“I had political confidence in Ábalos, but from my personal point of view he was unknown to me, and I was not familiar with these aspects of his personality,” Pedro Sánchez told Gemma Nerga. This is, of course, a strong statement. Sánchez seeks to separate the artist from the work, attacking the “very anonymous” artist, saying that he trusts the work, which is why Ábalos went to prison: the work, the political trust, not “those aspects of his work.” There are unscrupulous reasons why Pedro Sanchez feels ready to utter this phrase in this way. It has to do with the fertile ground created around him by government and party colleagues, popular activists, and honest journalists: he has been apologized for everything, starting with the Martian thing he said he would never do (pardons, pardons, treaties), so why doesn’t he meet Abalos now? It will be bought by the uncritical, those for whom the leader will always be right until the far-right threat disappears. You have to keep quiet so you don’t get into their game, you know. They would say that the Peugeot was the blablacar that the others had taken (“I’m José Luis, from Valencia”), and they would exchange a few jokes, share sandwiches and stop to pee in industrial areas. To say “a very unknown person to me” about No. 2 is to elevate what Rajoy said “that man you tell me about” about his treasurer, and that Sánchez is able to utter this phrase without a hint of irony implies that the bond of trust between ruler and ruled (his own, the skilled one) is no longer based on truth, but on necessity. It doesn’t matter if it’s true that he didn’t know Abalos: it’s important to believe it to avoid something worse. The scenario is interesting because it is serious: politics are no longer discussed in terms of facts, but in terms of fears. If he chooses fear, reality will always be a dispensable detail. In the absence of reality, or with it changing, the least problem the left will face is whether or not to believe that Abalos was a stranger to Sánchez.
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