These days I'm remembering a lot of a poem by F\u00e9lix Mar\u00eda de Samaniego (1745-1801) whose second part is often forgotten.<\/p>\n
The poem is titled \"Las Moscas\" (The Flies)<\/strong> and reads as follows:<\/p>\n A un panal de rica miel Otra dentro de un pastel As\u00ed, si bien se examina, This is the English translation:<\/strong><\/p>\n To a honeycomb of rich honey Another buried Thus, upon closer examination, I never imagined that this poem would describe a moment in the current political life of my country, Spain<\/strong>, but in the end Samaniego pointed out the pernicious effects of vices, and our society is full of them, and like society, so is our political class.<\/p>\n Ten days ago, the Popular Party (PP) and Vox sealed a governing agreement in Extremadura (see PDF)<\/a>. In this agreement, Vox managed to introduce a concept called \"national priority,\"<\/strong> which it had already included in point 10 of its electoral program for that region<\/a> in December 2025. The Extremadura government agreement<\/a> has included this demand from Vox on page 18:<\/p>\n \"Access to all public aid, subsidies and benefits will be based on the principle of national priority<\/strong>, which ensures the priority allocation of public resources to those who maintain a real, lasting and verifiable connection with the territory.\" <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The left's responses to this issue have been very critical.<\/strong> This Friday, Pedro S\u00e1nchez claimed that this idea of \u200b\u200bnational priority \"violates\" the Constitution<\/a>, A cynical complaint from a prime minister who is failing in his constitutional duty to present a budget. S\u00e1nchez also claimed that this would create \"first- and second-class citizens\"<\/em><\/strong>, which is exactly what he has done with his pacts with Catalan separatism, for example, privileging some Spanish regions over others.<\/p>\n In leftist journalism, the outburst of hysteria has been purely hilarious.<\/strong> For example, yesterday Julia Otero said that the national priority is \"racism\"<\/a>, forgetting that among the millions of citizens who hold Spanish nationality there are people of different races. In an editorial published on Thursday, the socialist newspaper El Pa\u00eds described the national priority as \"a red line\"<\/a> (the kind of lines that S\u00e1nchez crosses without his friendly media outlets issuing even the slightest complaint) calling it \"radical rhetoric\". It is the same newspaper that blessed S\u00e1nchez's amnesty for his separatist partners<\/a>, that granted penal privileges to some Spaniards over others<\/strong> simply because S\u00e1nchez needed the votes of the privileged for his re-election.<\/p>\n As is often the case, the hysteria of the left has ended up infecting the People's Party (PP),<\/strong> which, a few days after agreeing with Vox on the national priority in Extremadura, voted against it in Congress<\/a>. From within the ranks of the PP itself, Isabel D\u00edaz Ayuso and Juanma Moreno have criticized this concept of national priority<\/a>, with Ayuso calling it \"illegal\" and Moreno saying that \"it is very far removed from reality.\"<\/p>\n Vox must be feeling quite pleased with all this<\/strong>, because they're watching other parties' fly-like figures get caught in the honeycomb that the debate on national priorities has become.<\/strong> A debate in which some have raised purely absurd objections, demonstrating that they haven't even read what the Spanish Constitution<\/a> says, whose first chapter begins by making obvious distinctions between Spaniards and foreigners.<\/strong> The second chapter starts with Article 14, which begins: \"Spaniards are equal before the law.\"<\/strong> Spaniards, not foreigners.<\/p>\n In every country there are obviously first-class citizens (nationals) and second-class citizens (foreigners)<\/strong>, granting the former certain rights linked to their nationality. Lawyer Lupe S\u00e1nchez reminded us of this very well in a comprehensive Twitter thread published this Friday<\/a>, which points out: \"The Spanish Constitution and the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court establish three categories of rights depending on whether their holder is a national or a foreigner<\/strong>.\"<\/em> It is astonishing to see how the PSOE and PP have absurdly fallen into a debate that simply starts with putting a name (national priority) to the obvious<\/strong>, to what Spanish laws themselves state.<\/p>\n Thus, Vox has gained a major political advantage from this debate<\/strong>, in which the lines between left and right are becoming blurred. Let's not forget that the issue of illegal immigration is attracting many left-wing voters to Vox<\/strong>, since many people with limited resources who previously voted for socialists now find themselves in neighborhoods plagued by insecurity and public services overwhelmed by irresponsible immigration policies.<\/strong><\/p>\n What is happening in Spain was predictable, as it has already been seen in other countries: the incompatibility between the so-called welfare state and the open borders policy<\/strong>, a type of policy that, in fact, amounts to the same thing as creating an immigration law, not enforcing it, allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into the country, and then regularizing their status. <\/p>\n But Samaniego's poem doesn't end with the flies trapped in a honeycomb of rich honey<\/strong>, which is what the PSOE, the PP, and their affiliated media have done with the debate on national priorities. It also speaks of a fly burying its treat in a cake.<\/strong> The Spanish poet seemed to suggest that this fly was more prudent than the others, but that is not the case: it is hiding that vice that dominates it within an even greater vice<\/strong> and from which it will be difficult for it to recover.