Mayor of Madrid said he wants to punish "Russian bastards" and deport Ukranian refugees to fight in war
Almeida (PP) also admitted governments in Spain had no clue what they were doing with global healthcare supplies at the start of the pandemic.
The Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, has been the subject of a prank or spoof call by the Russian pair Vovan and Lexus. Comedy? Satire? Propaganda for Putin? Who knows, but that's not really relevant. The heavily edited 17-minute video, in which Almeida believed he was talking to the Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, on some kind of Zoom call at some point in June (despite meeting the actual Klitschko in Madrid at the end of that month), gives Spaniards an insight into some unguarded comments from the senior Popular Party politician currently in charge of the Spanish capital. Whatever excuses his team comes out with to brush it off now, he seems to have thought it was a sincere call at the time, at least up until the pranksters ended it with "Maybe you remember how I put my dick in your mouth..." during a visit to Spain. Some of his remarks seem worth noting down.
While in public Almeida has made the standard unoffensive remarks about "appreciation and support" and "solidarity" with the Ukranian people, "we are all Ukranians", in the Zoom call he is more frank and bellicose. When the Russian pair put it to him that Ukranian refugees in Spain should not be "relaxing on Spanish beaches" because "their task now is to die on the battlfield or win this war" and so they should be deported back East, the Mayor of Madrid replied that he agreed and that he would even help with the transport: "Of course, I think it's not a problem, Madrid supports the [repatriation] of Ukranian people to fight there. I think and I share with you that it's necessary to provide more soldiers to fight against Russia".
He also agreed vehemently and impolitely with efforts to punish Russians: "I think that it's necessary to punish the Russian bastards here in Spain and in Madrid and we are making all efforts in order to achieve it with the national and regional government", adding that, "the feeling of the Madrid people is with Ukraine and of course to the punishment of the Russian interests here in the city" and "for me it's more important to support Ukraine than to buy Russian natural resources". The energy crisis after the Covid pandemic, he went on, has caused "a huge economic crisis" in Spain, "prices have increased a lot, we have no precedent in 30 years". Almeida also said he believes Ukraine could ensure its future by becoming an EU member state and by joining NATO.
To the suggestion of a protest action at the NATO summit in Madrid in June, consisting of a naked assault on attending members to smear them with excrement, Almeida seems at first not to understand what is being proposed but then says it seems like a "very interesting" idea that "has my support" and that while he probably wouldn't take part personally, he could certainly speak to the Ukranian Ambassador to Spain about it, "probably it's the best metaphor to show the people what's happening currently in Ukraine...I agree with you that Ukraine is naked currently".
In another part of the conversation, while chatting about the Covid pandemic, Alemida admits governments were blindsided by the sudden need to understand global healthcare logistics in March 2020: "It was a jungle, the world was a jungle, and especially for us, we didn't have any knowledge about the acquisition of sanitary supplies from China, in Turkey or in Malaysia. We didn't have any experience about it".
Opposition politicians have noted that the Mayor was indeed taking the call seriously up until the end, despite excuses now the video has been published. Rita Maestre (Más Madrid) said: "They were making an unfunny 'joke' but on the other end, Almeida was replying in earnest. Offering support to deport Ukranians to the front or punishing Russian 'bastards' are worrying statements from the Mayor". Pablo Echenique (Podemos) said: "It's pathetic that Almeida thinks he is speaking to the Mayor of Kiev and some of the jokes are funny, but there are also dark moments. Here he offers to deport Ukranian refugees to go and die at the front. This is the PP when they think noone is listening".
I agree. Given how much politicians from all parties and at all levels constantly try to spin their public narratives and hide their real thoughts on a gigantic variety of public interest topics, Almeida should be asked openly about his genuine views as he expressed them during the call on topics of very grave concern given the war in Ukraine and the millions of refugees, Spanish foreign policy, the state of the economy, or the handling of the Covid pandemic. It doesn't matter that it later turned out to be a prank or propaganda. During the call, he believed it was real and he expressed himself with a frankness that is normally now absent from public debate.
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