Spain Notes, Dec 12: Abascal's Argentina comments + amnesty bill to parliament

1/ The Socialist Party is to seek criminal charges against Vox and Abascal for his Argentina remarks and his recent alt-right led protests outside PSOE headquarters buildings around Spain.

2/ Vox replied that the socialists were going to amnesty “hundreds of criminals and fugitives from justice, convicted of terrorism, the misuse of public funds and attacking the constitution. You released rapists. You are applauded by Hamas and heirs to ETA”.

3/ Yesterday, I attempted to contact the Clarin journalist who had interviewed Abascal in Argentina, to clarify the quote or perhaps get the audio, and the clip eventually appeared…on the Vox account. I don’t know what that says about journalism and politics in Argentina. Probably the same as Spain.

4/ Listening, we can clear up the confusion over the poor punctuation and misquotes. The commas were in the wrong place in Clarin. The “querrá, que, querrá” bit was Abascal stumbling, pausing, just before saying “hang him by his feet”, as if the Vox leader himself realised what he was about to say, and couldn’t stop himself.

Comment: Abascal's dangerous rhetoric in Argentina

5/ El Mundo: “The violent tone of these words in completely unacceptable”.

6/ El Español: “These threats take us back to times when, in the words of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, ‘the dialectic of fists and pistols’ was dominant”.

7/ It was noticed that King Felipe seemed more enthusiastic about the inauguration of Milei in Argentina than he was about Sánchez in Spain.

8/ Parliament will start debating the amnesty bill this afternoon.

9/ RTVE is reporting the end of February or the start of March for a date when it is likely to be passed by the lower house.

10/ So Puigdemont won’t be back in time for Christmas, but the PM’s office is apparently not ruling out the possibility of a Sánchez-Puigdemont handshake on European territory tomorrow.

11/ The first PM’s questions of the new paraliament is tomorrow morning.

12/ Pablo Iglesias writes on Milei, global ideologies, political power and media strategies in 2023. Worth a read.

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