One recurring thread in the Spanish psyche is a streak of pessimism, a sentiment that has lingered since the Generation of ’98. Voices warning about the homeland’s dangers have often outweighed calls for modernization, progress, and a brighter future. The financial crisis of 2008 amplified this mood, plunging daily life into uncertainty and sparking a political upheaval that reshaped representation and introduced new actors into the parliament. The era of easy fixes seemed to fall away, and a sense of fragility crept in as a health crisis paused recovery, claimed many lives, and kept people in a long standstill. Now, as the country edges toward the 2023 electoral milestones, tempers burn hot and voices clash, signaling a political climate that prizes loud, polarizing rhetoric over measured discourse.
To casual readers of the media and social networks, the scene appears harsh and dark, yet that impression often reflects the drama politicians and media spin into the story rather than an objective reality. Still, there are steady anchors amid the noise. The philosopher Daniel Innerarity, a thinker associated with the Polytechnic University of Valencia, invites readers to face the facts with a form of positive realism that asks us to see reality for what it is. He urges readers to challenge stereotypes and to paint a clearer picture of today. In his view, today’s situation is not as catastrophic as it sometimes feels, and this perspective can reveal reasons to feel hopeful rather than despairing.
In a weekend piece from Barcelona, Innerarity surveys the state of world democracy in 2021, focusing on the retreat of authoritarianism in the United States after the Trump era, alongside regional shifts such as Lula, Petro, and Boric advancing in Latin America. He also maps Europe’s far-right surge, noting the rise of illiberal regimes and the way power has been captured in places like Italy. While he calls for vigilance to contain these movements, he cautions against reducing the debate to a hollow clash over symbols—such as debates about animal rights of bulls, flags, and the like—rather than addressing substantive issues that shape peoples’ lives. The question becomes how to separate momentum from spectacle and to keep political life functional rather than merely performative.
Huge ideological questions that the country might confront under different circumstances—such as abortion,Trans issues, euthanasia, and taxation of wealth—are framed as a spectrum rather than a binary choice. The right’s typical approach is to resist reforms once in power, preferring to appease a loyal base while promising modernization that satisfies the majority. In this reading, Spain’s political dialectic remains bearable; economic policy shows a strong Brussels influence, leaving limited room for heterodox ideas. Yet much of Spain’s economic performance is tied to government policy and stability, with figures in the European Commission and at the core of the EU playing pivotal roles in policy direction.
One area that could feed anxiety is the conservative stance of the People’s Party regarding constitutional reform and institutional renewal. The idea is not to bend the rules of the game to suit a temporary advantage. The constitution, both in spirit and in letter, is seen as an essential boundary that must be respected to prevent volatile shifts in the political cycle.
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