2024 was the year of the four electoral calls – in this order, Galicia, Euskadi, Catalonia and the European ones – that functioned as mountain passes of a stage of the Vuelta Ciclista where the triumphs and the birds were distributed. But what conditioned all politics from very early on was Pedro Sánchez’s closest personal relationship, the one he logically has with his wife. The cold and cerebral President of the Government offered an unexpected image, that of a man tormented by the accusations against Begoña Gómez.
In April, he took a five-day break to reflect on whether it was worth suffering all that. His party went into a state of shock and wanted to make it clear that he could not live without him. It was a false alarm. A little over a month later, Sánchez and Gómez held hands during a PSOE rally during the European campaign. Love had triumphed, but politics had not. The Popular Party had believed it had found the vulnerable point of its enemy and will continue to strike at it until the end of the legislature. Judge Juan Carlos Peinado will be in charge of feeding the machinery.
Valencia woke up on October 30 after having suffered a brutal blow. DANA’s fury had taken everything away. Most importantly, 223 lives. It also left a terrible feeling, that many of them could have been saved if the authorities had reacted more quickly. The people rose up as best they could without forgetting that someone would have to pay for that negligence. The central government let the regional government take the initiative, because the powers belonged to the Cabinet chaired by Carlos Mazón, the politician who decided to consume three hours of his time in decisive moments at a meal with a journalist. To this day, he still does not assume his responsibility.
Visits by authorities to a place that has suffered a disaster are a way of showing solidarity that is not without risks. The kings and Pedro Sánchez confirmed this when they appeared in Paiporta on November 3. The pain and anger offered unusual images. The delegation was received with insults and even pieces of mud were thrown at them. Never before had Felipe VI gone through something like this. So that this was not the image that defined the visit, he asked that the umbrellas be closed and stayed to talk with some neighbors even though there was little that could be done to guarantee their safety, as Sánchez confirmed.
The defeat in the 2023 elections broke all of Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s plans. To get out of the depression, he announced to his party that it would be a short and tough term. That didn’t turn out to be true either. The second, yes. Abandoned all illusion of moderation, he assumed the Ayusist discourse of total confrontation. If the president of Madrid says that we live in “a police state” or that Spain is heading toward “a dictatorship,” the options are reduced for Feijóo.
However, the absence of a solid parliamentary majority for the Government has opened a way out for the PP through pacts with Junts on economic issues. It’s a strategy you can only execute with extreme care, as if you were defusing a bomb. It is not just that this approach bothers the Catalan PP. It can only enrage Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who cannot go with the nationalists or have coffee. And it is not very smart to get on Ayuso’s nerves in the PP. Your life expectancy can be sharply reduced.
Anything goes to attack the Government in the control sessions of Congress. There is no greater symbol of tension than the behavior of the PP leaders in these duels. The victims of ETA are ammunition favored by that party. His spokesperson, Miguel Tellado, is a regular protagonist of these low blows. That’s why Feijóo brought him to Madrid. Holding up a poster with the photos of twelve elected officials of the PSOE who were murdered by the terrorists was one of his greatest moments. feats. This is how he earns his salary to the joy of his fellow seats.
“Thank goodness that what this man says upsets me to an extreme degree, otherwise, seeing how he scavengerally holds a photo with the image of my father would turn my guts until I vomit,” replied Josu Elespe, son of Froilán Elespe, Socialist councilor murdered by ETA.
José Luis Ábalos continues in his seat in Congress, in the upper part of the chamber where the Mixed Group resides, since he refused to resign, as requested by the PSOE. He thus maintained his capacity. It has only allowed him to delay the accusation. At the end of January, February at the latest, Congress will authorize the request requested by the judge investigating the Koldo case, which already deserves to be reclassified as the Ábalos case. Any indication that questions Ábalos will impact the credibility of the PSOE. It will no longer be worth asking how Ábalos could choose someone like Koldo García in the Ministry, but rather how Pedro Sánchez could choose someone like Ábalos for his Government or to keep him on the electoral lists in 2023.
Íñigo Errejón believed that politics was not over for him. Sumar made the risky decision to appoint him parliamentary spokesperson once the legislature had started. Allegations of sexual abuse forced the party to demand his seat from him, which he quickly handed over. Shortly after, he tried to defend himself with an article that sank him even further. It was almost unheard of that he presented himself as a victim of the pressures of politics and even of the “neoliberal way of life.” He had no trouble asking for forgiveness from the people he had hurt and disappointed. He never understood that if your personal life contradicts the values that you defend in public, you better take the door because the end will be very hard for you and for the party.
Housing has risen more than salaries. Its price has skyrocketed in most communities, not just in big cities. The percentage of social housing in Spain has plummeted in recent decades. It is 2.5% of the total compared to the average of 9.3% in the EU. Almost four million homes are empty, one in seven. Spain has more than a million homes in the hands of large owners. 31% of rented households spend more than 40% of their income on housing. Have governments done nothing? Yes, allocate 160,000 million euros in the last forty years in tax benefits in favor of homeowners with predictable results.
The delegitimization of the political system begins when it fails to find solutions to economic problems that have persisted for decades. And it is neither a lack nor an injustice that it has started now, as this cartoon by Forges from 2006 demonstrates.
Until December 30, there have been 47 murders of women due to gender violence within the couple in 2024, according to official records. The last was Diana Marisol, 29 years old, in the Madrid neighborhood of Usera. The figure is lower than last year (58) and similar to those of 2021 and 2022. Since 2005, 1,140 women have been murdered in these crimes, which represents a failure of society and the State.
The number in 2024 is clearly lower than the sexist crimes of 2004 (72), the year in which the Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence was approved. It is difficult to establish a direct cause-effect relationship between both events. What is undoubtable is that this law has been fundamental to confront this crisis and that, if anything, it arrived too late. Beyond murders, there are much higher numbers of women reporting sexual assaults and men convicted of these crimes. As an example, 37,161 men were convicted in 2023 in a final sentence for crimes of gender violence, according to the latest data offered by the INE. The number of women victims of this violence had increased by 12%.
In the last days of the year, the figure of 62,000 migrants has reached the Spanish coasts, a number similar to the 64,298 in 2018. The one who has suffered the most from the initial impact in terms of assistance spending has been the Canary Islands, which need the solidarity of the rest of the communities of Spain. This requires a political agreement that at the moment seems impossible, because the PP refuses to sign it. He demands that the Government do more to reduce these arrival numbers and affirms that his regional governments are already overwhelmed. Which is like saying to the Canary Islands: fuck you. What is not said in public is that the PP fears that Vox will take advantage of this agreement to reduce support in the regions it governs.
Another number that is talked about less in this controversy. 10,457 people have died or disappeared in their attempt to reach Spain, 58% more than those counted in 2023, according to a report by the organization Caminando Fronteras.
“I told my brother not to drink sea water, to hold on, but he drank without stopping, then he vomited, and then he sat down and stopped talking. I didn’t have the strength to throw his body away, others did it,” said a young man from Mali who survived a hellish journey. “In addition to my brother, I saw an entire family die. The father ended up jumping into the sea when he threw the last of his children into the sea. We didn’t have the strength to stop him. I didn’t feel anything when they finally rescued us. “I had no strength in my body but neither in my soul.”
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