Nepotes to the PSOE

The origin of nepotism, philologically speaking, always struck me as amusing. At first, one thought they referred to someone in particular. And it seems that, indeed, there were a number of those toga-clad Romans who bore that name. Like Flavius ​​Julius Nepos Augustus , who became emperor , albeit briefly, and on top of that, was killed by his own soldiers. But we don't have to go beyond Italica (the boot, not Santiponce's) to find the crux and origin of the matter. In this case, the cardinal nepotes, which in Italian is called 'cardinale nipote'. If it already sounded bad and rhymed poorly in Spanish, imagine the jackpot in the original. The fact is that what that word means is nothing other than 'nephew'. And since the Middle Ages and its peak during the Renaissance, in that Rome of the Popes (and forgive me, Fundeu and the RAE, but I can't manage to write it with a lowercase letter, as it seems to me I'm speaking in slang about someone's parents), there wasn't a single Roman pontiff who didn't make a nephew of his own a cardinal. To say the least!

To give you an idea of ​​the level of the joke, the Fifth Lateran Council declared in 1514 that "the appointment of cardinal-nephews was justified by the need to care for indigent relatives." It wasn't a bad thing at all to go from indigence to future Pope, as had happened in several cases. Eventually, Innocent XII had to come along and say that enough was enough of (literal) nepotism, and that the position was over. At most, a single relative could be appointed, just one, but as a cardinal, pure and simple. Without the sinecures (a word that also fascinates me etymologically) that came with being a nephew. These sinecures were not about power, but about earning more money than a former president giving a talk.

The fact is that in Spain we have more nephews (and nieces!) from each politician in power than Donald Duck had (whose children we never knew, by the way, a childhood full of doubts because of Disney, like why Goofy was a dog who had a dog named Pluto. But let's not digress). We are witnessing the rise of nephews, cousins, siblings, partners, double partners, and foster nieces, the kind that priests used to be said to have, but now things have become secular and ministers in public positions have them like mistresses. Since we're going to pay for the mess, it's better to do it at the expense of the treasury (public, like the niece, obviously). And we're stuck between sex and dominance, so much so that some do it brazenly, like someone who doesn't give a damn about anything (or many, there are those who aren't satisfied with just one and pull out a catalog as if it were Mercadona's!), and others, for whom gender isn't an obstacle in this matter, do it with remorse. In a way, you know, just the tip of the iceberg. And so we find, for example, the President's wife, Begoña Gómez , who tells you that yes, she had her friend set up. But for occasional occasions. What you'd call intermittent nepotism, really. Favors that are asked of someone who is placed in a position of importance. In this case, things like giving her a hand in front of businessmen and people with money so they'll pay the bill. Seen that way, better than the checkout and the favors that, when they're "nieces," they've had to do for ministers and colleagues in the same car and party.

You see. There's the PSOE, which, having always been so secular, has become Vatican-oriented. What a bunch of cardinals they appoint for us, but we're bruised from paying so many niece and nephew!