Margarita Robles, heeding the old aphorism of Georg Lichtenberg, thought that the best shelter against desert storms is still a tomb, so she dismissed the director of the CNI with the same naturalness as someone who changes the carpet in her office. Thus it is understood that he said that Paz Esteban had not been dismissed but replaced. In reality, she was unable to justify the change, although she clarified that the new appointment to the position was a woman she trusted, since she was serving as her chief of staff.
The storm has subsided and Robles tries to be a tomb, although he would like to be much more explicit, like a week ago, when he dispatched against the independentistas. Lichtenberg was a wise man, no doubt. The minister complied with what Moncloa had asked of her and not for a moment did she think of arm-wrestling the president. He has unconditionally supported Pedro Sánchez from day one, even though it was very hard for him to dismiss Esteban. But she understood the reasons and, above all, did not discuss them. Like the Roman generals in decisive moments, someone must have whispered in his ear: remember that you are mortal. And although she is the most valued in the Council of Ministers and respected by the right-wing opposition, she stuck to the script.
Sánchez has valued the loyalty of Robles, so in his speech yesterday in Congress he gave more explanations about the dismissal, focused on the serious security flaw in the Government’s communications, which has allowed the cell phones of the president, the minister of Defense and the head of the Interior were spied on. When Cuca Gamarra corrected him by saying that he wants to hide that he has given Esteban’s head to the independentistas for having spied on them and that his government represents the degradation of politics, Sánchez furiously replied that the PP is the disgrace of the right and called them hooligans, which as a definition is little protocol and too coarse. It is possible that the president is overwhelmed by having to face a double opposition: that of the PP, which does not lower its tone in Congress, and that of Podemos, which raises its own in the Council of Ministers.
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