Madrid is boiling, PSOE is on the defensive, Feijóo doesn't dare to censure

Everything happens at the end of May. On May 28, 1980, forty-five years ago, Felipe González defended his famous motion of censure against Adolfo Suárez in the Congress of Deputies. The first. It was the first time that a mechanism included in the 1978 Constitution, similar to the Bonn Basic Law (1949), was activated. A constructive motion. Never again the Weimar Republic. Political conflict must always be resolved in Parliament. If a government is censured, an alternative must be presented. The young González presented his alternative while the drums of a coup were beating. He didn't have the numbers, but he was convinced he would achieve a political victory in the medium term. He obtained it.

It all happened at the end of May. On May 31, 2018, Pedro Sánchez took to the podium in Congress to defend a motion of no confidence against Mariano Rajoy , immediately after the first conviction in the Gürtel case. He won. The only successful motion of no confidence in Spain to date. The Unidas Podemos coalition had paved the way for him with a previous motion, in June 2017. Today marks seven years since Rajoy's fall.

Great political and media excitement in Madrid, with significant business tensions

Spanish politics changed course with the decisive vote of Catalan and Basque deputies. Peripheral forces were once again decisive, with Podemos pushing the PSOE forward and with the 2017 events in Catalonia still pending a verdict. Carles Puigdemont didn't want to take that step; he wanted to keep the Waterloo flame burning brightly, but Marta Pascal and Pablo Iglesias made him see that the PNV had already made up its mind.

Five years later, on May 28, 2023, that new course was altered. Everything happened at the end of May. The left suffered a severe defeat in the municipal and regional elections. The PSOE slightly improved its results, but Unidas Podemos collapsed as a result of internal dissension. Yolanda Díaz had presented the Sumar platform to the public without a prior agreement with Podemos, making the local elections a test of strength. In a gesture of refinement and tactical calculation, lest we wear ourselves out prematurely, Sumar did not participate in the local elections. The test was for UP before a very confused and demobilized electorate. This nonsense broke the left-wing majority in the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, Aragon, La Rioja, and Extremadura. The left was left with practically no territories and very few mayoralties in the major capitals. He retained Asturias, and the change in Catalonia had not yet occurred, although the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) won the mayoralty of Barcelona in the nick of time. Without territorial control and with the growing hostility of Madrid (the networks and nodes of power that converge and overlap in the Spanish capital, encamped around the state), it is very difficult to govern Spain. Sánchez, who had run a terrible election campaign, saw the embers coming and brought forward the general elections to July, with the results known to all. There was no blue summer.

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On May 28, 2023, Carlos Mazón had already agreed to a pact with Vox in the Valencian Community. Mazón is a very instinctive figure. More instinctive than reflective. This is possibly the key to his current misfortune. He sensed victory and wanted to have a pact with Vox ready, regardless of what his party's leadership might think. He didn't inform Alberto Núñez Feijóo and presented him with a fait accompli. The pact with the far right in Valencia weakened Feijóo's authority ahead of those early elections he hadn't counted on. There was no blue summer. The left collapsed in Valencia, and Valencia is now a serious problem for the PP and a great opportunity for Vox.

It all happens at the end of May. On May 29, 2025, four days ago, in the heat of an August, Feijóo announced the call for a new Madrid demonstration against the government with the slogan: "Either mafia or democracy." It's the PP's response to the news about the alleged work of an unknown PSOE activist, Leire Díez , in the basements of Madrid looking for dirt on the central operational unit of the Civil Guard, a judicial police unit credited with preparing a report on the PSOE's organizational secretary, Santos Cerdán . A report that all of Madrid is talking about, but which sources at the UCO deny. They are not preparing a specific report on Cerdán. The Koldo-Ábalos case is still being investigated, they say. Leire Díez was recorded. Every time a socialist goes down to the basements, things end badly for the PSOE.

Feijóo doesn't want to lose a vote of no confidence a month before the PP congress, with Ayuso lurking.

Mafia. The Galician People's Party (PP) knows what that meant in their homeland in the 1980s and 1990s. It's a word that should be accompanied by a vote of no confidence. Feijóo doesn't dare present one, however. He would only do so if victory was guaranteed. González didn't have the numbers either, and he presented it. And he won on moral and political grounds. Unidas Podemos also didn't have the numbers, and presented it in 2017, and two years later managed to force the first coalition government of democracy.

Feijóo doesn't want to apply the philosophy of the Bonn Basic Law now—political conflicts are ultimately resolved in Parliament—because he fears the word defeat a month before the PP congress. He prefers to take to the streets, to try to take votes away from Vox, to rein in Isabel Díaz Ayuso , and improve his rating among right-wing voters. His low rating among the Spanish conservative electorate is one of his weak points. He doesn't motivate them. He doesn't excite them. That's why these days Feijóo speaks like Ayuso. They're preparing the congress. That's the priority of the Galician core, which is the one that decides today.

Media adjustments, the electricity sector on a war footing after the blackout, changes in the military industry...

To fully understand the current Madrid crisis, a few brief additional notes are necessary. Media tensions. Spain's main media group (Prisa) is readjusting its structures in the face of great expectations. And private television stations aren't happy about TVE's surge in ratings. The blackout. The power outage is key. It introduced uncertainty among the population and weakened one of the current government's greatest assets: its commitment to renewable energy. A fierce battle is underway between the electricity companies, primarily Iberdrola, and Red Eléctrica, over the diagnosis of what happened. Millions of euros in compensation may be at stake. A parallel battle is underway over whether or not nuclear energy will continue. A silent and tense reorganization of the defense industry is taking place, with the epicenter being the company Indra. Spain is currently the fastest-growing country in the European Union. "GDP can't be eaten," warns Feijóo, but a rising GDP creates dynamism and accelerates ambitions. That's the tone of the watercolor. Madrid DF is boiling.

May 9, 2005. The first bullfight of the San Isidro fair in Las Ventas. Alejandro Talavante is about to go in for the kill. "He thinks it's Pedro Sánchez!" a voice exclaims. The bullring erupts in laughter, and Talavante is carried out on the shoulders of the crowd.