The power of love? Or the love of power? Teodoro León Gross on Sánchez's rally

Teodoro León Gross's article in ABC argues that the "I love you" from the PSOE rally and the slogan "The force of love" express not love, but Sánchez's strategy to cover up the court cases and corruption scandals surrounding him. The thesis: it is not the power of love, but the love of power.

The scene had something of a soap opera about it. A prime minister launching an "I love you" to the world from a stage, with all the stagecraft on display, and a new campaign slogan: "The force of love". Teodoro León Gross describes it in **ABC** and compares it with television fiction: love was more believable in series like *The Good Vvife* or *House of Cards* than in what was seen at that rally. The problem is not merely aesthetic. The sentimental spectacle appears just as judicial reality closes in.

## "I love you" as a substitute for housing

The article notes that the slogan arrives "for lack of housing", meaning that the government is replacing housing policy with an emotional narrative. The staging, with that "I love you" launched at the world, is described as a kiss from a cheap daytime TV movie. And the slogan, "The force of love", is presented as a copy of the one used by **Cristina Kirchner**, who ended up under house arrest and banned from office for life.

The comparison is no accident. The text refers to Sánchez's circle as "the Kirchners of Pozuelo", and argues that this film is their last gamble to win back their electoral base. The sentimental fiction tries to overlay reality, and reality, according to the article, is something else.

## The legal fronts the rally tries to bury

León Gross lists the matters that, in his view, the rally seeks to push into the background. The party's spokesperson resigned over concealing, according to the text, her property assets, just like the prime minister or the housing minister. Judge **Pedraz** sent an ultimatum over payments by **Ferraz** (the PSOE headquarters) linked to the "cloacas" plot, while the **anti-corruption prosecution** anticipates the indictment of the PSOE. The lies about collusion with **Segarro** over **Ceuta** are coming to light bit by bit.

The article also mentions the case of **Begoña Gómez**, awaiting trial after using Moncloa to secure a professorship from which she had free software from multinationals registered in her name. Against that, the official message is that they are in love. The contrast is the backbone of the piece.

## Ciorán and love as a pact of mutual overestimation

To define that kind of love, the article turns to an aphorism by **Ciorán**: "an agreement between two people to overestimate each other in the eyes of others". It is the definition León Gross applies to the presidential couple, and it helps explain why the sentimental narrative works better on the evening news and in thousands of social media clips than in the courts.

The text also criticises the choice of **Óscar Puente** to deliver the slogan, describing him as the fastest gunslinger at hurling insults this side of the Mississippi, and recalls his television jokes about **Renfe** breakdowns, which outraged the victims of **Adamuz**, where 46 people died. The choice of messenger, the article suggests, does not help.

## The thesis: love of power, not the power of love

The article closes with a sentence that sums it all up: "Sánchez's thing is not the power of love, but the love of power." This legislature, the text argues, piles up corruption and degradation of the rule of law's dignity, between the amnesty and the release of ETA prisoners. Against that reality, the government tries its luck with a sentimental fiction on the evening news and social media.

The irony of the title, "The power of love? The love of power", is not a gratuitous play on words. It is the article's thesis: that the love proclaimed from the podium is, in reality, the love of staying in power. And that the spectacle, being so excessive, risks the audience mistaking the rally for a TV comedy sketch.