The lost mojo

ACCORDING to the majority of pollsters, the PSOE socialists are currently in third place with Ciudadanos out in front and the PP limping behind.

The PSOE regained Pedro Sanchez as its leader and lost its mojo with only 39 per cent of its voters believing that the party has a clear project for the future. Forty-eight per cent believe that Ciudadanos and Albert Rivera have a more defined plan.

True to his usual form, Sanchez believes the best way to counteract the drift away from the PSOE is by entrenching himself still further as secretary general and giving more control to the party membership when selecting provincial, regional and national candidates.

Thanks to the aptly-named militants, Pedro Sanchez heads the PSOE instead of Eduardo Madina (2014) or Susana Diaz (2017). And it is thanks to those same militants – all 187,360 of them – that the PSOE and Pedro Sanchez have yet to do well in an election.

Who me?

ANNA GABRIEL, formerly represented CUP in the pre-Article 155 Catalan parliament.

She is now in Switzerland, where she scarpered before facing the Supreme Court on rebellion charges. With her hair loose and the aggressive fringe grown out, she looked astoundingly demure and maintained that she was more use at large than behind bars. Well they all say that don’t they, Carles Puigdemont?

Special treatment

ALVARO PEREZ, nicknamed El Bigotes (Whiskers) and Gurtel’s man in Valencia, recently declared before a parliamentary committee investigating the Partido Popular’s alleged illegal funding.

For the uninitiated, Gurtel was a corrupt setup of 37 companies which via cash, kickbacks and munificent presents, snaffled government contracts and possibly swelled PP party funds.

El Bigotes singled out Ignacio Lopez del Hierro, husband of Defence Minister Dolores de Cospedal, and Angel Piñeiro Lopez, a close friend of Spain’s president, Mariano Rajoy.

“They dished out the lolly according to the Barcenas papers,” he maintained. “But not a word in the media.

“Call them,” he suggested to the committee. “I don’t know if they get special treatment, or what.”

Perish the thought that Dolores’ hubby and Mariano’s chum should get special treatment. As if.