Hispanist Ian Gibson on the PSOE crisis: "This country has been corrupt for centuries."

During the presentation of the comic "The Incombustible Life of Salvador Dalí" (Planeta Cómic), renowned Hispanist Ian Gibson launched into an unexpected reflection that overwhelmed the literary event. His intervention, halfway between historical analysis and emotional confession, transformed into a portrait of what, in his opinion, is an ailment that leaves him "feeling like a wreck."

"Corruption is in the people and in the politicians. They express what is in the people," Gibson stated with a grim expression, adding that "this country has been plagued by corruption for centuries and centuries." For him, this problem is not limited to public officials, but transcends a logic that permeates much deeper layers of collective identity.

Gibson, author of some of the most celebrated biographies of Federico García Lorca and Antonio Machado, asserted that "Spaniards have a serious identity problem." He ruled out the possibility of simple historical amnesia: "To have amnesia, you have to survive," he said, and instead described what's happening in Spain as a result of historically having "too much 'fake news.'"

Gibson asserts that the concept of "the Reconquista" didn't exist as such in the Middle Ages, and was "a 19th-century invention" reinterpreted from an economic perspective. "When you conquer the castle, everything the Moor owns becomes profit. Everything is profit. That word: 'win,' sums it up. Here we'll win a lot, but at what cost?" In his analysis, what in Spain are presented as heroic deeds are actually plundering operations normalized by the culture of profit. For Gibson, that mentality has continued to this day.

Later, the Hispanist connected this historical legacy with current political events. In his opinion, the autonomous system has encouraged "every local politician" to see corruption as "the possibility of a dignified life," in a country that, he recalls, is the inventor of the picaresque novel. Far from seeing it as a destructive critique, Gibson presents it as an uncomfortable but necessary diagnosis: "In order to survive, you have to grasp the trap."

He also criticized the fact that many recent political scandals are being treated with resignation, or even understanding, as if they were an inherent fate. "There has never been a real sense of the future here," he lamented. "Everyone is grasping at whatever they can get, because there's no other way out."

In his statement, Gibson pointed out that there is an "obsession with pure blood," a legacy that, according to him, the Nazis inherited from the Spain of the Catholic Monarchs. He recalled how for centuries documents were falsified to prove that one did not have "a drop of Jewish or Moorish blood," and how this generated "a whole business," an industry of social fear and exclusion. "How do these people know how to do it?" he asked rhetorically, referring to those who profited from these fraudulent documents. "Because people were afraid of being considered 'dirty,' and that was a lifelong project. This obsession with blood has done us a lot of harm."

"We're already screwed," he said, almost hopelessly. "We know that the right has always been marked by corruption, but it's not just a one-sided issue. It's structural." In his final reflection, Gibson avoided falling into partisan rhetoric: he didn't defend any political bloc or offer easy solutions.

Ian Gibson has written the script for "The Unquenchable Life of Salvador Dalí," a work in which, together with illustrator Quique Palomo and published by Planeta Cómic, he explores the painter's personal and artistic life and touches on the most talked-about topics surrounding him, such as his relationship with Gala, his political leanings toward the Franco regime, and his immense esteem. The work is based on "The Unquenchable Life of Salvador Dalí," the 1,000-page biography Gibson wrote in 2006, which has grown to 152 in this new format.

Looking ahead to his next work, Gibson says he's thinking a lot about "his countryman" James Joyce and his "Ulysses." At his age, he wants to return to someone who's from his homeland.