We have repeated it many times, too many, but the answer is always the same: silence. We have reproached the absence of dialogue on the part of the Popular Party so many times that it hardly matters that the political force that governs this country with an absolute majority has settled the debate on the amendments to the General State Budgets of 2015 without accepting a single one of the thousands of proposals put forward by the rest of the groups. It is such a common situation in this legislature that it is no longer surprising. The news would be the opposite, but it almost never happens.
The fact that the most aggressive crisis we have experienced during democracy has coincided with a government that enjoys a large absolute majority has meant that the concern that millions of people are experiencing due to the loss of their jobs or homes has been compounded by an unprecedented political crisis. The distrust of citizens towards those of us who are their public representatives was devastating in 2011, but the citizen outrage that is being experienced today, much more acute than just three years ago, has its origin in the emergence of new cases of corruption that have been forged after the crisis began and, furthermore, in the widespread perception that the Government is increasingly distant from citizens and that criticism in the streets is not taken into account by the cabinet presided over by Mariano Rajoy.
The health of democracy requires facing a political crisis that continues to grow. Rowing in the opposite direction and waiting for the storm to subside is a mistake so often made by the Government that citizens have said enough is enough. The response and discredit continue to grow in the polls. No one believes the Government's siren songs about the imminent economic recovery and it is distressing to see that 61 percent of citizens recognize that their president, Mariano Rajoy, does not inspire any confidence in them.
Despite the harshness of the data provided by the CIS surveys or the opinion studies published by the media, the Government continues as if it were living in a parallel reality. Nothing and no one moves from the photo either in the Executive or in Congress. Dissent is not allowed among those who have decided to take refuge in the Government's offices and in their seats so as not to have to justify their decisions. And the consequence is that the distance between those who made so many unfulfilled promises and the citizens continues to widen.
Democracy is experiencing a process of deterioration that needs to be stopped to prevent frustration from continuing to advance. And for this it is necessary that the Government shed the protective mask that prevents it from looking citizens in the face, that the parties change and that people once again perceive that politicians work for them, not for markets or for supranational entities whose objectives are totally opposed to those demanded by a country that is mired in a deep crisis.
This week we have experienced in Congress one of the most graphic episodes about the impotence and disappointment that the wall we always encounter when we try to dialogue with those who resist doing so causes to all groups. We all had the CIS survey data on our table. We had all read that half of those surveyed believe that their perception of the political situation is "very bad" and that 31 percent believe that it is "bad". We had all taken another hit, but the script was the same again in Congress.
Whether we are on the edge of two eras, as Podemos political scientist Iñigo Errejón explains, will be decided by citizens at the polls in just a few months. However, it is not necessary to wait for elections to be held to understand that reality has begun to change. The route that all political forces, whether or not they are called traditional, must follow is clear. Those who travel along it will have an opportunity to reconcile with the citizenry, while those who insist on continuing along the same path as if nothing had happened are doomed to failure.
Reality is very stubborn and, although some try to disguise it with grandiose economic announcements, it ends up sneaking into our lives with scenes that remind us that we are still living in a deeply sick country. Reforms that never finish materializing are no longer enough. Measures must be taken that are exemplary and credible. We have to be able to create something better and build with part of the pillars we have inherited a more committed society, with a more transparent Government and more open to citizen participation.
Everything is under review. And immobility in politics is punished today with the flight of voters who desperately seek to regain confidence in the system and take refuge in forces that, although they offer impossible promises, restore their illusion and hope after a very long economic and political crisis. And those who do not want to see or feel that reality do not deserve to continue at the head of a Government that does not share the same concerns as the citizens it represents.
Ana Oramas, Deputy of the Canarian Coalition
