The people of Paiporta have many reasons to be outraged at their leaders. Not just the careless handling of pre-flood warnings. Not just the deaths and the days they were mired in. Not only because of everything they lost, but also so many lives: homes, cars, businesses… Not only because of the chaos that still reigns in some areas of Valencia, several days after the floods. Also because of this terrible feeling of abandonment.
This Sunday, the last thing Paiporta needed was a visit from the authorities, which initially caused much more urgent tasks to be interrupted for several hours. In this same street of Paiporta, there are still several flooded garages, where there could 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.
This field trip was an absolute mistake. An institutional statement from the king from the emergency center would have been preferable, explaining that he would not go to Ground Zero so as not to interrupt rescue operations. Going to Paiporta was a commitment of the Royal House, as confirmed by different sources from the Generalitat and the Government. And what happened there ended up being a huge gift to the far right and hate speech, which always thrives during tragedies.
It is the same extreme right, it must be remembered, which denies climate change and insults meteorologists and scientists.
Since Saturday – when the king’s visit to Valencia was announced – several far-right agitators have started 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 ultra networks in Spain.
Some of the worst things that happened in Paiporta were not spontaneous. Not casual. Even the “neighbors” did not light the flame of this fire because most of the ultras who were there did not even come from this city. The far right played a very important role in what happened this Sunday in Paiporta, as they themselves claim in their messaging groups and on their social networks.
I’m also sure that the majority of people who protested yesterday are actually neighbors who are outraged by what happened. There are many reasons for this. The management of the Generalitat Valenciana has been disastrous. And the central government should put clearer pressure on Carlos Mazón to act, not just offer help.
The ultra strategy – which a good part of the right also plays – is quite obvious: take advantage of the indignation over the tragedy to direct this wave against the government. Faced with the obvious incompetence of the Generalitat, exploit the anti-political discourse: everyone is equal.
It is also not true that these violent attacks against Pedro Sánchez are a consequence of anger against the management of DANA. The ultra groups that destroyed the car of the president of the government and threw stones and sticks at him – like Revuelta, the youth organization promoted by Vox – are the same ones that lynched a Sánchez doll at the door of Ferraz, he not that long ago. Now they are using the Valencia tragedy as an excuse, because everything is working for them.
The king should not have requested this visit. Nor having stayed after the start of the riots. Many today applaud his “courage”, for going to speak to the neighbors – but also to the ultra violent, who were both there.
There is no doubt that what happened gives rise to many general analyses, which are repeated everywhere. We can summarize it with the thought “I’ll wait for you outside if you have balls”: those who see it as virtuous behavior to endanger one’s physical integrity in an irresponsible manner and with no other value than symbolic. In short: this idea that the king was a hero for staying and Sánchez a coward, for leaving so as not to be lynched.
I do not share this idea, which seems to me to be the speech of a tyrant. What the king did went well for him, but it was an imprudence that could easily have resulted in serious trouble. I also don’t think some of these ultras would have been as willing to listen to Pedro Sánchez.
In this anti-democratic mud which floods the public debate, another red line has been crossed. This Sunday, a president of the government was attacked. And many people applauded him.
