The row between the Spanish and Italian governments is leaving the right-wing press in an uncomfortable position. Newspapers of exacerbated patriotism, which defend the unequivocal Spanishness of Ceuta, Melilla, Gibraltar, Perejil – and Rosemary, Thyme, and Oregano if they existed – now find themselves in the position of not being able to puff out their chests at Giorgia Meloni to demand respect, as this would somehow help Pedro Sánchez. I have no doubt that if Feijóo and Abascal were in government, and this same situation of a standoff with travelers occurred, these media outlets would talk about the Spanish government's just response to the Italian president's provocation/threat/offensive. Instead, we find headlines like “Sánchez consummates his threat to Meloni and imposes border controls on travelers from Italy” (Ok Diario)) or “Sánchez goes to war with Meloni” (La Razón). In fact, El País also has a collision headline, but with an important nuance: “Sánchez and Meloni go to war over border controls”. In the first headline, there is only one aggressor. In the other, two. It is not a coincidence, obviously.
The one who comes out best is probably El Mundo, the shrewdest of the right-wing media. Its headline is “Sánchez and Meloni drag the EU into a historic fracture”, which manages to damage the socialist president – a headline with “drags” always ends with scraped knees – but at the same time distances itself from the Italian. Thus, the newspaper that always has verbs like “boasts”, “humiliates”, or “degrades” ready to emotionally shake its readers when it can excite them with the idea of a prostrate Spain, is now concerned about European cohesion. And the question arises on its own: To which of the two banks of the divide will they want to be? The truth is that – with all due respect – I don't know if it's a Meloni that suits them very well to engage with.
