Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Thoughts from Galicia, Spain: 23.5.18

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable. 
- Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain

If you've arrived here because of an interest in Galicia or Pontevedra, see my web pagehere.

Spain
  • If you want to know where the left-of-centre PSOE party now is, after the creation and growth of the opportunistic 'centrist' party, Ciudadanos, read the article posted below.
  • Yet another set back for Madrid in its quest to imprison Sr Puigdemont. Prosecutors had re-applied for his detention after receiving "new information" from Madrid suggesting there was a greater risk that he may try to flee Germany. But on Tuesday the German court again rejected the request to put him behind bars pending a decision on his extradition to Spain. More on this here.
Life in Spain
  • The Spanish government has rowed back from its decision to penalise those students who don't achieve 55% in the annual, nation-wide university entrance exam – the selectividad. Now, they'll once again just have to get the 50% pass mark, entitling them to grants and maintenance payments. More on this here,
The USA
  • There've been 16 school shootings so far this year. An apt cartoon:-

  • Is it any wonder that - under a cretin who bullies the rest of the world but can't/won't address this problem - the moral authority of the US lies in shreds?
  • BTW . . . If you, like me, have ever wondered if there are any limits at all on speech in the USA, this Wiki article could be of interest.
The UK
  • That Sabadell/TSB crisis of a month ago? Still not resolved, reports Don Quijones here. In the latest development, says DQ, crisis-stricken TSB is refunding customers who targeted by fraudsters as a result of its recent IT failings. As for the consequences for TSB's Spanish parent. . . It was, says DQ, Sabadell’s reckless determination to rush through an exceedingly ambitious, complex, and risky data migration without taking the most basic of precautions, all in the name of saving costs, that has done the most harm. The ongoing banking meltdown at TSB has done incalculable, probably irreversible damage to the UK lender’s image and reputation. Now it risks losing a large part of its customer base. Given that TSB represents roughly a quarter of Banco Sabadell’s total assets, the impact on the Spanish bank’s own financial health could be considerable.
  • President Fart is due to visit the UK in July. To say the least, this will be a troubled event. Fart has now said he wants to add a day for a round of golf with a British professional player. Cue much scrabbling around for someone to agree to this ignominy.
  • More seriously, below is an article which asks whether we wouldn't be better off ignoring all the provocative statements Fart makes. A very good question. Tasters . . . Mocking Trump plays straight into his hands and The problem is that Trump is perfectly capable of living down to the expectations of his enemies
Galicia/Pontevedra
  • Under a law which obligates this every 5 years, I had my gas meter, boiler and pipes inspected last evening. Both because of cynicism and because the guy told me that 5 houses in the street had just had their supply cut off because of leaks, I was expecting bad news. But my cynicism and pessimism proved unfounded. Which was nice.
  • I spent a pleasant couple of hours with 4 young Irishmen last night, all of them lawyers and all on the camino. After dinner, I took them to the barrio of bars, telling that there were dozens of these and that they'd all be open by midnight. At 11.45, we could find only one open, so I left them there and went home. I guess it's not summer yet. And it wasn't Thursday, Friday or Saturday.
Duff Cooper
  • Being a lover of the chase, DC naturally had to move on from each of his conquests. Here he is on one of his exes, whom he meets for dinner after lunch with this current amour: I drove down to Verrières to fetch Loulou for lunch. We were very glad to see each other again and she was very sweet. We lunched at the Escargot – very happily. I dined alone with Dollie Bruntisfield – a very faded beauty with whom I had a big affair twenty-five years ago.
  • Sometimes his affairs border on the surreal. After attending some event with both his wife and the above Loulou, he pays too much attention to a third woman, causing Loulou to flee the scene in distress. DC then reports that: Loulou has written a very remarkable and beautiful piece dealing with the history of her heart and concluding with a description of that unhappy evening. She has dedicated it to Diana[DC's wife], to whom she said that that evening had broken her heart and killed her love for me. They spent this morning together and Diana told her that she must go on loving me – to which she replied that she couldn’t help doing so, much as it distressed her. She and I then lunched together at the Méditerranée and were very happy.
  • As for de Gaulle, he was clearly a far more difficult man than I'd ever thought. With the capacity for shocking nastiness. Here's DC on a victory parade in Paris: There were over 50,000 men on parade, and a tremendous display of motor vehicles of all sorts and aeroplanes. But one couldn’t help thinking how all these and most of the equipment was of Anglo-American origin. Not a single English or American flag was shown. There was no evidence of an ounce of gratitude and one felt throughout that France was boasting very loud, having very little to boast about. But, in fact, a British ambulance had flown small US and British flags and, for this, de Gaulle ordered that the ambulance service which had served for 4 years on all fronts and looked after 20,000 French servicemen should be immediately disbanded. Adds DC: The folly and pettiness of de Gaulle passes belief
  • But it wasn't only Churchill and DC who had immense problems with him; DC's opposite number, the French Ambassador to the UK, despaired of his moods and decisions inspired by arrogance, spite or perceived slights. Asked to rationalise some bizarre episode or other, the latter replies that de Gaulle is effectively 2 people – un homme d'esprit and un homme d'humeur. With the latter being responsible for his follies. I assume it's the former that Alfie Mittington so admires. But, then, he didn't have to deal with the bastard.
Finally . . .
  • I might not have received any response from booking.com on the reservation problem I raised with them but, armed with info about my whereabouts – presumably from Google searches re hotels – they've taken to bombarding me with recommendations. Having last night unsubscribed to this unsolicited and unwelcome service, I hope this has come to an end.
© David Colin Davies, Pontevedra: 23.5.18

