutivo suspendía su agenda pública en señal de respeto a la huelga. Ese respaldo no demuestra que Sánchez ordenara los disturbios, pero sí obliga a exigirle una condena inequívoca de la violencia y una defensa sin reservas de quienes quieren trabajar, abrir sus negocios y circular libremente. Una democracia no puede tener ciudadanos de primera, protegidos por el poder, y ciudadanos de segunda, abandonados ante los matones.
El problema de fondo es que Sánchez parece haber confundido la supervivencia política con el interés general. Su Gobierno necesita mantener una coalición de apoyos cada vez más heterogénea y depende de fuerzas peligrosas, cuyos objetivos no siempre coinciden con la defensa del proyecto constitucional español.
Su mayor desprecio parece dirigirse hacia esa España trabajadora, honrada y silenciosa que paga impuestos, cumple las leyes, sostiene los servicios públicos y no necesita intimidar a nadie para defender sus intereses.
El poder sanchista no puede convertirse en una recompensa para los más ruidosos, los más radicales o los más violentos. Tampoco puede utilizarse el sufrimiento de los ciudadanos como combustible para una estrategia de supervivencia personal.
Sánchez se encuentra ante una situación política comprometida y la posibilidad de perder el poder parece haber elevado la tensión hasta extremos preocupantes.
Pero España no necesita un presidente histérico que se aferre al sillón alimentando la confrontación, sino un gobernante que garantice la convivencia, la seguridad y la igualdad ante la ley.
Un dirigente que no condena con contundencia la violencia de sus aliados políticos o sociales, que tolera la coacción cuando beneficia a su estrategia y que antepone su continuidad a la estabilidad nacional termina convirtiéndose en un peligro para la calidad democrática.
Sánchez no puede pretender gobernar para todos mientras parece reservar sus mejores alianzas para quienes cuestionan, dividen o intimidan. España pertenece a los ciudadanos libres, honrados y trabajadores, no a los profesionales de la coacción ni a quienes creen que el poder les permite todo tipo de abusos y maldades.
Francisco Rubiales
English version:
Sánchez, Desperate Because He Is Losing Power
Pedro Sánchez has shown that his ambition for power knows no bounds and that, when he needs support to survive politically, he is willing to seek company even in the gutter, where democratic leaders would recoil in disgust.
Now, desperate because he is on the verge of losing power, he is launching the election campaign alongside a woman under investigation and facing the courts: his wife, Begoña. This comes after another desperate act of recklessness: aligning himself with the looting vandals during the recent general strike.
His political career has been marked by pacts with separatists, parties descended from the Abertzale left, and other forces that challenge national unity and the constitutional model.
The 2023 investiture, secured with 179 votes, including those of Junts, ERC and EH Bildu, demonstrated just how far he was prepared to go to remain in La Moncloa.
Now, the degradation of Spanish politics seems to have reached a new level: tolerance towards violent groups that turn social demands into opportunities for destruction, intimidation and coercion.
The general strike of November 11 was a failure because of its low participation, but it became the most violent general strike since Franco's death, leaving a disturbing toll: more than 60 people arrested, around a thousand incidents and disturbances in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, where acts of vandalism, fires and attacks on shops took place.
We are not talking about workers' legitimate right to protest, but about those who exploit any mobilisation to impose their will by force and trample on the rights of peaceful citizens.
The Government and the PSOE politically backed the call for the strike, while the executive suspended its public agenda as a sign of respect for it. That backing does not prove that Sánchez ordered the disturbances, but it does mean that he must be required to condemn the violence unequivocally and to defend without reservation those who want to work, open their businesses and move around freely. A democracy cannot have first-class citizens protected by those in power and second-class citizens abandoned to the mercy of thugs.
The underlying problem is that Sánchez seems to have confused political survival with the general interest. His Government needs to maintain an increasingly heterogeneous coalition of support and depends on forces whose objectives do not always coincide with the defence of Spain's constitutional project.
His greatest contempt seems to be reserved for that hardworking, honest and quiet Spain that pays taxes, obeys the law, sustains public services and does not need to intimidate anyone to defend its interests.
Sanchismo's hold on power cannot become a reward for the loudest, most radical or most violent. Nor can citizens' suffering be used as fuel for a strategy of personal political survival.
Sánchez finds himself in a difficult political position, and the possibility of losing power seems to have raised tensions to worrying levels.
But Spain does not need a hysterical prime minister clinging to his seat by fuelling confrontation. It needs a leader who guarantees coexistence, security and equality before the law.
A leader who fails to condemn unequivocally the violence of his political or social allies, who tolerates coercion when it serves his strategy, and who puts his own continuity before national stability ultimately becomes a danger to the quality of democracy.
Sánchez cannot claim to govern for everyone while appearing to reserve his strongest alliances for those who challenge, divide or intimidate. Spain belongs to free, honest and hardworking citizens, not to professional coercers or to those who believe that holding power entitles them to every kind of abuse and wrongdoing.
Francisco Rubiales
No hablamos del legítimo derecho de los trabajadores a protestar, sino de quienes aprovechan cualquier movilización para imponer su voluntad por la fuerza y pisotear los derechos de los ciudadanos pacíficos.
