The mafia, the mafia!

"Either democracy or mafia", the slogan that the PP is now using as a battering ram to bring down the sanchismo, is a phrase that again bears a surprising resemblance to the oft-quoted joke from the magazine Brother Wolf, a work by the cartoonist Ramón, in which a speaker called out to the crowd: ""Either us or chaos!" People responded to him: "Chaos, chaos!"And he:"It doesn't matter, it's us too"The PP, referring to anyone as a mafia, has an effect that can be humorous or irritating, depending on how we receive the message."

When demonstrations are held against its policies, the PP usually resorts to two arguments: that these are "political" protests, and by that they mean manipulated, and that, by calling for mobilization, the left "wants to win in the streets what it hasn't been able to win at the polls." To ward off the danger of holding a "political" demonstration, the PP hides the party flags and displays only Spanish flags. In this way, according to them, the demonstration ceases to be "political," because the Spanish flag is supposed to be a "neutral" symbol, neither for nor against anyone. False: the Spanish flag, due to the way it is used in the present and in recent history, is one of the most aggressive nationalist symbols among those active in the European Union. Like all nationalist symbols, it is for domestic consumption, and its content is furiously exclusionary: it represents the dividing line between those who can and cannot be considered Spanish, those who are and are not admitted as Spanish. The Madrid president, Ayuso, knows how to take advantage of this, supported without reservations and without hesitation - "without complexes", as they like to say very Spanish and very Spanish– in textbook xenophobic rhetoric, which pits "them" against "us." At this Sunday's demonstration, he lashed out at those who are "unnecessary," referring to those who "invent identities" other than Spanish. Regarding the already over-reported episode from Friday, just one thing I don't know if it's been said enough: abandoning a meeting because Catalan is being spoken is like abandoning one because there are black people or women. It's equally supremacist, and equally unacceptable.

Regarding winning in the streets what hasn't been achieved at the polls: what the PP has achieved is generating a climate of social hatred against Pedro Sánchez, who is no longer a president, much less a person, but a fairground figure used to vent irrationality and base instincts. It's a perceptible hatred: in everyday life, it's not difficult to find people who usually behave blandly, but who become tense as soon as they hear or read Sánchez's name. If you ask them, they exclaim against "what the socialist leader has done." But no one knows exactly what "he has done." Thus, without a speech, without proposals, with no motivation other than the toxic ball of nonsense they selflessly push, the PP manages to gather on a Sunday morning fifty or one hundred thousand Spaniards convinced that their country is experiencing a national emergency. That's no small feat.