Shaved bulls in Congress

Yesterday, as planned, Sánchez collected vouchers exchangeable for oxygen in Congress. The outcome was written, and all the actors, both main and supporting, perfectly delivered the lines assigned by the scriptwriter with enviable professionalism. The only unknown factor facing the plenary session lay in the acting quality of the protagonists, not in what they would say. And all of them brought their roles to life with dramatic skill, although not to the point of making the unbelievable believable.

The Moncloa apparatus was right to inflate expectations for the day. Presenting it in the run-up as a life-or-death test for Pedro Sánchez: Will he leave the chamber alive or in a coffin? The intention was to amplify the challenge the president was facing so that we would be amazed by the outcome: What a great leader! What resilience! What a great performance he performed! As if it weren't already known that all the bulls that were going to enter the ring on this occasion, with the exception of the two from the opposition ranch, would sport apparent but razor-shaven horns, reducing the risk to Sánchez's life to practically zero.

The partners extended Sánchez a time check, the most sought-after treasure in politics.

The president arrived limping after shooting himself in the foot. The message of PSOE renewal that was supposed to be launched at last weekend's federal committee, the first stop on the path to Sánchez's redemption, came to nothing. The Socialists themselves (some) boycotted the meeting by summarily executing Paco Salazar, Pedro Sánchez's close collaborator in the Moncloa Palace, who was supposed to join the federal committee as deputy secretary of organization, for harassing women. The knives that hurt are sometimes so close! The disappointment couldn't be repeated.

Yesterday's events, however, were restorative for the PSOE leader. It wasn't enough to heal him, nor to guarantee him a long stay in the presidency. But the bottom line is that things turned out as well as they could. The investiture partners, each in their role, responding to their own circumstances and the profile of their electorate, did what was expected of them. They applied a temporary bandage to the wounds, but not before sprinkling them with a little agreed-upon salt. The only thing missing was the proverbial phrase mothers use when they pour alcohol on their children's knees: "What stings, cures, President!"

From Yolanda Díaz's cheerleading role to the stern tone of the PNV, everything led to the same outcome. Two PSOE organizational secretaries, pressured by the courts, aren't enough to withdraw their confidence in Pedro Sánchez. Nor is it enough that the corruption scheme under investigation has already reached the executive branch through Adif or the Directorate General of Highways. Beyond the floral flourishes each party used in their speeches, what justifies such understanding is that the PP is waiting at the door.

And the PSOE's partners, for the moment, are more uncomfortable with a government led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo than the accusations of complicity in corruption they might receive for remaining loyal to the PSOE. This loyalty, as a matter of simple precaution, must be accompanied by the refrain about the scant trust they already have in Pedro Sánchez. The warnings, proclamations, and rants from the investiture partners heard yesterday in Congress were nothing more than a necessary theatrical performance prior to the extension of the time check with which Sánchez left the chamber. Time, the most sought-after treasure in politics.

What happened yesterday does not mask the weakness of the government, which remains under maximum pressure, on the defensive, and waiting for events beyond its control. A new substantial attack from the courts, having already exhausted the wild cards of party renewal and the legislative promises to fight corruption that Sánchez outlined yesterday, would definitively put things on the brink of collapse.

It was hard to believe the president when he said he had considered resigning. Again, the same trick as when he stepped back for five days to reflect on his continued leadership, when the first reports linked to his wife emerged. At this point, the repeated strategy of the cornered man who draws strength from weakness to, in a heroic act, save us all and the entire world, is becoming tiresome. Sánchez, human like everyone else despite so much, wants and thinks about saving himself. And in that, we must recognize his great capacity for combat, even when he is tremendously wounded and the prognosis remains pessimistic.