El Gobierno y el PSOE respaldaron políticamente la convocatoria, mientras el Ejecutivo suspendía su agenda pública en señal de respeto a la huelga. Ese respaldo no demuestra que Sánchez ordenara los disturbios, pero sí obliga a exigirle una condena inequívoca de la violencia y una defensa sin reservas de quienes quieren trabajar, abrir sus negocios y circular libremente. Una democracia no puede tener ciudadanos de primera, protegidos por el poder, y ciudadanos de segunda, abandonados ante los matones.
El problema de fondo es que Sánchez parece haber confundido la supervivencia política con el interés general. Su Gobierno necesita mantener una coalición de apoyos cada vez más heterogénea y depende de fuerzas peligrosas, cuyos objetivos no siempre coinciden con la defensa del proyecto constitucional español.
Su mayor desprecio parece dirigirse hacia esa España trabajadora, honrada y silenciosa que paga impuestos, cumple las leyes, sostiene los servicios públicos y no necesita intimidar a nadie para defender sus intereses.
El poder sanchista no puede convertirse en una recompensa para los más ruidosos, los más radicales o los más violentos. Tampoco puede utilizarse el sufrimiento de los ciudadanos como combustible para una estrategia de supervivencia personal.
Sánchez se encuentra ante una situación política comprometida y la posibilidad de perder el poder parece haber elevado la tensión hasta extremos preocupantes.
Pero España no necesita un presidente histérico que se aferre al sillón alimentando la confrontación, sino un gobernante que garantice la convivencia, la seguridad y la igualdad ante la ley.
Un dirigente que no condena con contundencia la violencia de sus aliados políticos o sociales, que tolera la coacción cuando beneficia a su estrategia y que antepone su continuidad a la estabilidad nacional termina convirtiéndose en un peligro para la calidad democrática.
Sánchez no puede pretender gobernar para todos mientras parece reservar sus mejores alianzas para quienes cuestionan, dividen o intimidan. España pertenece a los ciudadanos libres, honrados y trabajadores, no a los profesionales de la coacción ni a quienes creen que el poder les permite todo tipo de abusos y maldades.
Francisco Rubiales
English version:
Sánchez, Desperate Because He Is Losing Power
Pedro Sánchez has shown that his ambition for power knows no bounds and that, when he needs support to survive politically, he is willing to seek company even in the gutter, where democratic leaders would recoil in disgust.
Now, desperate because he is on the verge of losing power, he is launching the election campaign alongside a woman under investigation and facing the courts: his wife, Begoña. This comes after another desperate act of recklessness: aligning himself with the looting vandals during the recent general strike.
His political career has been marked by pacts with separatists, parties descended from the Abertzale left, and other forces that challenge national unity and the constitutional model.
The 2023 investiture, secured with 179 votes, including those of Junts, ERC and EH Bildu, demonstrated just how far he was prepared to go to remain in La Moncloa.
Now, the degradation of Spanish politics seems to have reached a new level: tolerance towards violent groups that turn social demands into opportunities for destruction, intimidation and coercion.
The general strike of November 11 was a failure because of its low participation, but it became the most violent general strike since Franco's death, leaving a disturbing toll: more than 60 people arrested, around a thousand incidents and disturbances in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, where acts of vandalism, fires and attacks on shops took place.
We are not talking about workers' legitimate right to protest, but about those who exploit any mobilisation to impose their will by force and trample on the rights of peaceful citizens.
The Government and the PSOE politically backed the call for the strike, while the executive suspended its public agenda as a sign of respect for it. That backing does not prove that Sánchez ordered the disturbances, but it does mean that he must be required to condemn the violence unequivocally and to defend without reservation those who want to work, open their businesses and move around freely. A democracy cannot have first-class citizens protected by those in power and second-class citizens abandoned to the mercy of thugs.
The underlying problem is that Sánchez seems to have confused political survival with the general interest. His Government needs to maintain an increasingly heterogeneous coalition of support and depends on forces whose objectives do not always coincide with the defence of Spain's constitutional project.
His greatest contempt seems to be reserved for that hardworking, honest and quiet Spain that pays taxes, obeys the law, sustains public services and does not need to intimidate anyone to defend its interests.
Sanchismo's hold on power cannot become a reward for the loudest, most radical or most violent. Nor can citizens' suffering be used as fuel for a strategy of personal political survival.
Sánchez finds himself in a difficult political position, and the possibility of losing power seems to have raised tensions to worrying levels.
But Spain does not need a hysterical prime minister clinging to his seat by fuelling confrontation. It needs a leader who guarantees coexistence, security and equality before the law.
A leader who fails to condemn unequivocally the violence of his political or social allies, who tolerates coercion when it serves his strategy, and who puts his own continuity before national stability ultimately becomes a danger to the quality of democracy.
Sánchez cannot claim to govern for everyone while appearing to reserve his strongest alliances for those who challenge, divide or intimidate. Spain belongs to free, honest and hardworking citizens, not to professional coercers or to those who believe that holding power entitles them to every kind of abuse and wrongdoing.
Francisco Rubiales
Inicio
Enviar
Versión para Imprimir
