A socialist criticized by other socialists because he did things typical of socialists

Within the spheres of this world, there is a power far greater than that of the most powerful of politicians, than rocks and mountains.

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That power is time, perhaps one of the most valuable things we have. Time is such a powerful lord that it manages to put those who abused their power the most in their place, even when they manage to evade human justice: it ends up turning everyone into dust, and sometimes even allows us to enjoy seeing them pay for their misdeeds. Only God, who can do everything, is capable of setting limits on time. It is with this powerful lord that a once very powerful man named Cristóbal Montoro has stumbled.

One of the architects of two major deceptions by the PP to its voters

Younger readers of Counting Stars may not remember who that guy was. Montoro was Minister of Finance between 2011 and 2018, under Mariano Rajoy's government. He was a disastrous minister, who embodied in the economic field the most notable characteristic of that government: doing the same thing the Socialists had done before, crushing Spaniards with taxes and leaving intact the ideological laws established by the left during José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's term. Montoro was one of the architects of the Popular Party's double betrayal of its promise to lower taxes, in 2011 and in 2016, mocking the credulity of his voters to continue applying the most harmful socialist economic recipes.

Thirteen years ago, Montoro was one of the main advocates of raising VAT from 18% to 21% in 2012, just a few months after the Popular Party, then led by Mariano Rajoy, came to power after promising tax cuts. To do so, as I reported here in 2012, the PP copied all of the PSOE's fallacies about tax pressure, acting in fact like just another socialist party. Something that the PP has not stopped being, judging by its trajectory since then, including the current mandate of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, a politician who three years ago confessed to having voted for the PSOE in 1982 and who said he missed that Socialist Party.

Charged with alleged abuse of power

Now, finally, we're learning about Montoro's practices as a minister. A few weeks ago, the former minister was charged in a case investigating possible crimes of bribery, fraud against the public administration, malfeasance, influence peddling, prohibited negotiations, business corruption, and document falsification. On this matter, Ángeles Escrivá wrote yesterday in El Mundo:

"The former minister, now indicted, was unpopular for raising taxes and lowering salaries (sucking the blood of the citizens), proclaiming an austerity policy that he, and the large companies that the firm he founded defended, were far from following, according to a judge. At the time when the government was split in two, his ally was Sáenz de Santamaría, his colleagues feared being inspected by the Treasury or the CNI."

Escrivá points out that the judge has revealed that "the then Minister of Finance allegedly used the state apparatus to indecently enrich the firm he founded, Equipo Económico, by facilitating the drafting of laws and even modifying the General Budget in favor of the companies that hired his services." If this is confirmed, it would not be surprising.

Socialist arguments, socialist recipes and socialist results

As veteran readers will remember, 13 years ago I summarized Montoro's theses as minister here with this title: "Socialist arguments, socialist recipes and socialist results". Those results were an economy weighed down by high taxes, a record of more than 5 million unemployed in March 2013 and unemployment figures that never fell below 3 million. To that we could add, as I reported here in April 2018, Montoro's eagerness to torpedo the work of Judge Llarena, who was investigating the separatist coup of October 1, 2017 in Catalonia, simply because the then minister had not done his job well of preventing the diversion of hundreds of millions of euros for the separatist process.

A paradox for the PSOE and a trouble for the PP

Montoro is a source of shame for the PP, or at least he should be, but Rajoy's Finance Minister presents the PSOE with a paradox, because at the end of the day, what Montoro did was act like a perfect socialist, plundering the Spanish people fiscally and abusing his power just as Pedro Sánchez's party does today. So now the socialists (those in the PSOE: it's necessary to clarify, because there are socialists in several parties) find themselves in the surreal position of criticizing another socialist because he did things typical of socialists. Of course, the PSOE has always been indifferent to consistency and has already shown that modesty is not one of its characteristics.

In turn, this case puts the PP in a trouble ahead of the next general elections. As was clear between 2011 and 2018, there's no point in removing the PSOE from power if its place is taken by Socialists from another party. All we achieve by doing this is making us Spaniards lose not only their income, their patience, their peace of mind, and even their jobs, but also that precious thing I mentioned at the beginning of this article: time.

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Photo: La Moncloa. The then Minister of Finance, Cristóbal Montoro, at a press conference following the Council of Ministers meeting on September 30, 2016.