ARTICLES

1. Spanish Socialist’s survival strategy: Pedro Sánchez tells Politico why his party faces common threats, in Catalonia and from Ciudadanos.

After an internal power struggle steered his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) to the left and kept it largely on the sidelines in the Catalan crisis, he has latched onto the independence struggle as the single most important issue that has faced Spain in 40 years of democracy — which he cannot avoid if he is to stand a chance of becoming prime minister.

Sánchez is trying to regain the initiative on an issue he believes will absorb Spain’s leadership for years to come — a view shared by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party (PP) and Albert Rivera’s liberal Ciudadanos. These parties, which lead most polls, oppose self-determination for Catalonia but disagree on how to resolve the conflict.

“We’re facing a crisis that isn’t going to be solved tomorrow or the following day,” Sánchez told POLITICO in an interview. “It’s going to transcend the actions of one single government, because we’re talking about years.”

That means, of course, whoever succeeds 63-year-old Rajoy after the next general election due by 2020. Sánchez, an energetic, photogenic 46-year-old, has been hypercritical of Rajoy in the past but now has a chance to burnish his credentials as a guarantor of Spanish unity, who can be at least as tough as the conservatives on the separatists while doing a better job at offering solutions.

The Madrid-born Socialist leader is offering constitutional reform that would give Catalonia increased autonomy, but not independence. “The secessionists are going to meet the wall of Spain’s rule of law if they go back to the unilateral path (to independence),” he said.

The appointment last week of hard-line independence activist Quim Torra as Catalan regional president makes it even less likely that the crisis is going to cool off in the short term. At the same time, supporters of Spanish unity have discovered a propaganda goldmine in Torra’s anti-Spanish writings and tweets.

Speaking at his office at the Madrid headquarters of the nearly 140-year-old PSOE, Sánchez repeatedly referred to the new Catalan leader as “xenophobic,” “fascist” and “supremacist” — the same terms used for Torra by the PP and Ciudadanos. On Twitter, he labeled Torra the “Le Pen of Spanish politics.”

‘The Sánchez effect’

The Socialists are currently the second-biggest party in parliament after Rajoy’s conservatives, with the far-left Podemos in third place and Ciudadanos fourth. But recent polls of voter intentions put Ciudadanos either in the lead or second while the PSOE is most often ranked third after Rajoy’s party and Rivera’s.

Having enjoyed a wave of sympathy and a surge in the polls following his reelection to the party leadership one year ago — against all odds and the opposition of most Socialist cadres — the PSOE leader has struggled to maintain what was dubbed “the Sánchez effect.”

Completely open about his ambition of following his predecessors in the PSOE leadership to the Moncloa palace — Felipe González was prime minister for 14 years, and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero held the job for two terms — the former economics professor needs to make his voice heard on an issue that has so far benefited only Ciudadanos in electoral terms.

The liberals [i. e. Ciudadanos] are enjoying a honeymoon in the polls as they relentlessly portray Rajoy as being soft on the separatists. Last week Rivera demanded an extension of direct rule in Catalonia and accused the prime minister of “running away” from the issue.

“Rivera is wrong to question unity on this issue,” countered Sánchez, accusing Ciudadanos — a party founded in Barcelona in 2006 — of being “opportunistic” and using the Catalan crisis as an “electoral weapon.”

Rajoy’s conservatives share this criticism.

“The atmosphere in Spain is somewhat embittered regarding Catalonia,” said Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, government spokesman and minister of education, culture and sports. “Ciudadanos is placing itself on the very right (of the ideological spectrum) trying to capture very nationalistic voters who are demanding a firm hand at this moment.”

While Ciudadanos has poached voters from the PP and the PSOE, it is a more natural fit for disenchanted conservatives than leftists. Sánchez argued that the “fracture” on the right, in the context of a more fragmented political scenario where votes are split four ways rather than the traditional two-way PP-PSOE rivalry, means he is in a good position to win the next national election.

