With the red card from the World Cup that Trump boasts of having managed to annul only with a call to the president of FIFA, it is the same as with Zapatero’s jewelry. It is not necessarily the most serious scandal that has the most impact, but rather the one that everyone understands. The one that provokes the most memes.
And that President Trump, dissatisfied with a red card, who, by the way, did not even know what expulsion meant before it was explained to him, manages to get the sanction annulled with a call to Infantino, is surely what gives the best idea of how Trump understands power and the rules. He doesn’t care about the second, only the first. And it explains why so many people fear that the midterm elections will not be fair.
The red card is not the most serious thing that a president has done who has NATO in suspense, who threatened to invade Greenland, bombed Iran without clarifying the reasons and encouraged the storming of the Capitol. But everyone understands the red card thing.
It’s like Zapatero. For eight weeks he has not explained the origin of some million-dollar jewelry that appeared in the UDEF registry in his office, nor even clarified whether they have been quoted to the Treasury what corresponds. It is not the most serious thing, in the midst of judicial investigations that include criminal organization, influence peddling and money laundering. But it is the easiest to understand. Since May 19, Zapatero has not had time to clarify either before public opinion or before the judge whether those 1.3 million jewels are a gift or an inheritance or how much he paid for them.
It is the best example of how the former socialist president understands accountability and public affairs at this point. Well, and not just the former president, the president too, because Sánchez has not seen it necessary for Zapatero to give more explanations or to return the jewels if appropriate. Red card for regeneration.
Moral?
Among so many threats, what a paradox
be scandalized by the red card
