Sanchismo clashes with reality

The Prime Minister's political and personal weakness leads him to make major mistakes.

The government no longer governs; it only makes announcements. Some are inconsequential, others highly relevant, but most remain unexecuted. For Sánchez's only concern is scoring points, breaking out of his shell, crossing red lines. Others—he has no shortage of aides—will come along behind him to pick up the broken pieces and try to put them back together. Sánchezism has never been about managing public affairs; it's a vengeful movement —against the old socialism, against the spirit of consensus, against the middle class—that also seeks to make any option for alternation in power impossible. But in this final phase, announcements are coming at a frenetic, almost frantic pace, in order to occupy the entire public debate. This is the formula Sánchez devised at La Mareta this summer to pretend he's in charge and not a puppet in the hands of the separatists.

Hence, he fired the starting gun for the drafting of the 2026 Budget and, moments later, warned that if the majority in Congress rejects it, which is the most likely scenario these days, he will once again extend the 2023 Budget. It would be the third time. Another notch in his revolver. Hence, he attacked the judges at the doors of the solemn opening of the judicial year and forced the presence of the Attorney General of the State alongside the King—an image that should never have occurred—to provoke a protest that he could later use as a victim's shield when, as finally happened yesterday, the Supreme Court ordered the opening of oral proceedings against García Ortiz , another faithful follower. Hence , he rushed through the new pressure measures against Israel, without having ready the royal decree necessary to implement a trade and arms embargo that the Council of Ministers could not approve. But he managed to shape the narrative with his blunt statements, in which he described the Israeli army's excessive actions in Gaza as "genocide" and "extermination" for a few hours.

Until Hamas's congratulations to Sánchez, first, and then the savage attack in Jerusalem, in which a citizen of our country, born in Melilla and a student at a Talmudic school, was murdered. Sánchez's determination to establish his own profile with the Gaza conflict has once again backfired, revealing that his personal and political weakness has led him to make major mistakes. He has even been accused by Tel Aviv of presiding over an "anti-Semitic government." This clash with Israel, after having yielded to pressure from his more radical partners, not only further highlights his isolation on the international stage due to his connections with anti-democratic regimes, but also undermines the mediating role in the Middle East that Spain had been able to play for decades. The delicate balances that underpin international relations sit uneasily with the gimmicky slogan politics so beloved by Sánchez's administration.

Another reality check for the Executive is the rejection today in the Congress of Deputies of the decree cutting the working week to 37.5 hours. This is the flagship social measure of the PSOE and Sumar pact for this term, clearly outside of the concessions to separatism. After months of Yolanda Díaz proclaiming that no political group would dare reject this "historic achievement for the workers of our country," it will be Junts, the party led by the fugitive Puigdemont from Waterloo and which has been humiliatingly setting the pace for him over the last two years, that will inflict the most painful parliamentary defeat on a government victim of its own fallacies.