It’s been an ongoing dynamic in the Legislature that was repeated this Tuesday. Whenever the governing party criticized or questioned any attitude, non-exemplary practice or even possible crime – in the case of Juan Carlos I, related to a member of the Royal House – the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos considered the coalition executive “attacking” Spanish institutions and even the state. was attacking. In this way, rights seek to patrimonialize the monarchy. They claim that they are the only forces that protect him and thereby politicize the image of the head of state, who is supposed to be neutral in the constitution.
A new attempt to seek protection for the king came this Tuesday as a result of Felipe VI’s attitude during the inauguration of Colombia’s new president, Gustavo Petro, on Monday in Bogotá. The king was the only head of state to sit at the entrance to the Act of the Sword of Simón Bolívar, a symbol of the Latin American countries’ struggle for independence. Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, wanted to show it during a rally attended by dozens of international leaders who stood up at Saber’s entrance. However, Felipe VI remained in his seat. However, according to VanguardThe king stood up as the flag went up.
The images were shared on social networks and late on Monday, a member of the Podemos government condemned the monarch’s attitude, saying he did not lack “respect” for “the solemn symbol that represents the independence and sovereignty of the Latin fraternity.” America”. The party’s leadership, led by Social Rights Minister Ione Bellara, took the king’s gesture “extremely seriously” and demanded the executive to explain whether the foreign ministry “approved” Felipe VI’s position. He was also criticized by the leaders of ERC or EH Bildu, the usual partners of the government.
The answer came this Tuesday. The Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolaños, considered the controversy caused by the king’s gesture to be “a detail of great importance” and “completely insignificant”. The head of culture, Mikel Isetta, spoke about the “summer polemic” which, in his opinion, only serves to “celebrate some political positions”, referring to Podemos. The king’s position was also defended by the president of Aragon, the socialist Javier Lambán, who called Bolívar’s display of the sword a “trick” fixed by Petro. “Felipe VI did the job and did the right thing,” he tweeted.
The monarchy and the attitude towards the actions of the king has always been a point of friction between the partners of the government. Proof of this is that United We Can spokesperson Pablo Echenique returned to Congress this Tuesday to answer the socialist wing and ask for more explanations. “Minister Bolaños said that the rudeness of Felipe VI towards Bolívar’s sword is of no importance. However, he was the only head of state who did not stand up and was seen on all the televisions of the world. The question is whether this was a decision. He supported the Minister of Foreign Affairs” , – he claimed.
Instead, the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos resorted to a campaign through social networks and official statements that attacked the progressive government and defended that Felipe VI does not stand at the entrance to the sword of Simón Bolívar. Jaime de Olano, who was responsible for the economic zone of the PP in Congress, appeared at the national headquarters of the popular party to discuss that the king “strictly followed the protocol” during the ceremony in Colombia. He also regretted that the executive president, Pedro Sánchez, “allows half of the government to insult the head of state,” certain disqualifications that, in fact, never happened.
Instead, other PP MPs were more powerful through social networks. “Spain was the best colonizing power in the history of the world and to argue that against the populist trend and the black legend in Ibero-America should be the essential work of the government. It is not. Let the mercenaries criticize it. Podemita or independent, normal. Long live the king!” Senator Rafael Hernando wrote in the first tweet. Then he insisted in the second: “Ex-terrorist and current president of Colombia Gustavo Petro arranges Chirigota with the sword of a slave like Bolivar. Official minutes and left Podemite i the ruffians On the other hand, the clothes are torn because the king does not wrinkle. Oh, what an army.”
“Me, with Felipe VI,” Andrea Levy, Madrid City Council’s delegate for culture, tourism and sports, tweeted without elaborating. “Bravo to the king!” Inaki Oyarzabali, the president of Alava PP, wrote in similar words. And Deputy Eloy Suarez added: “Yesterday [el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores] Jose Manuel Albarez took to Twitter to announce the Order of San Carlos, which was awarded to him by Colombia. If he really knew what the minister who accompanies the king is, he should have reversed the order and demanded that the Colombian government apologize to HM Felipe VI.”
Juan Luis Stegman, MP for Vox Madrid and far-right health spokesman in Congress, quoted the story of the king’s gesture with Bolivar’s sword as saying: “It would still be stained with the blood of Spaniards or Colombians who will be killed. Guerrillas. It’s a matter of good eyesight. and memory.” “As he represented Spain, he respected the national symbols of the country he was visiting (the flag and the anthem) and its authorities. Stand in front of the object, no matter how historical, not jokingly, as if they will remove the object. Chairman of muisca zipazaques. Very curious, but nothing more,” added Victor Sánchez del Real, one of Vox’s rough-and-tumble congressmen, known in the chamber for constantly interrupting and yelling at the interference of his political rivals.
Citizens had a moment of confusion on Tuesday before what happened to King in Columbia. Initially, he noted on his Twitter that the king did not stand up and clap when Simón Bolívar passed the sword, and assured that this gesture decided by Gustavo Petro was an “indigenous whim”. They later deleted the tweet. Party sources claim they were “updating” it and sending a new link with a new text, very similar, but accompanied by two critical tweets, one from Minister Ione Bellara and the other from Pablo Echenique, contacted by Ciudadanos. ETA, another right-wing mantra against the government.
“It is enough to see the reaction of Spain’s enemies to know that Felipe VI is once again doing the right thing to protect Spain. The anger of government partners who do not lift a finger against tribute. The killers of ETA are the successes of the head of state,” was the last tweet. Ciudadanos’ deputy general secretary, Daniel Pérez Calvo, for his part, praised Felipe VI’s decision. “Those who would have preferred to see Sánchez genuflect before the blood-stained saber of Spain He roared against the king,” he wrote in identical words to those of the extreme right.
Until this week, however, the Latin American liberation figure in Spain was building a consensus among political forces and institutions of all political persuasions. Even the Franco dictatorship recognized Bolivar with a statue in Madrid’s Parque del Oeste, erected in 1970 but still standing today at the initiative of Carlos Arias Navarro, when he was the capital’s Francoist high priest, after debate within the regime. In addition to the equestrian figure in Madrid, there are various plaques placed by the Democracy and PP governments – which now rule in coalition with Ciudadano – commemorating the liberator.
In 1983, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) began awarding the Simón Bolívar International Prize to individuals or institutions distinguished by intellectual or artistic creativity, social achievement, or motivational action in opposition to society. and first prize paradoxically given to Felipe VI’s father, King Emeritus Juan Carlos Ias a “symbolic act of Spanish reconciliation”.
Recently, the same PP, which celebrates the action of the monarch at the ceremony of the new president of Colombia and speaks of Bolívar as a “slave owner”, took part in a tribute to the Latin American liberator, who is considered a national hero in Venezuela. whose opposition the Spanish right claims to defend for decades and whose main leaders now live in Madrid.
Just one year ago, on July 24, 2021, two PP deputies attended the tribute to the 238th anniversary of the birth of Simón Bolívar, organized by the AyudaVenezuela platform. There, next to his statue in Madrid’s Parque del Oeste, where the celebration took place, popular deputy Valentina Martinez and senator Gonzalo Robles of the same formation were present, supporting Venezuelans “in their struggle to restore democracy.” “Here I stand for freedom in this beautiful country,” Martinez wrote that morning.
Source: El Diario