“A general election can be won in Spain with under 30% (of votes),” he said, describing the current situation as a “triple draw” between the PP, PSOE and Ciudadanos — with Podemos struggling to maintain their momentum.

Sánchez dismissed the chances of Pablo Iglesias’ Podemos taking away more leftist votes, saying “the battle we had with Podemos has been resolved.” Podemos have been hit hard by their position in the Catalan conflict, where they advocated a Scottish-style agreed referendum on secession. Most polls now rank them in fourth place.

‘Loyal’ opposition

Most polls predict a tight race. The four main parties are within a range of 19.6% to 24% of voters’ intentions, according to the latest survey by the publicly-funded Center for Sociological Research. However, there is a clear trend in the polls for Ciudadanos to keep rising while the PP and PSOE both decline.

The ascendancy of this common rival has brought the Popular Party and the Socialists closer together in a remarkable turn of politics: Sánchez ran a fierce campaign against Rajoy in the party primaries and his victory aroused fears among conservatives that the PSOE may no longer back the government on Catalonia.

Catalonia has been under direct rule by Madrid since the regional parliament’s unilateral declaration of independence in October. Rajoy is expected to lift it once Torra presents a Cabinet that doesn’t include independence leaders who are jailed or on the run.

A day before he spoke to Politico, Sánchez appeared beside Rajoy on Spanish television to present a united front on the state’s right to intervene again, via Article 155 of the constitution, should Torra follow his predecessor Carles Puigdemont’s defiant example and violate the constitution.Remarkably, they did not consult beforehand with Rivera and only invited him to join their common position afterward. Rajoy met the Ciudadanos leader two days after his talks with Sánchez.

This show of unity is a dramatic turnaround from two years ago, when after leading the PSOE to its two worst ever election results in 2015 and 2016, Sánchez contributed to a 10-month political deadlock by refusing to back Rajoy for the premiership while failing to win it himself.

Besides this rapprochement with Rajoy on the Catalan question, Sánchez — a former basketball player described even by his rivals as a tireless workaholic — has in recent weeks engaged in a frenzy of legislative proposals and European trips focused on Catalonia.

In April he spoke at the Social Democrats’ party congress in Germany and met its new leader, Andrea Nahles, and this month he spoke on Catalonia at the London School of Economics and met U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Up next are Brussels, Flanders and Portugal.

In London and Berlin, Sánchez said he wants to push back against the separatists’ “propaganda machinery,” a task which, in his view, Rajoy has largely neglected. “The secessionist challenge in Catalonia,” he said in Germany, “is also a threat to the European project as a whole.”

Last week, the Socialist leader launched a series of initiatives on the Catalan crisis such as updating the definition of “rebellion” in the criminal code, which is the charge brought against Puigdemont and his colleagues, and legislation to force elected officials to swear loyalty to the constitution — something the new Catalan president, and other independence supporters, have refused to do.

However, while Spain’s conservative government welcomes Sánchez’s attempts to boost dialogue on Catalonia in the Congress of Deputies, Méndez de Vigo described the PSOE’s proposals on constitutional change as “a bit naive.”

The minister said PSOE leaders, including Sánchez and Rodríguez Zapatero had in the past shown worrying “wobbles” on the concept of Spanish nationality. But on Madrid’s decision to apply Article 155 and intervene in Catalonia, “the PSOE’s behavior has been loyal,” Méndez de Vigo told Politico.

Long-distance runner

Sánchez’s recent hyperactivity hasn’t gone unnoticed by supporters of secession in Catalonia. He’s “competing for the first place in the contest of repressor of the year,” wrote Pilar Rahola, one of the most popular journalists within the independence camp.

Many of the cadres that opposed Sánchez’s bid for the PSOE leadership remain unconvinced of his strategy too. A critical lawmaker who wanted to remain anonymous argued that Sánchez has “demonized the PP,” only to find out later that he had to work with Rajoy to tackle the Catalan conflict, even though this should have been obvious at the time. “There was a lack of strategic vision toward this problem,” he said. “Rectifying it has a cost, in terms of credibility.”

Yet Sánchez, whose perseverance has proven his doubters wrong in the past, already envisages leading a minority government inspired by the model of Portugal’s Socialist Prime Minister António Costa, where he could reach legislative agreements on different topics with different rival parties.

The first step, he said, will be May 2019’s European Parliament election, which in Spain coincides with local and some regional ballots. “I firmly believe we can become the biggest Socialist delegation in the European social-democratic family,” said Sánchez, whose early career included a spell in Brussels advising an MEP (and work for the U.N. in Bosnia during the war in Kosovo).

