I understand that many citizens see us as honest journalists like a band of stubborn deluded people. This is how Albert Camus perceived Sisyphus, his “absurd hero”, chained to the perpetual duty of pushing the stone up the hillside.
When the October 14, 2015 -ten years ago the day after tomorrow- EL ESPAÑOL was born, its founders were not deceived.
Although we lacked the details, We knew perfectly well what destiny would bring us.. Not in vain many of us had already gone through recurring incidents.
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In my specific case, due to the double trauma that A left-wing government would have gotten me fired as director of Diario 16 and a right-wing government would have gotten me fired as director of El Mundo.with twenty-five years of interregnum.
It is true that in both cases I got up to start from scratch. But that is not what the metaphor of the stone and the steep slope refers to. There are, in short, examples of reinvention in the face of adversity in all professions.
No. For those of us who have chosen journalism as a way of life, the stone is the res publica or to be more exact, political ethics. Pushing it to the top is trying to satisfy the right to the truth of the governed, in the face of the rulers’ tendency to hide it.
An illustration of EL ESPAÑOL taking its corruption cases to Sánchez.
We are not nor do we pretend to be powerful. We long to be influential, providing voters with the elements of judgment that those obsessed with perpetuating themselves in power steal from them.
It is the eternal struggle between information and concealment, between darkness and the magic lantern of journalism. A struggle that only ends well – and for a while – in countries where there is freedom of the press. Never in China or Russia.
That prodigious interval happens chen the stage lights up and the discovery of relevant facts that were hidden empowers a society to regenerate. Through alternation in power or even by changing those rules of the game that promote rot.
It’s a lightning moment. One of those joyful mysteries that only Sisyphus can understand. Because the stone seems about to rest on the top.
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But the mirage is always ephemeral. What fatefully rolls down the slope is not the job or the prestige of the stone pusher, but rather the collective morale that has fallen off the cliff of returning to its old ways. Because of the natural propensity of any power to become corrupt.
It is the hour of disappointment in which the ‘Flying Dutchman’ has to set sail again and immerse himself in the mist, after having felt deceived, once again, by calling at another port.
But it is also, according to Camus, the “hour of conscience,” in which Sisyphus feels the call of duty again. An unavoidable appeal, knowing that “his contempt for the gods, his hatred of death and his passion for life earned him that unspeakable torture.”
Not all politicians are the same. But every regime of power engenders the same vices.. Just give it time.
Eight years, two terms, should be more than enough. Even governing with honesty and efficiency.
When one or the other does not occur, the flight forward occurs. The cheating ruler tries to perpetuate himself through lies.
It is a pulse that can last for years. To shorten the deadlines, the stone of revelations has to become visible as soon as possible and reach the maximum possible height.
That’s where we are since the hope that Sánchez aroused first turned into disappointment and then landed us face to face in the dirty land of corruption.
Therefore, Sisyphus pushes and pushes.
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When I served as herald of our birth, I announced that EL ESPAÑOL would be “universal, independent, innovative, combative, plural, fair-minded and intelligent.” And that the lion, symbol of the Monarchy and the Republic, defender of the city and guarantor of popular sovereignty, would be our emblem.
In the same way that El Mundo continued the investigation initiated by Diario 16 on the GALEL ESPAÑOL inherited three open cases: that of the illegal financing of Rajoy’s PP, that of the corruption of the Pujols and that of black money managed by Juan Carlos and Corinna.
Pulling those threads We discover the Emeritus’ love nest in the Alps and his tax evasion scheme. Also the secret document signed by Pujol in Andorra that dismantled the alibi of his inheritance. And also the millionaire movements of Bárcenas’ bank accounts in Switzerland.
The three matters were left in the hands of Justice and had consequences for the cheaters. On the political level, the most relevant was the motion of censure that brought Sánchez to Moncloa, exhibiting the same audacity that had twice given him victory in the PSOE primaries.
His rise to power through that route was largely the result of “Luis, be strong.” That is, our reporting journalism. Sánchez doubly deserved the benefit of the doubt.
Even after Albert Rivera frivolously squandered the historic opportunity of having given stability to the PSOE from the center. Even after Sánchez had to throw himself into the arms of the radicals who “kept him awake.”
When the pandemic hit and Sánchez crucially stimulated EU solidarity through Next Generation funds, EL ESPAÑOL called for the closing of ranks.
“As president of all Spaniards, you have the legal resources and legitimate power…”, I told him when he inaugurated the first edition of our ‘Wake Up, Spain!’ “It is a national imperative that you get it right and we should all try to contribute to that.”
THE SPANISH did not spare his shoulder.
