The story in Madrid is that, whilst Mariano Rajoy spent the afternoon/evening before the motion of no-confidence in a restaurant near plaza de la Independencia, trying to forget for more than eight hours the disaster about to fall on top of him, former deputy prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría (SSS) once again did something that has been a more common occurrence in recent years: she betrayed her boss. She'd done it so often that, most likely, she forgot that on many things Rajoy can be made to cave in, but never if the suggestion is him resigning as prime minister. A simple "get out the way, I'll do it" which Rajoy, obviously, resisted. It's often of little interest in Catalonia what's happening in Madrid politics, but the best way to beat your opponents is always to know them, and the case of the former deputy prime minister, today deprived of her court of sycophants, Catalans too, is simply the story of a descent into hell when she thought she had everything so close.
The great fixer of fake news, which only existed in the media which she controlled directly or which she had delegated to the all-powerful María González Pico - basically, the Catalan media; one day we'll have to talk about Pico - is, along with Albert Rivera, the great loser of the no-confidence motion. And that despite SSS having everything very well organised: Rajoy was at the end of his career, which she had hastened, her dialogue with the companies of the Ibex 35 was magnificent, the party was in a profound state of lethargy and Rivera was showing his teeth. But, in the end, she was disappointed by Basques and Catalans. Precisely the two political spaces she has always scorned, which she has understood nothing about and with which she has aimed to have only a relationship of dominance.
SSS had assembled an army of the state's lawyers to do the government's politics for it. There was no political initiative which didn't fall apart during more than six years under a legion of small énarques, in imitation of Paris's École Nationale d'Administration. They were in charge and no politics was possible. In those years of a bitter conflict between Madrid and Barcelona, the only thing used to its full extent has been assembling the political bloc of article 155. Some day, possibly, Miquel Iceta, will explain some of the agreements reached in the Moncloa government palace or maybe also Barcelona, and which now have been suddenly interrupted. Iceta is smarter than SSS and, although he doesn't know anything about the law, he knows about politics. He's crossed the desert of PSC and now, although his wings are too heavy, he trusts he'll be able to start taking off; which means, in his case, nothing other than starting to steal votes from Ciudadanos.
Maybe for this reason, PSC has had a single piece of advice for Pedro Sánchez: get caught up as little as possible with PP and Cs in the question of Catalonia and speak as soon as possible with president Quim Torra. It will depend on this first meeting - with the prisoners and exiles on the table - whether the new Spanish government will be able gain height and reach, at least, next year's municipal and European elections.