Can Pedro Sánchez continue for much longer at the head of Spain's Socialist Party (PSOE)? This is, of course, a rhetorical question, as it was only a year ago that the party voted its support for him and, consequently, he has all the political and moral legitimacy to occupy the post. But it's quite another thing that, during this time, he has wasted the opportunity to present, aligned with Podemos, an alternative Spanish government to that of the Popular Party (PP) and Mariano Rajoy; that the options of the PSOE have collapsed electorally to the extent that the party at times even polls lowest of the four major Spanish parties - behind Ciudadanos (Cs), Podemos and the PP; that it has reduced to a minimum its influence on Spaniard public life; and, finally, that it has denatured the normal political discourse of a left-wing or centre-left party. Today the PSOE is a political body adrift, which limits himself to following the line taken by Cs and the PP, going beyond even the positionings of the 'three tenors' who used to mark the party's most conservative extreme - Bono, Chaves and Rodríguez Ibarra.
On Friday, Pedro Sánchez, in an effort to take back a little protagonism and obtain some easy applause, decided to be eccentric and jump on the political and media bandwagon which has rolled out in opposition to new Catalan president Quim Torra. A campaign that has not been short of obscene participants who have even used the disability of one of the president's daughters to attack him. Such is the level of the immorality and impunity that has been reached.
Politics is by its nature a permanent exaggeration. To say this is nothing new, just confirming what we know. Nevertheless, from this idea to Pedro Sanchez's declaration that Quim Torra "is nothing less than the Le Pen of Spanish politics" there is an abyss. The PSOE leader needs to be given a few classes in contemporary politics so that he can avoid making such idiotic statements to win a handful of votes. The limits of a political leader's demagogy cannot be the same as those of a bar counter. As former senior Basque politician Joseba Azkarraga commented on Friday, after taking the time to read the three most criticized of Torra's articles, it was his view that all Torra had done was present a strong criticism of those people who despise the language or identity of a people. And Azkarraga invited critics to please read the texts before tearing them apart.
But we are no longer at this level. Criticism has given way to insult and to comparisons with Le Pen, who has never supported the Catalan independence movement and who left his position very clear on 30th October 2017, shortly after the Catalan Parliament had passed the resolution on the independence of Catalonia. Le Pen sent the following message: "Spain: One, Great and Free!" - the classic slogan of Spanish nationalism under Franco. Of course, Pedro Sánchez is not lined up beside Le Pen. But neither is Quim Torra. And to play with this idea to discredit the new president of Catalonia, by making use of a text for which he has already apologised, is to deepen the lie. What a pity.