In 2011, I had the chance to spend part of May in Madrid. As spring erupted, golden youth gathered in the streets to protest against “elite”, “corruption” and “bipartisanship”. In the principal cities of Spain, the Indignados movement improvised savage assemblies.
It looked like a strange tribe from the Amazon had invaded the Puerta del Sol. Sitting on the ground, the activists practiced an obscure sign language beside which the so-called “inclusive” writing would be almost intelligible. Without warning, they waved their hands frantically, raised their arms or crossed them. A mysterious choreography which, according to insiders, was “participatory democracy”.
From these movements will be born a radical left political party called Podemos. Led with an iron fist by Pablo Iglesia, in the 2015 and 2016 elections, he managed to push the old Social Democratic Party (PSOE) to its limits. In 2019, he will even succeed in imposing himself in the government coalition.
However, last Sunday, during the regional and municipal elections, this extreme left was practically wiped off the map. With barely 0.59% of the vote, it is no exaggeration to speak of sinking. Even the popular mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, was swept away by the wave.
The lessons of this rout are so obvious that they should be heard far beyond the Iberian Peninsula. Like a large number of parties from this movement, Podemos confined itself to a form of societal dogmatism. Never mind that this radicalism defies the common sense of voters.
It is therefore not surprising that the party has accumulated fiascos. Like that of the law Sólo sí es sí (“only a yes is a yes”). Entering into force in October, the law was supposed to combat sexual violence and become “the spearhead of a new generation of feminist rights”. According to the text, any sexual relationship without explicit consent would henceforth be considered as rape without it being necessary to prove the violence or intimidation. In their haste, the elected officials had not foreseen that by removing any distinction between abuse and aggression (including rape), the law would mechanically reduce the minimum penalty incurred by the aggressors. As a result, its promulgation led to dozens of sentence reductions across the country!
In order to “place Spain at the forefront of social and individual rights”, Minister Irene Montero, who is also the partner of Pablo Iglesia, passed one of the most liberal laws in Europe allowing everyone to choose her “gender identity”. It does not matter that 65% of voters persist in judging this new right “problematic” and that 66% oppose it with regard to minors. A symbol of the radicalism that characterizes the Spanish left in this area, in Aragon, trans quotas have been put in place for the teacher competition, even if it means not filling these positions if no candidate presents itself.
It would be wrong to consider what is happening to Podemos as an exception. The same fate recently befell Nicola Sturgeon. Last year, the Scottish Prime Minister was not afraid to immolate her independence ideals on the altar of Gender Recognition Reform Bill. A law rejected there too by a clear majority of Scots and which put an abrupt end to his political career.
This mania for imposing on peoples a morality that he hardly relishes is not limited to Spain. Everywhere, this societal leftism triggers the same scenarios of rejection. The first country in the world to recognize gender dysphoria, Sweden is now much more circumspect on the subject. The Social Democrats are in purgatory. The same is happening in Finland and the UK.
This return to solid ground does not explain everything, but it is part of this rejection of the radical left observed elsewhere in Europe. This progressivism bordering on caricature seems particularly virulent in former Catholic countries like Quebec. As if, after having been practitioners to the ears, they never ceased to eradicate even the slightest trace of their history. In Spain, any hesitation with regard to ambient progressivism is quickly interpreted as a legacy of Francoism. A term brandished in Spain as “the great blackness” in Quebec or “Petainism” in France.
What some call the “progressive runaway of Spain” is perfectly illustrated by Ana Obregón. This television star was the delight of the sensational press this week. She was coming back from Florida where she had become a mother… at 68! And this, thanks to a surrogate mother inseminated with the sperm of her own son who died in 2020. The one who is at the head of a fortune of 30 million euros does not rule out the idea of giving him a little brother or a little sister.
Is this a sign of the times? The program that Telecinco devoted to him had a monumental flop. As if the viewers instinctively felt that there were limits to wanting, as the song says, “everything, now and here”.