Shame in one's own eye

Those who wake up early know that Mondays are a good day to gauge the week's media energy. And this week, it reeks of mud and fratricidal stridency intended to mobilize citizens ahead of Sunday's demonstration under the slogan "Mafia or democracy." The opinion-mongering platforms, halfway between homily and war report, kick off the week with the news, which isn't even a news story yet, that the Constitutional Court will approve the Amnesty Law.

You don't need Enric Juliana's analytical instinct to understand that this prediction is worrying. On EsRadio, Federico Jiménez Losantos renames the president of the court, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, as Cándido Golpe Pumpido. Losantos emphasizes that the issue of embezzlement remains pending, and, speaking with an expert, they conclude that if the law is passed, it will be difficult for President Carles Puigdemont to be prevented from returning. Losantos wonders if Puigdemont will return on July 18th, which, he recalls, is Saint Frederick's Day.

Mafia and democracy are perfectly compatible concepts

On Cope, Carlos Herrera also embraces the editorialism of nicknames and calls the Amnesty Law a "law of judicial impunity." He asserts that the court will act "doggedly" and approve the text that, according to him, is dictated by the diabolical tentacles of President Pedro Sánchez. On Onda Cero, Carlos Alsina attempts to paint a snapshot of the current political context and calls the Amnesty Law a "founding myth of this legislature."

The ferocity of the editorials invites one to wonder whether the biggest problem facing this country—whatever it may be—is, at this point, the passage of a law that, to date, has not been applied with the rigor it is supposed to be. In the end, like the APLAUSE signal that indoctrinates the public on television sets, the slogan of the demonstration called by Alberto Núñez Feijoo shines with a sinister light: "Mafia or democracy."

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Unfortunately, these are not incompatible concepts, and it should be clear that the dilemma is rhetorical and that, given the choice, Feijoo is a supporter of democracy. The history of convictions against PP politicians might confuse us (just as it would confuse us to believe that corruption is the exclusive preserve of the PP), but it places Feijoo's annoyances in the realm of embarrassment and electoral desperation. We can give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is indeed concerned that other leaders act with a moral rigor similar to that which defined the actions of, for example, Luís Bárcenas, Francisco Correa, or Rodrigo Rato. To situate ourselves in the hierarchy of values ​​in this area, it's worth looking at what happens in modern narco-states and remembering the principles of Al Capone, the foremost authority on Mafia science: "You can achieve much more with fine words and a revolver than with fine words alone."