Unheeded words

KING FELIPE’S speech following Cataluña’s unauthorised and illegal referendum on October 1 2018 wasn’t his best although his best are hardly stirring.

His words sounded as though they were written by Mariano Rajoy’s speechwriters and, not surprisingly, they made no impression on the Catalan separatists

Spain’s king had another shot at mediation recently during the royal family’s traditional Hola-orientated summer photo call at the Marivent palace in Mallorca.

Speaking off-the-cuff as the Infantas and their mother smiled to order, Felipe sent a clear message to Spain’s political parties.

“The best thing is a solution for a government before calling more elections,” he replied in answer to a reporter’s question.

For once he got it right, but nobody will heed him this time either.

The Partido Popular and Ciudadanos failed to perceive that Felipe could be referring to them while Pablo Iglesias won’t listen to anything a king has to say, anyway.

And while Pedro Sanchez’s resoluteness is admirable, many socialist voters are starting to believe that acceding to Podemos’s wildest demands would be preferable to the only other option open to him.

Dark days ahead

ON 24 June, 2016, Britons living in Spain already knew that Brexit would complicate their lives.

That was before a hard Brexit was on the cards and now Boris Johnson is preparing to impose this on a country that doesn’t know what it is letting itself in for.

Brussels knows what to expect and has been making the contingency plans that are still being improvised in the UK. Spain has been doing its homework, too.

Everyone knows what is going to happen on Halloween except the Brexiteers who believe that October 31 is a 2019 version of VE Day. 

How long before they realise that they’ve won their battle but lost a war?

Double standards

THERE is a socialist government in Navarra because EH-Bildu abstained during the investiture vote, allowing the PSOE’s Maria Chivite to become regional president.

This allowed the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and Vox to insist again that the PSOE consorts with terrorists.

EH-Bildu was the political arm of the defunct terrorist organisation, ETA, but is the situation in Navarra worse than in Madrid, Murcia or Andalucia where Vox’s votes enabled PP-Cs governments?

There’s one set of rules for the PSOE but another for the PP, Cs and Vox who believe that they’re the ones with the copyright.

Look on the bright side

A POLL by Key Data for the pro-Podemos online publication, Publico, predicted that the PSOE and Unidas-Podemos would take 174 seats, two short of an overall majority, in a new election.

This is unlikely as Pablo Iglesias’ popularity has plummeted since the failed Investiture and these results apply to an election tomorrow, not next November.

Voters would be so weary of politics, politicians and promises by then that most would stay at home, especially if the weather were bad.

But as always, the hard-core Right would turn out in force producing another hung parliament or, if Spain is to be truly unlucky, a PP-Cs-Vox coalition.