A step forward
Fifty days and forty thousand murdered Ukrainians later, genocidal Vladimir Putin's special military operation Z will last at least a hundred years. Like the England-France war (1337-1453). The invaded citizens will not be able to forgive for many generations the invasion, the pits of corpses, the rapes, the destruction, the indiscriminate bombings, the humiliations, the mass exile, the war crimes of a communist and Nazi regime that wants to break up a rich, brave and proud country. This is our endless war. What is at stake is the freedom of the European Union. World War III has begun without being declared yet.
True, the USSR played a very important role in the Second World War. It came first to Berlin, raped and killed with Bolshevik ferocity, suffered the worst atrocities of the Third Reich, yes; but in the sharing out it got the lion's share; it annexed all the countries of the East, enslaved some fifteen nations and threatened the whole free world with its Cold War for seven decades. The fall of the Wall in 1989 showed that Stalinism was a colossus with feet of clay. Moscow's fearsome armies are a corrupt institution that only knows how to execute innocent people. We have seen it in the martyred cities of Kharkov, Bucha and Mariupol. They are resisting as doggedly as Kiev has, but the Kremlin's hawks are relentless.
The scorched earth policy to extend the Donbas corridor to the Black Sea is just an excuse to re-annex the Crimean peninsula as spoils of war and raze the beautiful city of Odessa to the ground; closing the south would leave Ukraine with its glass skies and no outlet for its products to the world market via the Mediterranean. Suffocation by starvation. Pure communism. Putin and his mercenary militiamen are tearing apart the illusions of a people united in the face of terror. No more communism, cry the desperate Ukrainians, more alone than ever.
President Zelenski reiterates it in all parliaments: Europe is the target. Destroy democracy and our welfare. Less words of solidarity, less war helmets and more heavy weapons for the people to defend themselves. Of course, we have the problem of Russian gas, oil and coal. Dependence has this price: pre-emptive surrender. And on top of that we are paying the war to Moscow to kill our Ukrainian brothers. 350 billion dollars a year. But is heating and hot showers worth more than human lives?
Russian scenarios surpass Hitlerian brutalities. The nuclear threat has not been cleared but Z-drones have already unloaded the first chemical weapons on Mariupol. The invaders' mobile crematorium ovens leave no corpses; that saves Putin. Families will not collect insurance for their dead sons and husbands because they cannot prove that they went missing in action on Ukrainian soil.
Lies and terror are always communism's best allies. The trucks and tanks do not carry number plates so that the criminals cannot be identified. Just like in Cuba and Venezuela. Ukraine is a minefield, which will explode for two decades. Executives who have not been able to leave the Russian Federation have been threatened and forced to pay the salaries of the dismissed workers. I stand corrected. No, no; they are released workers. Freed to work, not to be paid. Progressive Russia, left-wing progressivism - where are the class unions?
The question is simple in this Week of Passion and death without resurrection after 50 days of siege, famine and ruin: how many innocent civilians and soldiers will it take to immolate before we realise that Russia is shooting at all of us?
You will agree with me that the response in Congress to President Zelenski should have been given by the head of state, Felipe VI. But Sánchez is the only emperor. He has marginalised the King because he is the one who speaks and acts in the name of Spain. Read again the apocryphal letter (nobody is the author, but it is signed by Don Pedro) in which he hands over Western Sahara to Morocco in exchange for nothing. Neither the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who privately admitted that he was not aware of the contents, nor his government or the Parliament. A null and void act in its own right.
The surrender, with the Spanish flag upside down - "city taken" - indicates that this guy has no limits to his ambition for power. The joint communiqué is a joke, as is the fact that the Moroccan Foreign Ministry informed us of the letter and of the reversal on the Sahara. Tar transparency.
The Polisario Front has broken off relations with Spain and Algeria has withdrawn its ambassador and is threatening us with an extra rise in the price of a cubic metre of gas. This is good business for a prime minister acting as head of state. But he does not know how to play chess. He has pissed off everyone at the same time. It has a lot of merit. Napoleonic imperial presidentialism as a substitute for parliamentary monarchy.
What is serious is not the abruptness of the change rejected by the entire parliamentary arc, but the fact that, by modifying the geostrategic map, the tenant of La Moncloa has increased the 200 miles of the Atlantic to invade the marine space of the Canary Islands. With the new border, Rabat becomes the potential owner of the seabed between its coast and the Canary archipelago, rich, very rich in tellurium, vital for solar panels, and cobalt, essential for electric cars. As well as the oil in the area.
The PSOE stood alone in backing Dr Sánchez. The brave gudari Odón Olorza, after voting yes, went to the press room to explain to African opinion that he "did not want to break the unity of his parliamentary group, but that his inner convictions were against the cession". You have to be miserable. And even more miserable are those who vote for this pathetic guy who has already given in to Otegui's orders. Resign. For dignity's sake.
It is said that the ideologues of this volte-face are Zapatero and Moratinos, the ones who turned the Gibraltar dispute between Madrid and London into an eternal tripartite that included, with voice and vote, the chief minister of the Rock. Those of the Alliance of Civilisations with Turkey and Iran that Spain paid for at the UN - what a duo! Did they also draft the letter of betrayal? Let's get out of here.
It was hard to get the president to Congress to talk about this "diplomatic blasting". With his characteristic temperament, the tenant of the monclovite, came out on top and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, it is not a volantezo, nor a change; it is a step forward...". Undoubtedly, a step towards the abyss.
