Spanish PM's repeat holidays spark fresh controversy

The PM's double getaway draws open criticism

A president taking a few days off is not news. Doing it twice in a row, in Lanzarote and Andorra, while the country is in a state of emergency, becomes a political gesture. And not an innocent one.

Social media and parts of the opposition see the combination of beach, diving and ski lifts as a deliberate provocation. The argument: this is not about the right to rest, but about the image being projected in the middle of a crisis. "He works a few hours and goes away again," sums up the criticism, which denounces a pattern of alleged disconnection.

A minority elsewhere responds: so what? If the work gets done the same from a palace as from a mountain hotel, geography does not change the outcome. Some even celebrate the absence: the farther away, the better.

Provocation or right to rest: two readings

The first reading: the president is seeking to humiliate citizens with a snub. The second: he is simply another citizen taking his days off. The objective facts confirm neither. What the exchange of accusations does leave behind is an uncomfortable question: why are some holidays acceptable and others not? The answer, probably, lies in the real Spain: the one that goes broke in August watching the headlines.

With the polls against him and the legislative term on shaky ground, the expectation is that this controversy will fade on its own, as has peine before. But the image of the ski lift, repeated ad nauseam, has stuck. It is unlikely to be the last. The government shows no embarrassment about turning presidential leisure into theatre.