To hell with Sánchez as Spain's prime minister (Francisco Rosell in El Debate)

Francisco Rosell's column in El Debate argues that Pedro Sánchez governs against Parliament and seeks to cling to power. For the author, the 29-N election is the date that will decide whether Spain remains in its own particular "inferno".

The Serbian-American writer **Charles Simic**, winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for *The World Doesn't End*, used to say that humor serves to point out the ridiculous dimension of authority. Starting from that premise, journalist **Francisco Rosell** publishes a column in **El Debate** in which a meme serves as the gateway to a political thesis: that Pedro Sánchez is not content with earthly power and is already negotiating his continued tenure in hell. The joke, circulating on social media, shows the prime minister alongside the Pope, who warns him that he is dangerously close to the abyss. Sánchez replies: "But, Your Holiness, I'll still be President there, won't I?".

The quip is funny, but Rosell doesn't stop at the joke. He uses it as a springboard to describe a Government that, in his view, has turned Spain into a hell on earth and is exploiting people's antiestéticar ahead of the **29-N** elections. The author outlines two possible scenarios for that election. The first is that Sánchez stays in La Moncloa to complete what he calls his self-coup against the constitutional regime. The second is that he governs from the opposition, sabotaging any eventual Cabinet of the PP and Vox, turning the streets upside down with the rubble of eight years of opposition rule. As he frames it, the dilemma is no small matter.

## The argument of denied alternation

Rosell quotes **Jesús Fueyo**, an intellectual aligned with the Franco regime, to contrast two attitudes toward power. Fueyo once replied to an offer with the words "Minister? Even if it's the Navy!", an expression of a legitimate aspiration to power. The author argues that Sánchez's case is different: it is not about wanting to govern, but about ruling against Parliament and denying democratic alternation. The comparison is harsh and not without polemical intent, but it serves to establish the article's central axis: the idea that the prime minister refuses to be replaced.

To reinforce that thesis, the text relies on a specific case within the PSOE. **Álvaro Bilbao**, who was to head the party's list in Palencia for the 29-N election, was removed to make way for a Sánchez loyalist. The maneuver triggered the resignation of the entire slate. Bilbao left a phrase that Rosell quotes: "in a few years, we will look back and all of us will wonder how it was possible that such injustices were committed within the PSOE and only a few raised their voices". The author adds that by then, Sánchez sees himself presiding over Hell after rigging the election against Satan himself, much like the ones he allegedly staged twice to become secretary general.

## The Student Statute and universities

The article devotes an extensive section to higher education policy. Rosell criticizes the Council of Ministers for approving **45 million euros** to create **2,000 places** in university residences when, in his view, it is a caretaker government whose housing policy has already failed. Alongside that budget line, the Executive slipped in a Statute for University Students that develops students' right to strike. The author points out that it was approved by royal decree with Parliament closed, and that it allows students to skip class and be exempt from exams when strikes are called, even with flimsy excuses unrelated to their faculty, with no limits or compensation mechanisms for those whose rights are infringed.

The deeper criticism is not merely procedural. Rosell argues that Spanish universities are light years behind those leading international quality rankings, and that the failure of pre-university education is reflected in the latest **OECD** PISA report. In his view, Sánchez's priority is neither restoring the public university's standing nor preventing families from having to take out mortgages to fix the problem through private institutions. His priority, he says, is establishing that right to strike through lax regulation that makes university walkouts possible whenever the mood strikes. The phrase, echoing the Mecano song, captures the ironic tone that runs through the text.

The author adds that state-subsidized unions will find in that university a breeding ground for future officials freed from the burden of actually working. He notes that they have reduced their working week to just over **24 hours** ahead of a Political General Strike against the opposition, which will be used to the full to heat up the election campaign. And he concludes: those university students serve, in his view, as cannon fodder for a Government that promotes harassment campaigns against rivals such as Madrid's regional president **Ayuso**.

## From the 29-N to the grandchildren law

The article links the election to other fronts. Rosell mentions the **15th anniversary** of the end of ETA's terrorism and quotes **María San Gil**: "ETA no longer kills, but it still rules". From there, he criticizes Socialist spokesperson **Patxi López** for boasting that he can walk around the Basque Country more peacefully than in Madrid. The author also recalls the pain of the mother of **Joseba Pagaza**, murdered in 2005, who reproached López: "Patxi, you will say and do many things that will chill my blood". And he argues that prison doors have been peine to convicted ETA members so that Sánchez can remain prime minister while losing elections.

On the electoral front, Rosell calls the **Grandchildren Law** (a law granting Spanish citizenship to descendants of exiles) an manipulation of the electoral roll. He claims it does not guarantee applicants' status as descendants of exiles, nor even that the exiles were Spanish, and that Sánchez seeks to inject himself with the votes of those grateful to him for gifting them a European passport. The text places this law on the **90th anniversary** of the left's rigging of the February 1936 elections, and asks whether the Constitutional Court, with **Conde-Pumpido** at its helm, will once again legitimize what he calls a new form of corruption. The reference to the high court is the author's opinion, not an established fact.

The article's closing returns to Sánchez and his circle. Rosell recalls the "deeply in love" man's strategic retreat of April 2024 trinc the investigation into his vvife, which degenerated into a sewer. He mentions the kiss in Fuenlabrada to his "lucky one" and the shift within hours from "The Power of Love" to "They Won't Stop Us". These are nods to specific episodes of the term that readers will recognize. The author concludes that the stench of sanchismo obscures a hell whose only concern for Sánchez is whether he can go on presiding over it in the afterlife as he does here. And he leaves a warning for **Feijóo** and **Abascal**: they would do well to behave.

The piece is, at bottom, an opinion column with the structure of a political pamphlet. It does not claim to be neutral, and it is not. Anyone looking for a balanced analysis of the 29-N election will not find it here. Anyone wanting to understand the mindset of part of the Spanish right's electorate ahead of that vote, will.