The hidden reasons for Pedro Sánchez's trip to the United States: to become an astronaut or a Hollywood actor
Those who believe Moncloa's propaganda, which stresses that President Pedro Sánchez's visit to the United States is aimed at boosting American investment in Spain and strengthening economic, technological and audiovisual relations in order to turn the bull skin into an emporium of wealth, even more so than it is today, are way off the mark.
Personal contacts with the top executives of large financial corporations, the most advanced innovation centres and the most important film and television production companies in the world are tasks that could have been carried out by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto. Or the First Vice-President and Minister for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, or even the head of the Equality portfolio, Irene Montero, is the last to make it clear that the economic differences between the two countries are little more than a question of numbers.
In the president's entourage, there are only a very few privileged people who suspect that his demonstrated interest in Hollywood - the Mecca of cinema - and his visit to Pasadena - where the Jet Propulsion Laboratory or JPL, a technology centre associated with NASA, is located - are for reasons that only Pedro Sánchez knows and which he keeps in the utmost secrecy. In both cases, it is the confirmation of his personal desire to sound out and gather first-hand impressions of his career possibilities in the United States, once he decides or has no choice but to leave Spanish politics.
When it comes to deciding his future career path, Sánchez wants to make an informed assessment of the most profitable path for his own interests but, above all, for the good of Spain. With a very tight schedule and in order not to waste time on niceties, he has ruled out travelling to Washington to avoid giving President Joe Biden the immense pleasure of having his photograph taken with him, both sitting in the Oval Office of the White House. Sánchez seems to understand that the long talk of less than 60 seconds that he gave the US president in Brussels in mid-June last year - on the occasion of the NATO summit - is more than enough.
His current trip to the United States is focused on the two major dilemmas that are drawing closer to him with each passing day. On the one hand, he has the possibility of becoming a film actor, which would give him the opportunity to continue to travel in private jets and meet beautiful and voluptuous actresses of international fame. On the other hand, he is tempted to prove his high physical and mental qualities and become an astronaut. And Peter hesitates between entering the world of Hollywood stars or choosing the path of the galaxies and travelling to the moon.
The second option would be easier for him. Like his book "Manual de Resistencia", which is known to have been written by Irene Lozano - awarded the post of Secretary of State for Sport in the new government - the demanding selective tests to become an astronaut could be replaced by the media star of his first government, Pedro Duque. Although recently dismissed as Minister of Science and Innovation, the fact that he is an astronaut with the European Space Agency on leave of absence ensures that he would pass the qualification tests with flying colours. After all, they are both called Pedro.
It's a long way to Mars! he seems to have commented 'sotto voce' at family level. But the reason is not only that the Red Planet is a long way from Earth. The reasons that weigh on Sánchez's mind to rule out going to Mars are basically twofold. On the one hand, it is well known that China and the United States are competing to reach the planet and the Spanish president does not want to beat them to the punch and make a mess of his admired Xi Jinping and his dear friend Joe Biden.
He has also ruled it out because as it is the so-called Red Planet, he would have to have the approval of Unidas-Podemos, that is to say, of Yolanda Díaz, and relations with her are cordial in the eyes of the gallery, but on a political level they are no rocket ship. So the moon is his main option. And the fact is that, once he sets foot on our natural satellite, he is thinking about founding his longed-for progressive republic with less opposition than in Spain, and captaining a coalition government with the lunatic - excuse me, lunar - independentists, who his advisors have told him live underground and do not allow themselves to be seen for what they will say.
Hailed as president by the majority of lunar independence fighters who live in the depths of Selene, Pedro would fight tooth and nail to get the Moon to declare its independence and stop orbiting the Earth, which it has been doing for billions of years.
If he achieved his goal, he would be the first president of a huge new country, -almost uninhabited, that is- and also of a whole celestial body, which he could call an Independent Progressive Intergalactic Lunar Republic. Every night, the more than 7.8 billion inhabitants of Earth would look up and yearn to travel the few hundred thousand kilometres that separate them. On the other hand, Sanchez's lunatic compatriots, sitting in the coolness of the grey dusty plains and rocky craters that populate the Moon, would enjoy the extraordinary views of the Blue Planet. What happiness!
We must stop being slaves of the earthlings! We want to travel through the Milky Way separated from the Earth that keeps us in chains! The Earth steals from us! shout the hidden lunatics from their caves. In his next meeting with the president of Catalonia, Pere Aragonés, it is likely that Pedro Sánchez will convey his invitation to accompany him on his longed-for journey, there to claim and raise the longed-for flag of lunar self-determination proclaimed by the UN, according to the lunatics.
But there is another no less tempting alternative for a sincere person who, in a very recent interview with Reuters, has just described himself as "a man who delivers". These are personal characteristics that place him as a champion of human values in the eyes of Spanish public opinion and world leaders, who know very well that everything he says he does, he does!!!!
With his accredited acting skills, actor is a profession for which, without any doubt, Sánchez would have the backing of the so-called "de la ceja" artists, those who supported the presidential candidacies of his valued predecessor and master, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whom he has far surpassed. And, of course, he would be in a position to win the full support of the Bardem family, who would even provide him with master classes!
Good-looking, tall in figure and with that leisurely walk that is the envy of the world's political leaders and the men of the entire national parliamentary arc, Pedro wants to surpass the film career of Antonio Banderas and much more that of Sara Montiel. The late singer from La Mancha knew only four words of English when she arrived in the United States in the mid-1950s, but she made films with the likes of Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster.
And in the case of the Malaga-born Banderas, his transatlantic leap in the early 1990s opened the doors of the big production companies and his career has been and continues to be spectacular. So with his bearing, his excellent diction in the language of Shakespeare and his innate gifts as an actor, he is predicted to be a resounding success in international cinema. And he knows it. Spain would lose one of its great politicians who will go down in universal history, but the world would gain an actor like the top of a pine tree.
Pedro is aware that choosing the artistic path is the opposite of the path taken by Ronald Reagan, who, as a Hollywood actor with around 70 films to his credit, at the age of 68 became the 40th president of the United States for two terms, from 1981 to 1989. Whether he chooses to be an astronaut or a Hollywood actor, Pedro Sánchez knows that both trajectories will propel him to stardom... or crash.