Loyalty and silence. Two powerful words that help in those moments in life as in politics when you have to open your eyes and others when you have to close them. On December 17, 2020, when I had heart surgery, I experienced one of the latter. While everyone in Spain was looking for the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, my own tunnel narrowed. The doctors at Moncloa found a large hole in my heart, an atrial septal defect that forced me to undergo surgery in the utmost secrecy. It was a unique case, one in a thousand. Only my family and one person knew: the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who was always loyal and never said a word. Being the sole keeper of my truth. The operation was a success. Many journalists were fed lies. But today everyone knows what happened.
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My last six months at Moncloa and throughout 2021 I was more medicated than I have ever been in my life. It was about surviving and knowing when to stop to endure and move forward. Silence was important for reasons of conviction, principles, and values. The echo of power should never be confused with one’s own heartbeat. And loyalty, when working from humility and heart, is not auctioned off. I wrote down when I left in July 2021 the following: “In life, as in business and politics, you have to know how to win, how to lose, and how to stop.” And I would add: “Know how to wait” until the moment arrives. Five years later.
When I left Moncloa, despite the difficulties, I was even more idealistic than when I arrived; I still am
Today, with a healthy heart, very strong, the same size as most of yours, and my word intact, the silence ends. My loyalty remains at the disposal of a way of understanding politics: with audacity, with ethics, and with a cool head even in those moments when life reminds you that you are part of it. I will tell you, therefore, that when I left Moncloa, despite the difficulties, I was even more idealistic than when I entered. I still am. That idealism led me earlier to contribute to building pacts on the left and right that politics had not imagined until then. And being one among many, one ordinary day the board expanded and politics took me to the Administration, where I discovered the reason for my vocation: people. Politics as art, science, sport, and public service of human beings for human beings. Its true reason for being.
I will continue to be one among many in that empty space full of light, sounds, ideas, and future for those who know how to transform it into a majority cause that already exists, that is not created, because it is already in the hearts of the people, you just have to connect with them and bring them together. Being one among many in that unique place where an idea begins so that things happen or are prevented. That immaterial space in which politics can be a thousand ways, but only one: loyal, coherent, and brave.
Being one among many, to protect an idea of Spain, diverse, plural, fascinating, like a tree: the feet firmly in the roots, in their place, but with branches open to the world, as the Basque and universal sculptor Eduardo Chillida said: “I have the hands of yesterday, I lack those of tomorrow.” Being one among many to keep searching in the present for that moment, the one of original creation.
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Of course, between right and left “the powerful drama” will always continue, today with these actors, tomorrow with others. Today, as I write to you, I have the hands of yesterday, but I lack those of tomorrow, like every Sunday when I type the article. Thanks for that feeling to the readers and subscribers of La Vanguardia , to my colleagues, my director, and our editor for the special, so unique bond of these five years. And to a radio announcer who reminds me every Monday of the year: Carlos Alsina. I will continue to be one among many feeling life, difficult, fierce, between fear and hope, waiting, perhaps someday, if the moment comes, for a profound change with which to open my eyes again. Always attentive to what happens, with the humble knowledge of one who admits not knowing, inspired to unite and serve, the shortest path to the presidency of the government. Two verbs with which, inside or outside Moncloa, I will continue trying to write my own verse.
Next week
Andalusia
I already tell you that all the keys to the Andalusian campaign, a nationality of the south, cognitive border of the European Union, will be explained next Monday, May 11. That autonomous community is a critical point in the Spain universe, due to its size, population, identity, and institutional weight. Andalusia represents, in fact, one in five Spaniards. But we do want to give you a decisive clue to understand who is winning: mastering participation. In Juanma Moreno’s absolute majority in 2022 – note the figure – it was only 58%.
Hawk eye
Act of people
What will happen today at the Teatro Bellas Artes in Madrid at 7:00 p.m. at the presentation of El Manual with Susanna Griso will be an act of people, not a political act. There will be civil society, unexpected guests, many advisors from all parties, of course, and a surprise. For those not in the DF there will be streaming. Let’s hope to be up to the task. It will be a frontal and direct “hello” in which we will tell many things and speak from the heart.
