Two more stickers for the ultras album

Making a virtue out of bad habits is a strategy older than walking and Manuel Fraga Iribarne already knew it when, in 1960, he came up with that brilliant and terrible advertising slogan at the same time: "Spain is different". Pride of isolationism and autarky; very clever. I thought while reading the cover ofThe World This Monday, and that beautiful duo of front-page headlines it gave us, about Portugal and Romania: "The conservative coalition wins, but the extremist Chega soars" and "The pro-European candidate Dan halts the rise of the ultra-right George Simion." Keywords: extremist and ultraOn this global playing field, which is increasingly becoming more pessimistic, we now have two more countries where institutionalized intolerance and hate speech are gaining ground. But the dominant media in Spain continue to refuse to admit that extremist and far-right options are also proliferating in their territory. They know this perfectly well, but they know it's taboo to write about it, as it would irritate a significant portion of their readers.

And so, in the sticker album of the great involutionists of the 21st century, the box corresponding to Spain remains unmarked, and when Vox is mentioned, the inner workings of the public are searching for ways to identify it without using taboo words. The most common tactic is to label the PP as center-right, thus attempting to make people believe that Abascal's party is simply a stand-up party. It would be a short-sightedness worthy of Rompetechos if it weren't for the fact that it is a case of well-intentioned cynicism: if Vox has achieved anything, it is precisely to drag the PP toward a right wing that is already treading, albeit uncomfortably, on the swampy terrain of the far right. Spain will be so different whatever you want to believe, but it does not escape having the extreme right and the only unusual thing is that certain press denies it.