Everything changed when after losing the general elections of 23 by a greater margin than González had lost with Aznar, Instead of facilitating the alternation, Sánchez resorted to the spurious exchange of investiture for amnesty.
It was legal but as immoral as the simony of medieval bishops.
And a few months later we discovered the ‘Koldo case’, which later became the ‘Abalos case’, to give way to the ‘Cerdán case’ and now become the main tributary of the ‘Sanchez case’.
A ‘Sánchez case’ in which his wife’s businesses also converge, the position arbitrarily granted to his brother, the million-dollar contracts to his friend Barrabés, the alleged corruption of numerous high-ranking officials, the attorney general sitting on the bench, the adventures of the ‘plumber’ and even the ski teacher’s plug.
Without leaving out such eloquent episodes from his biography as that political baptism as a councilor committed to eradicating prostitution.while he and his family benefited from it.
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Sánchez reacted to the first complaints, amalgamating us in the ‘mud machine’, along with other colleagues who have also distinguished themselves for their revelations. Immediately followed the blatant discrimination in the distribution of institutional advertising, denounced by EL ESPAÑOL before the UN and the Council of Europe.
We now live what Camus calls “our Gethsemane nights.” That dramatic stage not exempt from anguish in which adversaries lurk with knives drawn and supposed friends turn their backs on you so as not to be contaminated by power.
Although we do not have the vocation of heroes, denouncing a Government so endowed with means as lacking in scruples is an endeavor that borders on the heroic.
But “ancient wisdom coincides with modern heroism.” Although we do not have the vocation of heroes, denouncing a Government so endowed with means as lacking in scruples is an endeavor that borders on the heroic.
Not in vain, of the thirteen times in which the occupants of Moncloa have tried to perpetuate themselves through the ballot box, twelve have succeeded. Including Felipe González when he covered up the GAL. Including Mariano Rajoy when he covered up Gürtel.
Those who made people laugh as leaders of the opposition -Zapatero was called “Bambi”, Aznar was called “Charlotín”-, they instilled panic in the Moncloa with the BOE, RTVE and the CIS.
There is nothing as ridiculous as the cult of Sánchez of those of the brotherhood of the raised fist. To their credit, those who try to evict him from his property from the helpless opposition.
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The slope is very steep today, but Sisyphus is a happy lion.
Not because our newspaper has been the absolute leader of the press for 25 consecutive months.
Not even because we are the arch-champions of social networks.
Not even why we have created more than 250 direct jobssomething that no other journalistic company can say in this decade.
Not because we are a reference in areas such as female leadership, sustainability, health, energy or defense.
Not because we have created the “Wake Up” out of nothing, recreated the “Top 100”, invented the “Maga de Magas” and confirmed that everything is possible in Granada.
Not even why our more than five thousand shareholders have finally seen their investment in the newspaper rewarded.
Sisyphus is a happy lion because he is hugging his stone with better company than he could have ever imagined.
And because The author of “The Plague” left his portrait written 83 years agoas if it were the vaccine against the worst evils in the world:
“What we see is the entire effort of a tense body to lift the enormous stone, push it and help it climb a slope that has been restarted a hundred times. We see the twitching face, the cheek pressed against the stone, the help of a shoulder that receives the clay-covered mass, a foot that supports it, the tension of the arms, the entirely human security of two hands full of earth.”
Camus explains very well what our lion feels between roar and roar.: “All the silent joy of Sisyphus is in that. His destiny belongs to him. His rock is his home.”
No one will be able to throw us out of this rocky mountain called EL ESPAÑOL. With me they gave up all hope a long time ago. The sweaty stubbornness of Sisyphus is that of the “absurd man” because it is that of the free man.
Camus explains very well what our lion feels between roars: “All the silent joy of Sisyphus is in that. His destiny belongs to him. His rock is his home.”
That’s why “The absurd man, when he contemplates his torment, commands all idols to be silent.”
That is why the lion looks down with serene superiority at the idolized president who still makes jokes from above.
“Cheer up, Alberto!” says the deified president, as if there were not millions of arms and hearts committed to the same thing as the head of the opposition.
They are arrogant amphibology It reminds me of that double meaning in the advertisement for an Argentine shampoo: “For dandruff.” In its audiovisual version, the speaker reinforced the polysemy of the proposition converted into a verb. Sometimes with a paradiña: “For… dandruff.” Others with a call to action: “Stop dandruff!”
Let the three words that accompany the stone that the tenacious lion of “El Español” continues to push towards the throne of the leader of the Peugeot gang shine on the sky of the city, on that of the entire nation: “For re-election.”
Yeah. “For… re-election”.
It’s in your hands stop it.