Seville consecrated the unique leadership of Alberto Núñez Feijóo in a Bulgarian-style Convention. It was not a re-foundational Congress. There was no political message. The Popular Party said goodbye to Casado without a tear. Only his wife cried. "I am not here to insult Sánchez, I am here to win the general elections". Not a bad starting point. Madrid, unlocked for Ayuso in the blink of an eye.
Presentation before the King in the Zarzuela and urgent visit at the request of the Moncloa. Three hours of meeting for nothing. Sánchez never asks for help; he demands unconditional obeisance while he continues to govern by decree-law. Nervousness in the Government while PP and VOX have initiated a logical and legitimate alternative to govern in Castilla y León as the people demand with their absolute majority.
The radical left with this sectarian Executive has initiated a "cordon sanitaire" (now they call it a democratic cordon) to delegitimise what has been achieved at the ballot box. It is the same anti-democratic tactic of Iglesias (anti-fascist cordon against the Andalusian Parliament) on the day of the inauguration of Juanma Moreno, which put an end to 40 years of socialist corruption.
The head of Territorial Policy and spokesperson of the Government, Isabel Rodríguez, will not attend the inauguration of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco in Valladolid next Tuesday. It is the first time in the history of democracy that a member of the Council of Ministers does not attend the birth of an autonomous legislature after seeing how the coup plotters (Mas, Puigdemont, Torras and Aragonés) have scorned the representative of the Executive of the Nation, have not sworn the Constitution and have appealed to the Catalan people to continue destroying the unity of the Homeland. Another yes in Vitoria.
The socialist Autonomous Communities have started a Nazi campaign against the three councillors and the vice-president of Abascal in the Castilian and Leonese Community and have conspired not to sit down with them in any inter-community meeting. They have yet to be branded with a yellow star on their arm, like stinking Jews. These are the democrats?
The ultra-right is no longer valid. It's just "official fear" coming from Lenin, Stalin and Hitler. Red terror. This will be the whole working philosophy of the left in the next calls to the polls in order not to give up power.
It's a bit odd that it is Sánchez who went to bed with Podemos ("I couldn't sleep and neither could the Spaniards", remember?), and then incorporated the ERC-Colau coup plotters and the heirs of ETA (Otegui-Bildu) into the round bed of the governance of Spain.
Long live the communards of Mañueco who has revealed that the regional PSOE did not want to abstain in the investiture. The citizen Igea's personal attacks on the re-elected president are regrettable. The profile of the VOX councillors is unbeatable to lead Agriculture, Culture and Industry and Employment. The professional curriculum and human trajectory of Gerardo Dueñas, Gonzalo Santonja and Mariano Venganzones, respectively, is a guarantee that they will fulfil the coalition agreements and institutional loyalty. The experiment - if you will pardon the expression - will be transferred to Andalusia in June and is the only possible way to replace the most deceitful president in our history, Dr Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, one vote at a time.
The statesman Sánchez has just manipulated European statistics to ensure that in 2021 Spaniards will pay the same for electricity as they did before the pandemic, minus inflation. Totally untrue. I have checked my bills and the difference exceeds 500 euros. Gas is another matter. In four months of this year we will pay the same as in 2019. The economist president speaks, of course, for himself. He has paid the same naturally in Moncloa and in Doñana (1.5 million budget for improvements) and in the Quintos de Mora: zero euros. Free of charge. His lies are a slap in the face for the millions of families who cannot make ends meet.
Some data to visualise the extent of the coming recession. 9.8% inflation in the last year. It has wiped out 10,000 small businesses since January. Car sales are down 30%. We have the highest unemployment in the EU, and the highest structural deficit, a debt of 125% of GDP and an elephantine Executive with 24 ministries (including the Attorney General's Office) and 1,240 advisors. Sánchez and Yolanda-Belarra-Montero are Spain's largest employment agency, which also provides a clean meal for trade unions, employers' associations and political parties.
There is no sector in Spain that is not indignant with this greedy and wasteful government that has laughed at truck drivers, farmers, livestock farmers, the hunting world, seafarers, gas station owners, SMEs and electricity companies. The organisational chaos caused by the 20 cents per litre drop in fuel prices until June confirms that they are in charge - but not governing - thanks to Tezanos' CIS survey. It would have been so easy to lower VAT by that amount.
The European Central Bank will soon raise the price of money and will not buy unlimited sovereign debt. Mario Draghi was a mother. The PGE for this year was based on oil at 68 euros. Today it is almost double. And Calviño and his mariachi continue to assure us that there is no recession and that it is all the fault of Putin's war. And the extreme right, of course. They have fallen silent after the failure of Ana Hidalgo, Don Pedro's socialist point of reference in France, who did not even reach 2% in the presidential elections, and Mitterrand's Socialist Party of France - another pathological liar in politics - has dissolved to avoid paying the debts of the electoral campaign.
We will talk about school failure - the great legacy of the PSOE-Podemos coalition - another day. I anticipate the title of the next Bahía: 'Ciudadanos de cristal'. I mean, slaves without Philosophy, Language and History. Of course, the rule of three is abolished, but Mathematics will be adjusted to the gender perspective and the "socio-emotional sense". Ideology versus reason and the culture of effort. As our providential president would say, it's not a change or a turnaround, it's just another step forward. We are on the edge of the abyss and we took a step forward. Having overcome the pandemic, another year - and this is three in a row - uncertainty has left us without an Easter truce.
Antonio REGALADO runs BAHÍA DE ÍTACA at: aregaladoregaladorodriguez.blogspot.com