Political short-sightedness reigns at the inaugural session of the Spanish parliament

The Spanish parliamentary session officially started yesterday with military pomp on the streets and political short-sightedness in the chamber. Nothing new there, then. The triumphant arrival of the Royal Family accompanied by President Rajoy, surrounded by various members of the armed forces and the Civil Guard, was an old-fashioned statement. And in Congress, despite the PSOE’s traumatic gesture allowing Mariano Rajoy’s investiture to take place, the goings on of the various parties foreshadow a short-lived, tumultuous legislature, together with a widespread blindness with respect to Catalonia. The soundtrack appears all too similar to that which accompanied the previous term. Yesterday, the King opened parliament with a speech, interspersed with calls for dialogue and respect for the law, in which he unquestioningly endorsed Rajoy’s stubborn doctrine in defence of the unity of Spain in answer to the democratic will of the Catalan people to decide their future in a referendum. That same evening, in an event organised by the Ministry of Public Works in Catalonia, King Felipe avoided the subject altogether and focused on the need for economic cooperation.

The Spanish political climate is clearly a long way off of initiating a second Transition that will allow for real change, not only with regard to Catalonia, but in relation to Spain as a whole. In fact, in the run-up to the opening of parliament, despite the PP’s lack of a majority in parliament , the government has shown it is unwilling to make the slightest gesture of self-criticism or a call for detente in order to restore the credibility of the institutions: the PP’s answer to the opposition’s veto of their attempt to have the tainted former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz named chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, is to have him head the Petitions Committee instead.

The reality is that Rajoy, aside from strengthening his position, is well aware that he can threaten the PSOE with fresh elections, if they fail to approve the budget. In turn, a much debilitated and divided PSOE is in no position to lead the opposition, let alone head a change in Spain’s political culture and unitary vision. Just yesterday the Spanish Socialists, still governed by a provisional leadership committee, imposed a cautionary penalty on the PSC by preventing it from participating the PSOE’s governing bodies in Congress until a new protocol on the relationship between the two groups has been negotiated. This means that the PSC has even less of a chance of showing Catalan society its ability to influence the PSOE when it comes to changing a Spain which does not wish to change.