The Last Letter of the PSOE

In this column, the author warns that Spain’s democratic decay has passed a critical milestone: it no longer begins with economic hardship or headline scandals, but with the loss of public decency and political shame. What was once unthinkable has become routine in the Spanish political arena — gestures and spectacles that mock solemnity rather than uphold democratic dignity. This shift is not mere entertainment; it is a symptom of deeper institutional corrosion.

What triggered this diagnosis was an episode in the Congress of Deputies that would once have been unthinkable in any mature democracy: a political theatre moment staged in the parliamentary chamber, celebrated as performance rather than denounced as undignified. Such acts are not “folklore,” the columnist argues — they are indicators of a system that has stopped taking itself seriously.

From this perspective, the degradation of Spain’s political life resembles patterns the author witnessed in Latin America — where state institutions increasingly act not as neutral guardians of the common good but as tribal symbols and ideological performance troupes. These are scenes that constitute not healthy political debate but a loss of the sense of public institutional gravity.

The piece makes a broader point about corruption: while episodes of financial impropriety — from Gürtel to Pujol and beyond — have dominated headlines, these are symptoms, not the core problem. What’s more dangerous, the column asserts, is “structural corruption” — the ambition to transform the state into a permanent political machine that disciplines officials, co-opts judges, neutralises dissent, and relegates citizens to passive spectators.

That argument leads to a stark conclusion about the PSOE’s identity crisis. The historic Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, once a pillar of democratic politics, has lost its defining letters:

• P (Partido) — the party is no longer recognisably a structured political organisation in the traditional sense.
• O (Obrero) — the socialist roots tied to the working class have long since eroded.
• E (Español) — the idea of a shared national project has been fractured into factional grievances.
  What remains is only the S — for Sánchez — emblematic of a party whose personality has supplanted its ideology and whose continuity has eclipsed its original mission.

In the columnist’s view, this is not a normal moment in political life. It reflects a deep cultural shift in which political theatrics have replaced institutional seriousness, and spectacle has supplanted accountability. In such an environment, democratic erosion is no longer a future risk — it is a present reality.