cuasi próximo al PSOE con una ley a gusto del núcleo duro

09:18 Jan 22, 2014 

Thanks for clearing this up - looks like I'll need to pay more attention to what individual Spanish politicians are doing!

16:34 Jan 19, 2014 

My interpretation is that he is known as moderate and *closer* to the PSOE* than the rest of the party and now he is leaning towards the hardliner´s core, interpreted as hardliner´s hardliners, or simply the party´s hardliners and not as the party´s core or base

09:49 Jan 19, 2014 

I think "núcleo duro" is a set phrase, which became established because there is a natural tendency to think of the core of something as hard rather than soft. In a set phrase, one word tends to call forth the other automatically: duro calls forth núcleo. And the semantic specificity of the word called forth by customary collocation will tend, potentially at least, to be reduced.

09:41 Jan 19, 2014 

I actually get 77 results for "núcleo moderado" plus "partido", but I'm not in the least surprised to find that it's unusual. It's perfectly possible, in principle, for the moderate element of a party, rather than its hardline element, to constitute its core, its base. And yet "núcleo moderado", or indeed "núcleo" plus anything apart from "duro", is rarely said. That's exactly my point: "núcleo duro" is a set phrase, an established collocation of words. To my mind, this makes it less likely, rather than more, that "núcleo" really means "core". "Núcleo duro" is just what one commonly calls the hardline element of an organisation. Sometimes one really means to say that it is the central element, but sometimes just that it is the hard element. I think there's an analogy with "hardcore" in English, which (in porn, punk, or whatever) often just means the "hard" end of the spectrum.

02:24 Jan 19, 2014 

There is still that stubborn word 'núcleo' which it takes a bit of a stretch to interpret as either a) a superfluous word, or b) meaning sector/faction, i.e. one among several, or even one of two.

My contention: 1) 'núcleo' refers to something central, predominant, of which there is one (note cellular and atomic metaphors present in the word); 2) the most active, committed members of parties tend to be more ideological than the totality of a party's voters in a particular general election; and those active, highly committed members have a disproportionate influence in internal or primary elections. What you say about most PP voters being opposed to the law on abortion, does not, I think, apply to the base of most committed, loyal PP'ers. And that's the group that the text, as I read it, has Gallardón appealing to.

N.B.: Google search of 'núcleo duro del partido' yields 168,000 results, while 'núcleo moderado del partido' yields 4. Not 4 thousand; just four. The phrase 'núcleo moderado', in political parlance, can be fairly said not to exist. If 'núcleo' only meant sector/faction, this result would not obtain (as the corresponding search for 'sector moderado/duro' shows.

00:49 Jan 19, 2014 

I'm thinking about the Tea Party in US politics. They are the hardliners in the Republican Party, but they are not the party's base. They don't even share a common political philosophy. Groups within the Tea Party have different agendas; their only point of agreement is that the mainstream Republican Party is not conservative enough.

00:02 Jan 19, 2014 

Your argument, as always, is cogent, and it's certainly true that "núcleo duro" could mean the party's base or core. But I think it's also possible to read "núcleo duro" as a set phrase which doesn't really mean anything more than "sector duro". That's how I read it here. There are strong reasons to believe that most PP voters (let alone most Spanish voters in general) are actually opposed to the new law as it stands. The sector of the party that really welcomes it is (of course) the religious right. These people are vocal and influential, and no doubt consider themselves the core of the party, but it's not at all clear (to me, at least) that they really are, and I'm not sure a Spanish political commentator would currently describe them as such on this issue. You could argue that the core of the party is more like Rajoy: conservative but not religious fundamentalist.

In any case, most major parties, including this one, are commonly seen as being composed of "hardliners" and "moderates". Always an over-simplification, no doubt; but I think "hardliners" will not be understood as just another faction but as the more ideologically radical of (basically) two alternatives.

12:56 Jan 18, 2014 

Peter's right. It means that previously Gallardón has been regarded as moderate and close to the PSOE, and the hardline abortion act is designed to change that image, which clearly does him no favours with a large and influential part of his own party. So he seems to be determined to reduce his reputation for moderation and for being close to the opposition by championing a very conservative law that will please PP hardliners.

12:51 Jan 18, 2014 

His moderate and almost PSOE-like profile or something like that.

12:49 Jan 18, 2014 

I think cuansi próximo is describing Gallardón, together with moderado.