It’s not about government, it’s about power

Bill Anderson A Public Servant

THE Spanish elections didn’t produce the predicted results. What a surprise! The polls got it wrong! If politics were a football match we would now be in the penalty shoot out stage: who can score the most goals with the fewest number of kicks?

What we see next is not about government, it is about power. A Spanish politician once said to me that political parties do not exist to be in opposition, their aim is to be in power. I can’t argue with the logic behind it, but what concerns me is what they will do to achieve their objective. Getting into power will inevitably require giving up some of their power to groups that do not share the same values. The big question is how much power is each of the two big parties (PSOE and PP) prepared to give up in order to get into power and at what cost to the country?

I don’t get too deeply into National politics in Spain, largely because as a foreigner I can’t participate in it, but also because at this stage in the game it is like children going out to the woods to see who can collect the most conquers.

It is ironic that the balance of power seems to lie with the Catalan independence party whose leader has been in exile because of an illegal referendum. You can guarantee that whichever party gets into bed with him will have to pay a big price. How much is