Tanks, pensions, tariffs... NATO!

It turns out it's true: Sánchez the cat also has seven lives. A week ago, he was a political corpse whose funeral was being celebrated by Alberto Núñez Feijoo. Many newspapers carried his coffin through the countryside of Spain, just as Juana la Loca did with her husband's. The funeral procession made a stop in The Hague, and, indeed, Sánchez was dead. His soul was there, but not his body. Trump, who didn't get to see him, can confirm this. And the NATO bosses, who didn't just not look at him when he walked past everyone to have his photo taken; they just didn't see him. A ghost. Ghosts don't usually let themselves be seen.

A week later, a whisper was heard at the wake: "Oh, it seems to be moving." The whisper became a clamor, and the clamor invaded the national stage: "It's moving, it's moving, it looks bad, but it's moving." The requiems fell silent, and the glorification of the resurrected Christ began: we are witnessing the new miracle worker of politics. With him, Spain will remain under the NATO umbrella without paying what everyone else pays. With 2.1%, he achieves the same as everyone else with 5%. Here's a pacifist who doesn't want to spend pension money on tanks. What am I saying? He's the hero who stands up to Trump, the most powerful, righteous, and vengeful man in the world! And all this without a budget, without a sad consultation with Parliament, and in a situation of extreme weakness. Prodigious.

The public may be applauding the president today, but it is not clear why.

For lack of debate, for claiming credit, or because with Sánchez, it's never clear what his project or truth is, public opinion may applaud the president today, but it's not clear why. The Hague agreement leaves more questions than answers, and some are very disturbing: will Spanish exporters, according to Trump's blackmail, pay ruinous tariffs? When the 2029 review comes, will Spain suddenly have to pay what it denied now? In the face of external aggression, would NATO defend both small and large contributors equally? Did Pedro Sánchez make these bold moves out of conviction or to maintain the support of parties in the "progressive coalition"? And, since it's clear that in the end all NATO members will have to pay, and they amount to many billions, will the welfare state enter into crisis not only in Spain, but throughout the Western world? The provisional conclusion, beyond the games of cunning, is this: politics is so rotten that no initiative is understood in terms of the general interest, but rather in terms of petty party interests.

Declaring defense policy and NATO membership without the slightest debate when Europe is threatened by Putin is unbecoming of a parliamentary democracy. Subjecting the nation to the stress of Trump's threats and his "we'll make Spain pay double" to maintain the governing coalition, even if it drowns in a cesspool of corruption, is a selfishness we thought was banished. But that selfishness not only remains, but has grown like some dwarfs; it is the fruit of polarization and will create more polarization. So, well-being, partisanship, and authoritarian temptation are three key words to describe the current crisis.

SCRAPS

Exit . Not even Tezanos would accept this as a scientific measure of public opinion. But the confusion must be enormous, not to say colossal, when the question we journalists are most often asked is "How do we get out of this?" A prize should be awarded to whoever can answer it. I haven't seen one.

Solana . I think a lot about the great Javier Solana. As government spokesman, he was dissembling, but no one could accuse him of obscurantism. As NATO Secretary General, how envious! There were wars, but none threatened us. Trump wasn't there to blackmail us. And Sánchez… Sánchez didn't depend on those he depends on today.

Timely . I don't know what the independence movement thinks about the political crisis. Rufián seems encouraged: "Let's make the most of the time we have left." Others are alarmed: some argue that Feijoo in the Moncloa would be the elephant in the china shop for them. And Abascal? I don't even want to tell you.

Mask . Koldo and Ábalos don't recognize their voices in the recordings. This is logical and normal for two reasons: one, because of what they say about the girls, that they can't hold their own in public; another, because artificial intelligence makes it easy for them to defend themselves. I hope the UCO has methods to certify the origin of these sounds. Otherwise, the voice could be the new mask. And if there's no indisputable method of verification, poor justice! A difficult fight against corruption!