The residents of Paiporta have more than enough reasons to be outraged with their rulers. Not only the negligent management of pre-flood alerts. Not only the fatalities and the days they have been mired in. Not only because of how much they have lost, in addition to so many lives: houses, cars, businesses… Not only because of the chaos that still governs some areas of Valencia, several days after the floods. Also because of that terrible feeling of feeling abandoned.
This Sunday, the last thing Paiporta needed was a visit from the authorities, which initially caused the interruption of much more urgent tasks for several hours. On that same street in Paiporta, there are still several flooded garages, where there may be deaths. It was neither the place nor the time for kings to be. Not even the president of the Government. Neither the president of the Generalitat, nor anyone else.
That field visit was an absolute mistake. An institutional statement from the king from the emergency center would have been better, explaining that he would not go to ground zero so as not to interrupt the rescue work. Going to Paiporta was a commitment of the Royal House, as confirmed by different sources from both the Generalitat and the Government. And what happened there has ended up becoming a huge gift for the extreme right and hate speech, which always thrives during tragedies.
It is the same extreme right, we must remember, that denies climate change and insults meteorologists and scientists.
Since Saturday – when the king’s visit to Valencia was announced – several far-right agitators began to mobilize. And shortly before several people threw mud, stones and sticks at Felipe VI, Pedro Sánchez and Carlos Mazón, messages like this began to circulate on the ultra networks in Spain.
Some of the most serious things that happened in Paiporta were not spontaneous. Not casual. Not even the “neighbors” lit the flame of that fire because many of the ultras who were there are not even from that town. The extreme right played a very relevant role in what happened this Sunday in Paiporta, as they themselves claim in their messaging groups and social networks.
I am also sure that the majority of the people who protested yesterday are really neighbors outraged by what happened. There are plenty of reasons for this. The management of the Generalitat Valenciana has been disastrous. And the central government should put more clear pressure on Carlos Mazón to act, not just offer its help.
The ultra strategy – which a good part of the right also plays – is quite obvious: take advantage of the indignation with the tragedy to direct that wave against the Government. Given the evident incompetence of the Generalitat, exploit the anti-politics discourse: everyone is equal.
It is also not true that these violent attacks against Pedro Sánchez are a consequence of anger over DANA’s management. The ultra groups that have destroyed the President of the Government’s car and thrown stones and sticks at him – such as Revuelta, the youth organization promoted by Vox – are the same ones that lynched a Sánchez doll at Ferraz’s door, not so long ago. Now they use the Valencia tragedy as an excuse, because everything works for them.
The king should not have asked for that visit. Nor having stayed after the riots started. Many today applaud his “bravery,” for going to talk to the neighbors – and also to the violent ultras, who were both there.
There is no doubt that what happened gives rise to many broad-brush analyses, which are repeated everywhere. We can summarize it as the thought “I’ll wait for you outside if you have balls”: those who see it as virtuous behavior to put your physical integrity at risk irresponsibly and with no other value than symbolic. In short: that idea that the king was a hero for staying and Sánchez a coward, for leaving so he wouldn’t be lynched.
I do not share that idea, which seems like a bully speech to me. What the king did turned out well for him, but it was recklessness that could have easily ended up with a serious problem. I also don’t think that some of those ultras would have been so willing to listen to Pedro Sánchez.
In that antidemocratic mud that floods public debate, another red line has been crossed. This Sunday, a President of the Government was attacked. And there have been many who have applauded it.
#irresponsible #visit
