The tribal twitterisation of Spanish politics
π°π "If we want a society that respects itself, we must respect each other", said the Speaker last night. That currently does not appear to be the case, and it's getting worse.
π AUDIO
These things fly sometimes. It started on Tuesday in Zaragoza. Carmen Herrarte, the Ciudadanos economy councillor in the northern Spanish city, said during a committe meeting, in reference to the Equality Minister, Irene Montero, that "they are where they are because the alpha male impregnated them, that is why they are ministers", in reference to Pablo Iglesias, with whom Montero has two children. Herrarte later apologised. It seemed like something someone from Vox, not Ciudadanos, would say.
Yesterday in parliament, at the national level, in Spainβs first division political stadium, Vox just could not resist that temptation, and the minister was sitting there right in front of them on the government seats. "The only merit you have is having studied Pablo Iglesias up close", snapped a Vox MP, Carla Toscano. An emotional Montero asked that the words not be deleted from the parliamentary record: "There are more of us feminists and democrats and we are going to stop this gang of fascists in their tracks with more rights", she said.
Vox tried to defend itself. "The people who have done violence and been sentenced for it are the ones who are going to be released", said the partyβs spokesman, Espinosa de los Monteros: "pedophiles, rapists released by Podemos and the Socialist Party". There were several minutes of shouting, mutual insults and tribal banging on the benches.
The Speaker, Batet, scolded them all for being representatives of all Spaniards; they should all have a long, hard think about the images they had just created and what citizens are seeing today: "if we want a society that respects itself, we must respect each other", she said.
Former Vox MP Macarena Olona, ββexpelled from the party after the summer, read the sudden change in the political moment correctly: βTonight, Irene Montero is celebrating. She should have been condemned. She is leaving Congress on the shoulders of the crowd, as a victim".
Indeed, while two days ago SΓ‘nchez was again boasting about his government having the most women in Europe, but not naming his Equality Minister, because she had just pushed through legislation that gives less prison time to already convicted rapists, last night the PM tweeted "all my support" for Montero, "we stand together against chauvinist violence". It seemed βintolerableβ to him that this should have happend in parliament. Today, he thought it "the worst of politics" and supported "coexistence when faced with the shouts of those who offer nothing more than insults".
Now Podemos is no stranger to the populist, vindictive haranguing of its political enemies, and itβs not as if the Prime Minsiterβs statements last very long normally if he believes it is in his political interest to do something else, but the past 10 years have seen a wave of populism with different ideological goals sweep over Western politics.
Podemos on the left, then Trump, MAGA, Brexit, Catalan separatism and now, on the right in Spain, Vox. All of it streamed and tweeted live. That media environment, indeed, has been part of the problem, with politicians everywhere trying to say the next most outrageous thing to grab the next 10 minutes of the new media cycle. Spanish MPs know people are watching them live on TV while in parliament, and they tweet out their favourite clips at the same time.
So what we saw in the Spanish parliament yesterday evening was nothing more than the continued tribal twitterisation of politics. But as everyone knows, or should know, from Twitter, nasty personal insults can get a few mindless followers excited for a few minutes but they donβt make you any friends. They just make you look stupid to everyone watching. I see no signs of this trend abating in Spain before all of next yearβs very polarised elections.
They are becoming very American.