Decaffeinated Francoism

Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the PP, has caved in to pressure from Esperanza Aguirre (and probably followed his own political instincts) by excluding Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, the Mayor of Madrid, from the party’s list of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies in the upcoming general election in Spain. By so doing he has confirmed that the PP is going to offer itself to the people of Spain in March as a hard-line conservative, Catholic, nationalist, decaffeinated Francoist alternative to the present government. El Pantano’s bet is that while there is a considerable audience for that sort of message in Spain it’s not going to be big enough to beat the PSOE.