<\/p>\n The national priority proposal takes advantage of the chaos generated by the social-democratic model.<\/strong>, siphoning votes from the very socialists who championed that model. This, theoretically, is what should most worry the left, but we mustn't forget that the socialist demolition machine is still running<\/strong>. The crux of the matter is an economy wrecked by a system that, under the guise of redistributing our wealth, is exploiting an ever-growing number of people, both Spaniards and foreigners legally residing in Spain who have been contributing to our country through their taxes for years.<\/strong> A system that was already unsustainable before absorbing a massive influx of foreigners<\/strong>, due to basic demographic issues.<\/p>\n In September 2015, in an article published on this blog, Francisco Jos\u00e9 Contreras pointed out the origin of the problem<\/a>: \"From the 1970s onwards, however, the constant growth of the State began to stifle productivity and dynamism. The demographic winter into which the West has been sinking since the 1970s aggravates the situation:<\/strong> an increasingly smaller percentage of productive young people are forced to support a growing mass of retirees. And, in addition, Europe now has to compete with increasingly competitive emerging countries, less burdened by social spending. But today's Europeans have grown up under the social-democratic Welfare State, and refuse to question it<\/strong>.\"<\/em><\/p>\n Contreras added that in these circumstances, \"the electorates refuse to accept the reforms and cuts that are now unavoidable. Hence the resurgence of right-wing, left-wing, and nationalist radicalism<\/strong> in the last six or seven years. They all share a belief in some magic solution that will save the Welfare State. For the new Eurosceptic right in the countries of northern Europe<\/strong> (also the French National Front or the British UKIP), the panacea would consist of restricting immigration and freeing themselves from the dead weight of the spendthrift Mediterranean countries<\/strong>, abandoning the euro and\/or the EU as a political project (or else they would refound a mini-EU with a scope limited to central and northern Europe).\"<\/em><\/p>\n In March 2015, I pointed out here that the welfare state emerged as a negotiated way to avoid political tensions<\/a> and guarantee economic and institutional stability in democratic countries. This consensus would initially be the result of a certain left-wing group's abandonment of questioning capitalism, and a certain right-wing group's abandonment of firmly defending property rights and economic freedom.<\/strong> Thus emerged a social-democratic consensus in which state intervention in the economy has created the ideal breeding ground for corruption<\/strong>, leading to a massive erosion of institutions, resulting in a growing disrepute of democracy and a rise in anti-democratic extremism<\/strong> (just look at the number of admirers tyrants like Putin or the Iranian ayatollahs have in the West). This is a problem that will only worsen<\/strong>, because its cause is a system that almost no one dares to question anymore.<\/p>\n Today, very few of us still point out that the problem stems from a \"welfare state\" that is only sustained by outright fiscal plunder.<\/strong> Liberalism has now become a \"boomer\" thing, as some \"geniuses,\" even within the right, say, who believe that all this will be fixed by pointing to more and more scapegoats<\/strong> (some are already targeting all immigrants, others all foreigners, and some are even targeting Spaniards with a parent born in another country). It's the same tactic of social confrontation used by the left against the rich or men. Meanwhile, Milei's Argentina prospers by applying liberal policies<\/strong> (the very ones that provoke ridicule not only from the left but also from much of the right). In Europe, the \"welfare state\" has become a black hole from which almost no one escapes.<\/strong> In the end, whether in a honeycomb or a cake, all flies eventually meet their doom.<\/p>\n Today, very few of us still point out that the problem originates in a \"welfare state\" that is only sustained by outright fiscal plundering.<\/strong> Liberalism has now become a \"boomer\" thing, according to some \"geniuses\" on the right who believe that all this will be fixed by pointing to more and more scapegoats<\/strong> (some are already pointing to all immigrants, others to all foreigners, and there are even those who target Spaniards with a parent born in another country). It's the same tactic the left uses against the rich, men, and families with children<\/strong>, families that leftist media outlets have been blaming for climate change<\/a> under the belief that there are too many people. Meanwhile, Milei's Argentina prospers by applying neoliberal policies<\/strong>, policies that provoke ridicule not only from the left but also from a part of the right-wing. <\/p>\n In Europe, the \"welfare state\" has become a black hole from which almost no one escapes<\/strong>, not even many who claim to oppose the left. In the end, whether in a honeycomb or a cake, all flies eventually meet their doom.<\/p>\n ---<\/p>\n
\n
\ndos mil moscas acudieron
\nque, por golosas, murieron,
\npresas de patas en \u00e9l.<\/p>\n
\nenterr\u00f3 su golosina.<\/p>\n
\nlos humanos corazones
\nperecen en las prisiones
\ndel vicio que los domina.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\ntwo thousand flies flocked
\nand, greedy, died,
\ncaught by their legs in it.<\/p>\n
\nits treat inside a cake.<\/p>\n
\nhuman hearts
\nperish in the prisons
\nof the vice that dominates them.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n