He was the last to speak and the one who spoke the least, despite being the protagonist of the event, since his new book was presented, The art of governing, from the Almuzara publishing house, directed by Manuel Pimentel, Minister of Labor with José María Aznar. And he did it in his own language, regional: “Sometimes it is urgent to wait”; I know that many people who voted for me and people who did not vote for me do not think the same, but everyone is as they are and I am as I am”; “Tariffs are bad for everyone, including that person you are thinking about [Donald Trump]”. He didn’t say “chisgarabís”, but he did say “wardrobe”. And it caused a lot more laughter than there was at the presentation of Aznar’s book just a few weeks ago in the same space: the Rafael del Pino auditorium, in Madrid. There were also more friendly faces: almost all of his entire cabinets between 2011 and 2018 accompanied him, including the former Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz, awaiting trial. And he wasn’t Aznar, just as Rajoy was not present at Aznar’s presentation.
The former president, shielded at the table by the candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo and by Benigno Pendás, at the head of the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, spoke about his book, something that the current leader of the PP barely did, who dedicated his speech to attacking the current head of the Executive – “the negotiator of the motion of censure [contra Rajoy en 2018, en alusión a José Luis Ábalos] “You can end up in prison” – and explain everything you plan to do when you evict him from La Moncloa. Rajoy warned of the dangers of being carried away by populism, that is, “the extreme right, the extreme left, extreme nothingness and extreme stupidity” and issued a warning to surfers: “An extremist cannot be opposed by another extremist, but only by moderantism, good sense and common sense.”
The former president of the Government took the opportunity to defend the king emeritus, who was not invited by La Zarzuela to the institutional event on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the monarchy in Spain: “I do not forget King Juan Carlos, who piloted the Transition to democracy and gave us the best years of well-being in our country.”
