Could Unidas Podemos be left without representation in the Assembly of the Community of Madrid, if they obtain less than 5% of the votes in the elections on May 4? Pablo Iglesias himself has just revealed the mystery by announcing his candidacy in a risky move that has once again unnerved the opposite pole of the political spectrum. The move is well played, but, with all due respect, I believe that it actually obeys the need that Unidas Podemos has to try to survive.
In perfect communion with the extreme right, the former community manager of the popular former leader's mascot has been creating a breeding ground conducive to her interests, cooked with the ingredients of lies, hatred, tension and confrontation. Without any restraint, a procés has been set up in the Madrid style, a kind of constant agitation in the heart of the country fueled by the discrediting of state institutions and the democratic system. It is the new face of Spanish ultranationalism.
The icing on the cake is no less delirious. The Madrid PP has called elections and has surrendered to the extreme right, while Cs resists as it can the hostile takeover bid launched by the Popular Party and the ultra-right. As expected, the Madrid PP has completed its process of voluntary isolation and self-exclusion, so it would only add up with the extreme right if it aspires to govern in Madrid. From such a turnaround without return, it can only be expected that the PP will end up being devoured by the genuine heirs of Francoism and post-fascism 2.0.
This is the scenario that they have imposed on us progressives and, however adverse it may be, it is the context in which we are going to operate to send the Madrid Trumpian and the rest of her retinue to the opposition. To successfully face the challenge, the PSOE does not propose a triple somersault without a net, but the reliable recipe that Ángel Gabilondo means, a politician of proven stature who, together with a solvent team, formulates the return of politics to expel the troublemakers of coexistence from the government of Madrid.
Ángel Gabilondo won the elections two years ago and will win them again now. It will be done by the same person, the graduate in Philosophy and Arts, professor of Metaphysics and rector of the Autonomous University of Madrid. It will be done by the former Minister of Education of the Rodríguez Zapatero Government, the passionate writer and reader of Kant, Plato and Hegel. Faced with the current barbarism, Ángel Gabilondo brings serenity, experience, reflection, tranquility, dialogue and intellectual, political and human stature.
Yes, Ángel Gabilondo is the antidote to win again in Madrid and with the same weapons as then: the well and the background of a professor who loves public commitment. Gabilondo is a real candidate against the content-free marketing of the ultra-right and the extreme right. He is a mature, balanced, responsible candidate who seeks consensus. The battle of Madrid is fought in spring with a great mobilization and three arguments: the word, the politics and the reason to fill the ballot boxes with the deep democratic convictions that the sensible and transformative left carries.
Fco. Manuel Fajardo Palarea, PSOE senator for Lanzarote and La Graciosa.