Ayuso confronts the king: "America had to be civilized, we arrived and established a new order"

MadridIsabel Díaz Ayuso remains committed to her own agenda, proving once again that she is a maverick within the People's Party (PP). The PP's executive committee had to pull out all the stops on Tuesday to avoid the appearance that its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, was discrediting King Felipe VI for having... acknowledged the "abuses" in the conquest of America. A day later, the Madrid president skipped the attempt to fair play and has directly confronted the Spanish monarch, who long ago that infuriates the right"We, the Christians, arrived and established a new order and, above all, a way of understanding that life is sacred. It was necessary to civilize and bring a different way of life to the New World," he stated unequivocally in an interview with OK Daily"I am very proud and I have always maintained this," she added. Unlike the king, Ayuso believes that the "abuses" were basically "committed" by the Aztecs and the Mayans "against the native population" because "they understood sacrifices as part of rituals."

Just on Tuesday, Felipe VI's words were received positively by Mexico. The country's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, saw it as a starting point and acknowledged that it represented a "gesture of rapprochement" from the head of state with the "recognition of excesses and exterminations" that occurred "during the arrival of the Spanish." However, what the king said generated discomfort and contradictions within the People's Party (PP). The one who started the debate was Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who, in an interview with EsRadio, downplayed the significance of the issue and framed the words as part of an informal "conversation" and not an "institutional" declaration or speech. However, she immediately corrected him: "To examine events from the 15th century in the 21st century is absurd."

Later, from Congress, the PP's parliamentary spokesperson, Ester Muñoz, clarified that Feijóo was not criticizing Felipe VI's statement and asserted that the words of the PP leader and the monarch "perfectly align." In Genoa, Muñoz affirmed, they "couldn't agree more" with Felipe VI's declarations. Furthermore, she lamented that Feijóo's statements had been taken out of context: she argued that the king was precisely saying that "it's not advisable to engage in presentism," that is, "not to look at what happened in the 15th century with 21st-century eyes." "It's exactly the same thing Feijóo said," she concluded. Ayuso also weighed in: "You can't look at the past through the lens of the present; it's somewhat what he was saying as well."

What happened? In a conversation with the Mexican ambassador to Spain during a visit to the exhibitionHalf the world. Women in indigenous MexicoKing Felipe VI admitted that some of Spain's actions, viewed through the lens of current values, are not something to be "proud of." Despite the king's words, Feijóo expressed his "pride in the legacy" of the Spanish in the Americas and boasted that the Catholic Monarchs brought "human rights, universities, and hospitals" to indigenous peoples. The president of the Madrid region echoed this sentiment, believing that "the work and missions on the continent have changed the world" and that "the world would be incomprehensible without the work of the Spanish monarchy."