Politics is a sport that requires intense physical contact. This is not for the faint of heart or the faint of heart. Sometimes this conflict reaches ruthless levels without the need to enter the boundaries of the Criminal Code. Or being too close to them. As soon as the opponent shows signs of weakness, some begin to notice the taste of blood in their mouths. And it excites them.
Isabel Diaz Ayuso woke up on Thursday with the urge to kill. There will be those who think it was just a normal day for him. It would be excessive. Even bloodthirsty warriors rest for a few seconds. That day, the president of Madrid thought the cards were smiling on him. It was only necessary to go to the end.
On the day of the control session of the Madrid Assembly, he sent a message to his deputies that began “today the left is finished,” according to El PaÃs. He went on to summarize several facts that he believed would benefit the PP, among them he highlighted the imminent agreement that would end the doctors’ strike and the decision of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to close the investigation into the commissions that his brother received. Selling masks
The ad ended with a single, unmistakable command: “Kill them.”
Save the exclamation marks. The instructions were clear and concise. It was a bloodbath.
It was also an order attributed to the Cistercian abbot Arnaldo Amalric, who received from Pope Innocent III the religious leadership of the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathar heresy in France in the 13th century. “Kill everyone, God will recognize his own!” – this phrase is attributed to him in the chronicle of the war, which was written half a century later, probably apocryphally.
In any case, the order was carried out in 1209 during the siege of the city of Béziers. The troops massacred thousands of people without religious distinction. Heretics, Christians, and apathetic fell, many of them in the Church of the Madeleine, where they sought refuge without much avail.
Whether it was premeditated murder or the result of circumstances – the chroniclers disagree – he got a great result. The terror led to the surrender of other cities in the following months. Innocent III had earlier made his wishes clear: “Make every effort to destroy heresy by all the means that God inspires you.”
For Dias Ayuso, the ideologies of other parties are heresies that threaten freedoms and the constitution. Only he can stop such abuses and not his party goons and save democracy. Moderation is a flaw in the defense of freedom.
Personal attacks are a legitimate weapon. He used them against opposition representatives when he needed to. With his main rival, Monica GarcÃa, from Madrid, he was particularly direct. In response to equally harsh political accusations, he even questioned her physical appearance. With the speaker of the Socialists, Juan Lobato, he is also ruthless, although his attacks are not very vigorous. He treats her like an intern who can’t do the job.
If criticized for his ruthless style, he responds to his critics as whiners. “Politics was crying from home,” he said in May 2022.
From time to time, he presents himself as a victim of someone else’s excesses, and it is true that the opposition hits him hard. In this case, there is a helpless politician who is the object of the most terrible abuse, and everyone has to hug him to comfort him. Or one is allowed to think about how important it would be for tensions not to dominate politics. “Disagreement must not turn into polarization, nor concern into tiredness or bad temper,” he asked in a speech at the end of 2021. January came and he picked up the pistols again.
The strategy served him well in the 2021 elections. He combined an apocalyptic prediction of a victory for his opponents with sporadic disguises of moderation: “We cannot make the mistake of dividing Spanish society.” It does not divide society. It cleans it of viruses that need to be removed. He sees himself as a pest exterminator.
When Pablo Casado publicly presented the contracts won by his brother, he again called for the destruction of those who questioned his worth. At a meeting of the National Board of Directors, he demanded the dismissal of the leaders: “What I am asking is that everyone who was part of this campaign immediately appear on the streets.” Married was already settled, but it was not enough.
The question is whether that anger now will be equally beneficial to him in the May election. His tenure in power does not appear to be in danger, but he faces the difficult challenge of securing an absolute majority, without which it will not be easy for him to topple Feijoo if he loses the general election. Without the usual political tension in a pandemic, it’s conceivable that stepping on the tension accelerator could have unexpected consequences.
For the protagonist of the chronicle of events in Spanish politics, these are baseless assumptions. Diaz Ayuso once again portrays the character that attracts him the most. The Dominatrix of Liberty once again demands maximum violence from her people to subdue her enemies. With the same intensity with which Innocent III announced the threats to Christianity: “Faith is gone, peace is dead, heretical pestilence and warlike fury have taken new breath.” Only where heresy once arose is now threatened by communism, taxation, and the minimum wage.
Kill, kill, kill. And then you took out the corpses, cleaned up the blood stains and begged with a melancholy look to escape the polarization.
Source: El Diario