In any case, Sánchez said he wouldn’t quit even if he did face a new electoral defeat, adding that he sees his leadership of the PSOE as a 10-year project. “Politics is a long-distance race,” he said, with the conviction of someone whose idea of relaxation is to do a 10 km run three or four times a week.


2. Mocking Trump plays straight into his hands: Justin Webb, The Times

A gung-ho assumption that everything the president does is crass carries its own dangers
How does a vulgarian feed fish? Crassly of course: rather than dotting the fish food on to the surface of the water and gaining pleasure from seeing the little mouths and the tiny ripples they cause, he chucks the whole lot in and turns away as if to say: “Eat that, suckers, or don’t eat it and die. What do I care?”

And so it was that President Trump fed the koi on his state visit to Japan last year. “Trump feeds fish, winds up pouring entire box of food into koi pond,” CNN said.

But wait: a camera had taken a wider shot of the incident and the claim that Trump had misbehaved turned out to be nonsense. The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, had led the way in pouring his entire fish food container into the pool. Trump had done the exact same thing as his host, politely — decorously even — following Mr Abe’s lead.

Koigate was soon forgotten but the Trump Derangement Syndrome that led to it has by no means abated. Nothing he does is ever regarded with anything less than disdain. “Look at the way Obama was treated,” Trump’s supporters complain. “You never called him out in the same way.” They have a point. I was there when President Obama teased the press during his first rapturously received speech at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner: “Some of you covered me. All of you voted for me.” How we giggled.

This year the comedian hired to speak at the event — Trump did not attend — began by saying: “Like a porn star says when she’s about to have sex with Trump, let’s get this over with.” She compared Ivanka Trump to a nappy, “smooth on the outside but still full of shit”. There was nothing subtle, no gentle ribbing, no rapier digs. Just hate. Fire fought with fire.

Many Democrats loved it. A non-normal president had been met with a non-normal roasting. The supine media had been taught a lesson in talking truth to illegitimate power. Spine had been shown.

In the wider nation, though? I am not sure the correspondents’ dinner played that well and in this vital election year, in which the House of Representatives could be won by the Democrats and the whole balance of American politics altered, the question facing all anti-Trump forces is still the question they flunked in the 2016 election: how do they oppose Trump effectively?

Do they call him out 24/7? Do they jump on his feeding of fish? Or do they wait and watch and judge individual incidents and actions. How nuanced must the resistance be?

The problem is that Trump is perfectly capable of living down to the expectations of his enemies. A parody of Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury appeared online just as the book itself was released in January. With the same typeface and same breathless style, it suggested that Trump had complained that his favourite TV channel, which showed gorillas in the wild, was unavailable in the White House.

The mock “insider’s account” revealed: “To appease Trump, White House staff compiled a number of gorilla documentaries into a makeshift gorilla channel, broadcast into Trump’s bedroom from a hastily constructed transmission tower on the South Lawn. However, Trump was unhappy with the channel they had created, moaning that it was ‘boring’ because ‘the gorillas aren’t fighting’.”

Many Twitter users fell for it, in part because of that Derangement Syndrome, which caused them to believe instantly and unquestioningly any evidence that the president was repulsive, but also — they would argue — because it was believable. He is crass! He really is. Why pretend that he is anything else?

Only last week the dangers of this gung-ho approach were, once again, horribly exposed. The Associated Press deleted a tweet that read: “Trump referred to those crossing US border illegally as ‘animals’ and slammed California sanctuary state laws as ‘deadly’.” It turned out that Trump had indeed used the word “animals” but had been referring to a notorious gang called MS-13, whose members regularly hack people to death or burn them alive.

Cue Trump on the attack: accusing the “fake media” of another unfair attack but also, crucially, able to say this: “When the MS-13 comes in, I refer to them as animals. And guess what? I always will.”

And the Democrats? They literally found themselves sticking up for MS-13. Nancy Pelosi, their leader in the House of Representatives (remember that this is the body they need to win back in the November mid-terms) said: “We’re all God’s children. There’s a spark of divinity in every person on earth and we all have to recognise that.”

There are plenty of Americans who would agree with that sentiment in general terms but politically, and specifically with regard to MS-13, how does it play? Who wins that encounter: Trump or Pelosi?

People were deranged about George W Bush. Many Republicans were utterly deranged about Obama. However, those derangements had a political purpose: they fired up the base. The issue with Trump derangement is that he rather likes it. It fires him up. And it makes his opponents look as small as he (allegedly) is. A clever White House adviser would suggest that they install a cage and baby gorilla. And perhaps some koi. Ram home the message: the law of Trump’s jungle is that fighting the biggest beast head on all the time might be unwise.

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