Story of Comrade C.

The PSOE's number two is in prison. His arrival in Soto del Real prison puts him on a par with Luis Bárcenas in the eyes of the general public. So far, no spreadsheet has appeared with the inscription "P. Sánchez ," but there are already more people in Madrid demanding the Prime Minister's resignation than in 2013 when The inscription "Mr. Rajoy" appeared in Bárcenas's papers. We still don't know who that man was.

Pedro Sánchez is on the ropes, and the only thing that can save him is if the ongoing investigation finds no evidence of illegal financing of the PSOE. Cerdán has been dug in to try to clarify this point.

Cerdán's imprisonment increases the seriousness of the moment: there will be more rigor for everyone

In 1993, in the midst of the Mani Pulite trial against political corruption in Italy, an official from the Communist Party's economic secretariat was arrested on charges of taking a commission from a public company. Primo Greganti 's arrest caused a stir. If the PCI, the party that had placed the "moral question" at the center of political debate, was also implicated in the collection of illegal commissions, it meant the entire system was tainted. Greganti, whom the press began to call "comrade G ," was put in a state of isolation for six months and didn't move a muscle. "That money was for me," was all he told the judges. In Spain, we will now witness the story of Comrade C. We shall see how it turns out.

(The PCI escaped Mani Pulite, renamed itself the Democratic Party of the Left, but narrowly lost the 1994 legislative elections, as television entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi managed to inherit the Christian Democrat vote. The middle classes were unwilling to give power to the left. The richest man in the country, with dozens of lawsuits under his belt, thus became the winner of the major anti-corruption trial.)

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Sánchez has everything against him today. Everything except the economy. Everything except an opposition party capable of organizing and winning a vote of no confidence, for now. His former deputy was imprisoned four days after colliding with the president of the United States at the NATO General Assembly. Donald Trump will strike, let's have no doubt about it. Sánchez has the entire Madrid DF establishment against him, now fully mobilized. A strike by judges and prosecutors. The spokesperson for the episcopate suggesting the King force elections. The CEOE erupting. Felipe González calling on Socialist militants to abstain in future elections if Sánchez runs again. Relevant journalistic pronouncements from the progressive camp calling for his resignation. Yesterday, the writer Javier Cercas wrote in the newspaper El País . The dotted line is impressive. Follow that dotted line. You'll see it's thought-provoking.

The imprisonment of comrade C. changes the light on the stage. The spotlight is now much harsher, and the Kitchen trial will take on even greater seriousness in a few months. It will be determined there whether the People's Party (PP) used the police to cover up its shame. If the two cases overlap, we will witness an acute credibility crisis for both main parties, with the exclusive benefit of the far right.

There are ten months left. Spanish politics today is a hectic race against time and in search of time.