Making fun of Spainistan

The end of the "Toro" brand?

 Not so long time ago, during Zapateros’ mandate (the former socialist Spainistan President), the Partido Popular (PP) and its more ultra-fascist line decided to critizise the lack of defense of the Spanish identity by its government. This was theoretically based on his weakness (they called him “bambi”) in several key issues: an excessive position for dialogue in foreign policy; a too opened management of the Catalan and Basc nationalisms, or his isolation within the Europe starting the financial crisis. The conclusion by the more Castellan-Spanish Extreme Right was always the same: Bambi-Zapatero has diminished all what is related to the grandious concept of “Spain” and of “being Spanish”.

It is absolutely amanzing to see now how in less than 6 months in power, Spain has never before been so directly and viscerally attached, till the point of ridiculing both internally and specially internationally, in many aspects, events and fronts. We are going just to focus our attention in those more histrionic, presenting them the more to the less serious:

Foreign policy. During the recently done French elections’ Campaign, Mr. Sarkozy dedicated a sustainedand systematic aggressive narrative against the “Spainof the socialists”, trying in this way to attack its rival, the Frenchsocialist Holland. Sarko had no mercy with Spainistan unemployment rates, corruption and the Economical Apocalypsis, not precisely helping the government of Rajoy (also liberal) to improve their public image for the financial markets. No news from Rajoy.

Economy. Latin America rose up in front of the megalomaniac Spanishness of the PP’s ultra-right. First, Argentina, with the public nationalization of the Spanish monster gas company Repsol-YPF; Bolivia afterwards, with the nationalization of the Spanish electricity company Red Eléctrica Española. Both gave us two direct punches not only to the Economy, but also to the Spainistani Foreign Policy. No news from García-Margallo (the Spainistan Foreign Policy Minister) and some pathetic news from José Manuel Soria (the Spainistan Minister of Industry).

National policy. As we already said in our previus POST, the ultra-right Esperanza Aguirre tried to politicize a sportive event when she attacked directly the identity of the Basc and Catalan nationalisms, besides counting with the complicity of the Spanish TV, that tried to manipulate the reality in order to hidden the whistling against the Spanish Hymn. The final ended up with the senyera and ikurriña (Catalan and Basc flags) tied up together in brotherhood against the most rancid and aggressive imperialist Spanish nationalism. No news from Esperanza Aguirre.

Finally, in sports, and again with our French friends, a campaign was done with the puppets of Canal+ (guiñoles in Spanish), attacking and questioning the successes of Spanistan Sport (in soccer, tennis, cycling…), suggesting in a sharp and direct way the use of illegal drugs by Spainistan sportsmen (SEE VIDEOS BELOW). Also, in society events, last weekend took place Eurovision, in which Spainistan was once again object of fun by our English and Dutch colleagues; they suggested that given the Spanish economical situation, our representative was kindly asked not to win the competition as, in case this may happen, Spainistan would not count with money enough in order to organize Eurovision next year…

Curiously enough, these two last events DID genrate a reaction from the government of Spanistan!. The question of the puppets became a question of national interest, with the Ministers of Interior and Foreign Affairs doing public statements about it, aggressively saying that a letter would be sent to the French Government (whilst nothing was done related to the shameful statements of Sarkozy!!!). For Eurovision, the reactions by some Spainistan Television shows affiliated to the PP have gone beyond xenophobic violence in their speeches…

It is impossible for us to add something else. This is the level of politicians, identity and representation of Spainistan.

A group of hurt former Spaniards.

Ultra-fascism, soccer, monarchy and politics

This is just another post whereby you realize till which extent all the elements mentioned in the title are actually linked up in Spainistan and feedback each other till the more absolute stupidity.

The polemic is installed in Spainistan some days since, focused in the statement done by Ms. Esperanza Aguirre (“Esperanza” in Spanish means “hope”) on the soccer final of the Kings’ Cup, with Barcelona team Vs. Bilbao, a Vasc team. Yes, yes, you are not dreaming: in Spainistan is perfectly possible that the President of the Madrid Regional State makes statements about soccer!. Ms. “Hope” said that if the fans of Barcelona and Bilbao make fun again during the national Spainistani hymn, by whistling or any other means, the camp should be immediately closed, fans expelled and the match if so, be played “closed doors”, as making fun of the National Spainistani Hymn is indeed an offence punished by criminal law.

My foreign readers should know that during the 2008-09 Kings’ Cup final, that was also played by Barça and Bilbao, it came to happen that at the beginning of the match and during the national hymn, both fans and supporters (around 80.000 people!) started to whistle with a loud crash and showed clearly against the monarchy as an institution (the King, his son and other members of the Spainistani monarchy symbolically “chair” this match, as it was also done for decades by Franco, the Spanish dictator). The commotion in Spainistan was even greater when TVE (the Spanish TV) censored these images (this reality!), and it could only be seen through the Catalan and Basc Country TVs. You can see all of this in these videos:

A more detailed video can be found here.

Political reactions, including some of the same party of Ms. Esperanza Aguirre (the PP), took place immediately, qualifying them as “unacceptables” and of “politizising a sportive event”, but the key thing isn’t here. What Mr. Hope actually was trying to do was to divert attention from a political news that came to light some days before: it was publicly known that the Madrid Regional State (that she is the President of) had doubled its deficit, jumping from the announced 1.1% to the 2.2%. This is particularly shameful in Spainistan at the moment because (1) the PP had repeated that the deficit in Spainistan was the only responsibility (and heritage) of Mr. Zapatero, the former socialist president; and (2) that the Region of Madrid, together with Valencia and Castilla La Mancha, where the perfect, good models of excellence as they all are managed by the PP (all of the 3 regions account for almost 35% of Spainistan deficit!!!).

Conclusion: in Spainistan we have politicians able of (trying to) transform a sport event in a ultra-liberal fascist manipulation of a political scandal of corruption and mismanagement, making it up of an act of support to an institution heir of a dictatorship as it is the Spainistani current monarchy.

Fucking bullfighting

Am I right when I seriously doubt that we are in the 21^st  Century?. I’m asking this question because in Spaininistan it has (again) started the bullfighting season, a torture-practice that can only be explained by sadists and animal killers and that is presented as a “Spanish cultural tradition”. Before continue reading, please take a look to this short video:

I would also like to share with you this website that we fully support: http://www.stopbullfighting.org.uk/facts.htm. Please take a look to it because it perfectly explains all the steps of this torture, from the pre-fighting treatment to the assassination of the animal.

However, the aim of these posts is a different one; what we really try to counter-argument is how this practice is sold all around the World as a typical, inherent, intrinsic, feature of the Spanish culture. In our opinion, behind this there is a clear and evident political interest which is aligned with an old-fashion and mellow centralist conception of Spanish nationalism. This centralism pretends to defend the existence of an ancient “españolidad” (Spanishness) with a rooted tradition, culture, language and use of power.

This is just the first post about a long-debated, discussed and controversial issue. But, from now on, we would like to make the point clear: we are neither Spanish-nationalist, nor regionalist-nationalists (Catalan, Vasc-country, etc.); what we hate and we want to denounce here is the systematic use of Madrid-centered political power in order to defend, promote and even impose this artificial perspective of what is “Spanish” and what is not. This deserves the classification as a Spainistan attitude.