I was 18 when I first read The Odyssey along with The Iliad. I remember perfectly how much I enjoyed this journey full of traps and a sense of survival. What I felt with the ultimate trolling of the Cyclops: Nobody; the party of pig-men with the witch Circe that reminded me of a scene from the movie Willow; and Argos, the dog who waits for 20 years for his master, being the first to recognize him upon his return. Those of us who have had dogs know at this point that they awaken something in the soul that we literally did not know existed, and when they are not there, it goes away with them. That birth and that farewell. But this will not be yet another summer analysis of the famous epic poem by Homer following the recent film adaptation by a genius like Christopher Nolan. The odyssey I am going to talk about, if you don’t mind, is about three guys from Deva and their relationship with what happened to them with Spanish politics, Odysseus style.
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This is the scene: the Soraluce festivities end. And these three young men miss the bus. It is then that they intend to cover the 9 kilometers that separate Soraluce from their town, Elgoibar, by buying a giant unicorn-shaped float and throwing themselves into the water downstream. Everything points to the fact that they were comfortable and having a good party. They put their mobile phones and documents inside plastic bags to prevent them from getting wet and jump in. They wanted to avoid a journey of about two hours on foot. Needless to say, they do not take into account that they will have to overcome several dams with dangerous waterfalls, rocky areas, deep fords like their own Poseidon. And, of course, the guys from Deva live the same drama as Odysseus, but swapping Greek mythology for gin and tonic and the boat for the unicorn float. They advanced only 3 kilometers, got a flat, got out of the water, and had to do the rest of the way on foot. It took them four hours, twice as long, like the Homeric hero. Although they are already eternal on social media, the Circe of the north, the icy water, left their skin goosebumps and their feet like real barnacles.
The tiebreaker is only achieved by proposing a renewed horizon of coexistence
Winning the presidency also has its own political odyssey. If what happened to the guys from Deva with the unicorn float was slow, the journey of Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo to reach Ithaca-Moncloa is a political obstacle course that makes the protagonists of The Odyssey look like amateur speed rowers. Feijóo, who had his bags packed in July 2023, takes so long to arrive that his trip is already being credited as a trip around the world. And in Sánchez’s case, Madrid DF keeps clucking that the ship is sinking, with sharks biting at his heels, but he still clings to a loose plank smiling as if he were at a spa. Both will arrive, as in The Odyssey, at the moment of the bow test. And that’s where we want to see them: they will have to draw it with their majority. But the bow of our current politics is so stiff and rusty that neither of them is yet able to draw it to guarantee it.
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The Consortium of the Spanish Right (PP-Vox) obtained just over 11.2 million votes in July 2023. Today they stand at 11.7 million. Only half a million more votes, after three years of very high voltage. The Investiture Majority, on the other hand, achieved 12.6 million votes on 23-J, which today stand at 12.2 million. A slight decline of less than half a million votes, despite the slight increase in turnout we expect for next year. This is the Spain tie. In other words, the Amnesty Spain, which includes many Spains, surpassed by more than a million the Consortium Spain, which only includes one Spain. Nobody, literally, has anything guaranteed in this odyssey of majorities. That half a million is only 1.5% of the census, now that the electoral census is so much talked about in the most conspiratorial circles. This is what the relaunch is about and a tiebreaker that is only achieved by proposing a renewed horizon of coexistence. Reading strategically, more than the reality of your party, that of your majority. The concept of majority refers us to what we are: a parliamentary democracy. And to the longing of the Spanish people: a new agreement in Congress. While the Spanish watch their politicians pulling the bow from one end to the other, at the same time they think that, like the guys from Deva, more than one walks around Congress with a unicorn float.
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