Between screams and whistles, we Spaniards do something at the same time

As I would say “Meccano“We are five more minutes away from the countdown.”Between screams and whistles, we Spaniards, huge, short, do something at a time for once.“That something leads us to lower the blinds of this old year that is already ending. An unfortunate year for Pedro Sánchez, so much so that the president has taken fifteen days of vacation to recover and hide in case someone thinks of making the typical annual balance of what he has experienced. Any past time was not better, quite the opposite; but what the president does not know is that any future time can even be worse.

I am not going to give the list of fateful events of “Sanchism”, let each one choose his own heartbreak and his own distress of corruption a la Cerdán, or of machismo and sexual abuse a la Salazar, or of “plumbers” a la Leire Díez, or of the Attorney General convicted by Justice, and place them all next to the tree and the fireplace, inside a huge sack of coal. Things are very dark, not only in Extremadura, but in all of this 2026 that is approaching. We will have to wait a little longer to see when the president decides to face the harsh reality of the polls: tick, tock, tick, tock…

But for me, on these special days of the year, the living dead of politics do not interest me too much, I prefer to remember the real and most endearing dead, those who no longer bother and have given everything and have “decided in their own way” to abandon ship of this world and move on to a better life, or at least a less tense and bitter life, where the truth truly matters and lies have no place, not even an opinion. An authentic and different life that no one can imagine or glimpse. A life without taxes, and without those politicized confrontations that make New Year’s Eve dinners so bitter. That is, a much better life than this one.

When I started to review the list of deaths in 2025, I was impressed by the quantity and quality of them. I thought that there was no longer a famous person or a person left alive, that all the well-known and prominent people had disappeared during these 12 months. You think I’m exaggerating, or that I’m getting carried away by the emotion of this day the 31st, so hold onto your chair and start taking good notes because the list is overwhelming:

Robert Redford, Pope Francis, Mario Vargas Llosa, journalist Jose Ángel de la Casa, Pepe Mujica, former president of Uruguay; Diogo Jota, footballer; Javier Lambán, Manuel de la Calva, from the Dynamic Duo; Eusebio Poncela, Giorgio Armani, Gene Hackman, Guillermo Fernández Vara, Claudia Cardinale, Jane Goodall, British ethologist; Diane Keaton, Alfonso Ussía, Frank Gehry, architect of the Guggenheim Museum; Rob Iniesta; Paquita from Barrio; film director Rob Reiner and his wife; Dick Cheney, Charlie Kirk, Roberta Flack, Francisco Fernández Marugán, David Lynch, Brigitte Bardot and Manolo ‘el del Bombo’… let it be noted that these are only a small sample of those killed in “combat” in 2025.

How I would like to say something about all of them, because they deserve it, but it is impossible. We could affirm that this year’s harvest has been a great one, in terms of good deaths. They imagine having a party without costumes with all of them in that beautiful and quiet place that is paradise. With them, and with the friends and family that one loves the most. For them and with them, and also for those who may read this opinion article: I raise my glass and toast so that we all remain united and very alive in this 2026 that begins its journey tonight. And that in addition to good health we have good love not without some good euros. Happy new year!