In this deplorable spectacle by the president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, which in little more than 72 hours has become an authentic tsunami, with the protagonist clinging to his position despite the fact that at present he has no life preserver, all that was missing was for the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, to chime in, doing what he does best: putting his foot in it, and amplifying the image that in Spain there are still large sectors in which structural sexism runs through the very veins.
"Now it's our women, who are learning to play football as well as the men do", was the comment from the author of such famous phrases as the one uttered in the middle of the debate on Catalan independence, in December 2017, when he commented without any shame: "Catalonia must be disinfected". Back then, he compared the independence process that had started in Catalonia to a wounded patient in hospital: "Before the wounds are sewn up and closed, they must be disinfected." Borrell would be appointed as foreign minister by Pedro Sánchez when he came to power as Spanish PM as a result of the successful motion of no-confidence in Mariano Rajoy, in which the Catalan pro-independence parties participated. The surprises that politics brings: Borrell was elected indirectly, thanks to the votes of those whom he has never stopped insulting and making fun of.
The European edition of the current affairs weekly Politico, the most influential in Brussels and required reading in chancelleries and among high officials of the EU institutions, explained the controversy that had been generated by his statements and wondered if, rather than the EU's diplomatic head, he was instead - given his attitude and behaviour - the undiplomatic head. A play on words to explain that he lacks the stature for the political post he holds and that at his 76 years of age he does not miss an opportunity to make a fool of himself.
Beyond the fact that every time Borrell speaks, his diplomacy features the kind of comments you expect to hear in a bar, someone should consider whether perhaps the time has come for this threadbare politician to be sent home for good. Not because of his age, when politics is starting to be the only profession in which the retirement age is getting later and later, but to give Europe a voice that makes itself heard for its ideas and strategy in the major problems facing the planet. "All they did was kill a few Indians," he said in 2018 about the extermination of indigenous people in the US, and there we still have him.