Here are the words of ruthless Frank Underwood: “Democracy is valued disproportionately.” What he said after he came to the presidency of the United States, using a lot of tricks and not presenting himself to the elections. It is an episode of the exciting House of Cards series, a ficción.Pero it is known that many times reality outweighs fiction.

The term democracy is becoming increasingly vague. Far away is its original meaning: the power of the people. The will of citizens has short legs in the current system. Every four years the vote is taken and then the candidates take advantage of this support. It is called indirect participation, but those that go in a transversal way are the parties. We often see how the wind carries the word given the day after the election.

In the recently celebrated Fragmented National Congress, the votes serve for the card game, they are game cards handed over to party representatives. The more, the stronger the position for the negotiations. But what they are talking about is not a democratic mandate or a campaign promise, but how politicians themselves emerge reinforced from the negotiations’ avatars. One to the small, one to the big, but there is no interest for the citizens.

The leaders of the Spanish parties are giving a show in search of an agreement that will allow a coalition government to be formed. Under internal tensions or concrete situations, we are being shown the weight of personalism in politics, which is most discarded. They have a curious way of understanding public representation. It is not surprising that the intrinsic corruption suffered by the public service over the years, with such recklessness from the outset. Cleptocracy is also said to be democracy.

The rest of the lobbyists, those who do not need the ballot boxes, we have also seen them in their grit: economic powers, large media groups, former presidents… They have appeared one by one, one by one, to say what would be most convenient. The parasites of the system in defense of its forage.

And we, here, lost on the road, looking at them. We have been looking at the changing policy in Spain for the last few weeks. When these accounts are produced below the Ebro, it is easy to criticise. Unfortunately, even in our own, the dogs are barefoot. There is a lot of talk lately about the internal democracy of the parties, because they believe that they have much to improve. But in addition, we have to work to ensure that the general public, not just party activists, gets a more participatory democracy and is an active part of popular decisions.

Although many things can be done from nearby administrations, the challenge is greater, as it is the states that build democracies, which mark a supposed sovereignty. This binomial, the state and democracy, has a third leg: to equalize democracy and law. We know a lot about that in Euskal Herria, because we have always wanted to sell that being a democrat is compliance with the Constitution and the legal consensus in Spain.

When citizens feel they have lost sovereignty or before unfair laws, it is legitimate and necessary to begin the path of empowerment and disobedience. To regain its essence and meaning, let us throw democracy in the trash and build a new from the bottom, a new participatory democracy based on equality and social justice. Looking towards Spain is good, even if it is to learn what not to do. Another thing would be that I wasn't there but looking.