The first emotional reaction was laughter. The video released in “X” seemed to have been scripted by some comedian: the Vox de València councilors are seen singing in unison Manolo Escobar’s “Que viva España” animated by a man dressed as a bullfighter. Juan Manuel Bádenas stressed on the social network that it was his way of celebrating the rejection of the 8-M motion in the Valencia City Council. The message was posted at 10 a.m. on Thursday, and throughout the day it went viral with hundreds of thousands of reactions, a large majority calling “ridiculous”, “grotesque” or “shameful” at the Vox councilors and its scenery. Late at night, Bádenas himself, number two on the City Council led by María José Catalá (PP), deleted his tweet.
What Vox is doing in Valencia should not be laughed at and should cause concern to those who believe, who we believe, in individual rights, in the equality of men and women, in the existence of gender violence, in social integration , in the urgency of protecting our environment or in the need to defend the Valencian alongside the Castilian. On the same day as the bullfighter’s number and Manolo Escobar’s song, those same councilors had announced that they were going to eliminate the street dedicated to Guillem Agulló, a young anti-fascist murdered by a neo-Nazi in 1993, in the Viveros garden. The PP, hours later, warned that it was going to vote against this initiative (we will see what it turns out to be, since Vox has the powers in Jardines). The same PP that in the Valencian Cortes had supported an initiative by Abascal’s party to eliminate the Guillem Agulló Award against hate crimes when not long ago it had supported its establishment.
We have been pointing this out for a long time. Vox contaminates the Valencian political scene with its initiatives, full of shocks, especially in the capital, where its spokesperson, Juan Manuel Bádenas, has managed to translate the ideas of the ultra formation into radicality and continually seeks notoriety with many doses of spectacle. . The list of topics on which Vox has highlighted its imprint with high-temperature interventions is long, from the harassment of the poor in the Turia riverbed, the unapologetic criticism of the science of climate change, the declared war on cultural Valencianism ( which they describe as “expansionist Catalanism”), the demonization of immigration as the cause of all crimes and the vilification of the LGTBI community. Generating a disturbing climate that favors the emergence of radicalized opinion groups. It is the magma that decades ago the German philosopher Hannah Arendt referred to as a context to encourage some to charge against democratic and liberal institutions. History does not repeat itself, but it moves forward in circles.
There have been many occasions in which the party chaired by Carlos Mazón has managed to stop some decisions of its partners, especially in the Generalitat Valenciana. But in the Cortes, an entity chaired by Vox, and in the City Council, it seems that the green formation manages, little by little, to dynamit the consensus. Sometimes, seasoned with manifestations loaded with involutionist language or bizarre episodes, such as the one illustrated at the beginning of this article. The PP has the obligation to be more forceful with Vox to prevent Valencia, and the Valencian Community, from continuing to offer scenarios that damage the image of democratic institutions and, in addition, offer an unwanted caricature of the political reality of this autonomy. Among other reasons, because it harms the popular leaders themselves.
PS: The police are investigating an attack by ultras on an anti-fascist center in Castelló that caused a serious injury. The Vox councilors of that city have classified the event as a “gang fight.” If politics does not act forcefully, the facts always find justification.
