This end of the legislature increasingly resembles the last term of Felipe González as prime minister. The harassment and takedown he was subjected to between 1993 and 1996 by his now conservative sympathizers and admirers, whether politicians, economic powers, or media, has a resemblance to what Pedro Sánchez is receiving, no matter how distant the president and former president are. There is some difference: González had more diplomatic relations with the United States and Israel (neither Trump nor Netanyahu were in office). And he did not have to hear his name chanted to the rhythm of “Felipe, son of a bitch.”
Read more What starts badly…
When the years pass, we will learn things that we now sense, because the moves of anti-Sánchez sentiment are increasingly less subtle. In the case of Felipe González, only two years had to pass: he lost power to Aznar in March 1996 and in February 1998, Luis María Anson, former director of Abc, made these statements to the magazine Tiempo. “Felipe González had to be finished off. By raising the level of criticism, it reached such an extreme that at many moments it bordered on the stability of the State itself. That is true (…) Thus arose the Platform for the Defense of Citizens’ Right to Information. We met, usually in my office, the director of El Independiente, Pablo Sebastián; José Luis Gutiérrez, from Diario 16; the general director of Antena 3, Manuel Martín Ferrand; the head of News at Antena 3 Radio, Antonio Herrero; the one from El Mundo, Pedro J. Ramírez.” I don’t think meetings are needed nowadays between Ana Rosa Quintana, Nacho Abad, Iker Jiménez, Pablo Motos, and other media leaders who do not hide in their programs how much they dislike Sánchez.
The last cartridge fired by the anti-Felipe liberation guerrilla was no nonsense: they accused him of state crimes, those committed by the GAL. They did not care that this was good ammunition for ETA, which used it for years as another pretext to continue killing. Although hard to believe, at that time it was more important to end González than ETA. They would have loved to see González in prison, as they now want to see Sánchez. They only managed to get González to testify before the then very active Second Chamber of the Supreme Court. The photo of that moment took up half the front page of El Mundo by Pedro J. Ramírez, now director of the digital El Español.
Many dream of Sánchez sitting before Marchena and company; the coup de grâce is called Ceuta
Vera and Barrionuevo were sentenced to ten years. González went to see them off at the gates of Guadalajara prison, but he did not enter. The Second Chamber acquitted him. The most curious thing is that both Barrionuevo and Vera were pardoned two months later. Who was the pardoner? José María Aznar, the same one who had reactivated the GAL case to take down González.
Read more “Well, very well, then goodbye”
Anson spares no detail in the 1998 interview. “Without a doubt, the press pressured the judicial world. (…) By fanning the fire in the justice sector, the erosion of González was favored.” Does that sound familiar?
Sánchez has already seen his brother go through the courts and soon his wife will too. And many dream of seeing him sitting before Marchena and company. The coup de grâce is called Ceuta. The opposition has made a strike and the siege will increase. The president is bleeding on the canvas. Moreover, his problems multiply, turning into lists of unjustifiable journalists. Every day they ask him to resign. I would do it, with or without elections (the census is being done by the Supreme Court) I would give power to the others, no matter how much they scare me. Once the dog is dead, the rage would end
(or not).
