Ten Actions Spanish PMs Should Never Take

Columnist **Bieito Rubido** published a list of ten actions in **El Debate** that, in his view, a Spanish prime minister should never take. The list includes governing without winning elections, making pacts with anti-democratic parties, and practicing nepotism.

Rubido signed an article in **El Debate** titled "What a Prime Minister Should Not Do." The text stems from a dinner among friends with different political views, where someone proposed listing ten ideal virtues for a head of government. Another guest reversed the idea: better to list ten things a prime minister should never do. Rubido noted these ten points on his phone and published them.

## The List Born at Dinner

The first point states that a prime minister should not be involved in illicit activities such as prostitution or exploitation of women and minors, before or after office. The second notes they should not have plagiarized their doctoral thesis, if they have one. The third advises against cheating in internal party elections.

The fourth point is explicit: they should not govern if they do not clearly win the election. The fifth rejects pacts with anti-democratic parties whose aim is to destroy the nation, especially paying for such pacts with illegal amnesties and the release of terrorist killers. The sixth refers to not using the Attorney General to wage dirty war against political rivals, to the point where the Supreme Court convicts that high official.

## Nepotism, Budgets, and Lies

The seventh point addresses nepotism, specifically involving the president's vvife and brother, and launching a dirty war against judges, civil servants, police, Civil Guard members, and journalists investigating such misconduct. The eighth establishes that they should not govern without majority parliamentary support nor fail to pass the General State Budget (Spain's national budget).

The ninth points to not relying on a team whose immediate collaborators have been prosecuted and convicted for corruption. The tenth closes the list: they should not lie or change their mind on core issues of the country's political life.

Rubido adds a conclusion summarizing the ten recommendations: do not pit citizens against each other, especially by stirring up past wounds. Treat everyone equally, regardless of geographic origin or ideology.

## Guicciardini and Democracy's Debris

The article cites historian **Francesco Guicciardini**, a contemporary of **Machiavelli** and expert on Spain, to emphasize that every empire, kingdom, or nation has a beginning and an end. Guicciardini argued that each historical situation is distinct and depends on the talent, honesty, and commitment of each ruler when making decisions.

Rubido mentions **Ceuta**, unbuilt housing, unemployment, the occupation of institutions, and the "grandchildren law" (a controversial Spanish pension reform) as issues that, in his view, sound like debris from a democracy's collapse. He adds that this ruin was contributed to by someone who, according to him, should never have been prime minister because Spaniards denied him their trust.

One guest ironically stated that all this will never happen in Spain and that it is a portrait of **Venezuela**. The article closes with the idea that the listed items describe a time of sarracena ruin and stormy coexistence.

## Echoes of a Conversation

The text is not a technical analysis or legal report. It is an opinion column turning a table conversation into a political decalogue. Its value lies in the list itself, not in a point-by-point argumentative development.

Rubido provides no new data or documents. He collects what came out of a dinner and orders it. The result is a portrait of what, according to the columnist, a prime minister should not do. Each reader will judge whether the list describes a specific case or a hypothesis.