I suppose that every time Pablo Iglesias sees television playing that video in which, on the occasion of Felipe VI's first visit to the European Parliament, the then-MEP went out to meet him to gain prominence and offer him as a gift the DVDs of the series Game of Thrones, the least that might go through his head is that in politics, it's possible to be naive, but not silly. Iglesias explained that with that present he wanted to help the king have some understanding of politics in Spain. I don't know which of the series's eight seasons Felipe VI reached, nor with which of its seven kingdoms he identifies, but six years after that gesture in which Iglesias tried to overturn the clichés about the young left-winger who had emerged from the 15-M movement, the Podemos leader seems to be returning to the spirit of the so-called Indignados - "the Outraged". With his party forming part of the Spanish government under Pedro Sánchez, Iglesias has gone from placing in the spotlight first the father - king emeritus Juan Carlos I - and now his reigning son, whom he has reproached for not condemning fascist violence on the occasion of the Madrid election campaign.
Well, of course, Felipe VI is silent, because it seems that fascism does not divide Spanish families, nor is it a danger to democracy, nor is it an attack against fundamental liberties. Because Vox is a Spanish constitutionalist party, when in other places, like Germany, it simply would not have even been legalized. What type of Constitution does Spain have that it can accommodate a party like Vox and also persecute Catalan independence in every possible way? Not only judicially, but also politically and economically. Iglesias is experiencing in his own person something that was foreseen: for Spain's deep state, taking action against Catalan independence was a real-life test of how far it was willing to go. But it was by no means the last stop on the journey.
So-called Spanish constitutionalism, and in a very special way the Spanish right, have seized on concepts such as democracy and freedom and shut outside their perimeter those who do in fact defend democracy and freedom. What Pablo Iglesias is experiencing are the ravages of that action by political power to step out of the way in October 2017. At that time, Mariano Rajoy accepted that the Spanish prime minister should reign and not rule, and that Felipe VI should reign and rule. Not that he would make the laws, but something more important: that political power would be displaced by judicial power and the axis of cohabitation would shift from that joining the monarchy's Zarzuela Palace and the executive's Moncloa Palace, to the line running from the Zarzuela to the buildings located in Madrid's Calle del Marqués de la Ensenada - the seat of the General Council of the Judiciary - and the nearby Plaza de la Villa de París - location of the Supreme Court.
And that is how Spain is right now. With a head of state who finds protection in the far right and with a PSOE also entrenched in the regime of '78, and obsessed only with how the government can hold out for as long as possible.