The Matrix of Law

Hello, how was your week? Is everything okay?

These days, in the editorial office, we are very proud of two of our colleagues: Raquel Ejerique and Esther Palomera. On Wednesday, Raquel’s information about the accounts of Disenso, the opaque foundation of Vox, was the opening of elDiario.es. It is impeccable work, like all the work she does. Raquel Ejerique is the same journalist who investigated the fraudulent master’s degrees of the Rey Juan Carlos University. The same one who ended up being unjustly accused for almost two years, when Cristina Cifuentes filed a complaint against us. The same one that justice later acquitted.

Shortly after this information was published, Vox’s spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán, was interviewed on RTVE’s La Noche en 24 Horas. Another of our journalists, Esther Palomera, was present, a circumstance that the far-right spokesperson wanted to take advantage of to discredit the work of elDiario.es with lies.

Pepa Millán accused us of something very serious: of having invented the news and of not including the answers that the Vox Foundation had given us and that supposedly refuted our information. She did so by brandishing a piece of paper: apparently an email that – according to her – her party had sent us. Everything was false, as soon became clear. Esther Palomera responded impeccably and dismantled this hoax live. It is a video that is worth watching.

Esther Palomera was very fast and energetic. From my own experience, I know that it is very difficult to escape a trap like this live and to do it with such dignity. She reacted brilliantly and exposed Vox’s lies.

But what would have happened if Esther had not had the reflex to ask for this fake email directly? What image of our work could an ordinary viewer have taken away from the thousands of people watching television at that time?

Santiago Abascal’s party would surely have viralized the video with Pepa Millán’s accusation on social networks. And that’s how a hoax would have been constructed, almost impossible to thwart.

This is one of my obsessions: how difficult it is to combat lies. Yes, the next day we could have explained the details on elDiario.es, said it was false, reaffirmed our news, explained that Vox never answered us… I’m sure you would have believed us. As would the majority of our readers, who know our rigor. But what about Vox voters? And those citizens who don’t read us and simply watch a fight on television?

Slander that there is something left. He lies when he says that there is something left. This propaganda maxim has been the subject of public debate for years. And in recent months, the situation has worsened.

It’s not just Vox anymore. Or its even more extreme spin-off, Alvise Pérez. The discourse and practices of the extreme right have spread to the main opposition party.

What happened to us this week with Pepa Millán and Vox is not very different from the type of attitude towards the press that the PP of the Community of Madrid promotes. Those threats – “we are going to crush you, you are going to have to close down” – that Miguel Ángel Rodríguez dedicated to us. Or the hoaxes they invented about the hooded journalists of elDiario.es attacking the house of Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

This is the same Isabel Díaz Ayuso who accuses the government of “attacking journalists” without anyone responding to her live. The world upside down.

It is a parallel reality, where facts become accessories. An alternative world where the laws of physics do not govern, and even less the truth. A matrix, as our colleague José Precedo calls it. A huge dissonance between propaganda and facts: between the apocalyptic critiques of the right and simple reality.

This week, in various public interventions, we had some examples of this difficult matrix to overcome:

Alberto Nuñez Feijóo. “What you call democratic regeneration is a censorship project. “We haven’t seen anything like this since Franco.”

The PP leader refers to the application in Spain of the same media regulations as those approved by the Popular Party in the European Parliament only six months ago.

Censorship? Another dictatorship? That same week, European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders was in Spain and spoke highly of the government’s regeneration plan. “It’s going in the right direction,” he said.

Is Reynders another dangerous Bolivarian leftist? No, he is a center-right politician, from the liberal group.

Alberto Nuñez Feijóo: “It was not the Bank of Spain, it was Mr. Escriva who increased the growth forecasts. Let’s see if you achieve it by the end of the year or if you just hired a second Mr. Tezanos.”

The data. The Bank of Spain’s review of Spanish GDP growth (from 2.3% to 2.8%) comes after the vast majority of organizations that analyze the evolution of the Spanish economy have raised their forecasts. This is not unusual for the Bank of Spain: that’s what everyone says.

In June, the IMF raised its forecasts for Spain. And just a week ago, the Funcas panel – a savings bank analysis centre – also raised its forecasts. This is a work in which the research departments of BBVA, Repsol, Mapfre, Banco Santander, Caixabank are involved… Even the employers’ association CEOE shares this optimism and claims that Spain will grow more than expected this year. Is this also Escrivá’s fault?

Feijóo’s mockery is even more surprising in the very week that the INE had to revise upwards the previous GDP data, for the umpteenth time. I doubt Feijóo will comment on this. He should start by acknowledging that absolutely everything he has said about the Spanish economy over the last three years has been wrong. I doubt we will see him correct it.

Esteban González Pons: “The government is involved in the coup in Venezuela.”

This is this week’s gold medal in the right-wing matrix. A flat accusation, in the eyes of any uninformed person.

The PP is not the first to accuse the government of participating in a coup d’état in Venezuela. It is exactly the same accusation – but in reverse – that the Venezuelan government is making against Pedro Sánchez: nothing less than involving the Spanish secret services in a plot to assassinate Nicolas Maduro.

Perhaps one could claim under a tinfoil hat that these harsh accusations by Maduro against Spain are part of a convoluted false flag tactic, a Machiavellian diversion plan. But that is not all: there is much more.

Spanish diplomacy has also not recognized the result of these abnormal presidential elections, of which – two months later – we still do not know the most basic data: the vote count. Like Lula’s Brazil, Petro’s Colombia, Boric’s Chile – and absolutely all European countries – Spain has not recognized Nicolás Maduro as the winner.

In recent weeks, the Maduro government has recalled its ambassador from Spain. And while Maduro accuses Sánchez of being a coup leader and the Spanish right accuses Sánchez of being Maduro’s accomplice, it turns out that the Spanish government played a leading role in allowing opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia to seek refuge in Spain.

Another important piece of information: Edmundo González himself has publicly declared his gratitude to the Spanish government “for its support and commitment to the protection of human rights.”

So there are only two options left. Either the Venezuelan opposition leader is also in trouble and is also secretly complicit in Nicolás Maduro’s coup, or Esteban González Pons has uttered a colossal lie with impunity.

The Spanish government is Maduro’s accomplice. Hares run in the sea. In the mountains, sardines.

I’ll leave it here for today. But before I say goodbye, I’ll tell you something new. Tomorrow, our colleague Iñigo Sáenz de Ugarte is launching a new weekly newsletter exclusively for members. will be called Survivor Policy and you will receive it every Sunday in your email. Since you are already subscribed to elDiario.es, you will not have to do anything else: tomorrow you will receive the first one (and if you want to unsubscribe, in this same email we will explain how to do it). I have already been able to read it and I am sure you will like it.

A hug. And thank you for your support to elDiario.es.

Ignacio School

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