Good King or Bad King, depending on interest
The manual of the political, media and social left has come to the fore this week with the purest of purity in its forms. Everything that has happened in relation to King Felipe VI responds to the usual script that we have witnessed so many times as spectators, but on this occasion elevated to the nth degree of collective cynicism. The sieve through which opinions and facts related to the Monarchy are assessed has a broad and benevolent side for some, and a narrow and implacable side for others. The mere mention of the positions we have seen since last Sunday is enough to reveal the manipulative strategy surrounding the Head of State:
- First, the words of the regional president of Madrid are twisted, turning her true intention around: wanting to say that Sánchez's government is going to force the King to sign the pardons despite having been the most solid dike of containment against the independence coup of autumn 2017, everyone is led to believe that Díaz Ayuso's intention was to point the finger at the monarch for his responsibility in sanctioning the measure of grace with his signature. Headlines, talk shows and statements are quick to magnify this twisted interpretation of what the president did not really say, turning those who most question the Crown into false defenders of it.
- As the week of the great misrepresentation progresses, there are events that actually seek to undermine the prestige and institutional work of Felipe VI, and that reap the sympathy of those falsely offended by Ayuso's opinion. The president and vice-president of Catalonia announce that they will not fulfil their institutional duty to accompany Felipe VI at the dinner with the Círculo de Economía held in Barcelona. The Government, through its spokesperson Montero, replies that the "ideology" of the parties that decide to boycott the presence of the head of state in their autonomous community must be respected.
- Meanwhile, the ignominy is complete in Congress, where the Socialist Party supports Podemos and the independentistas in their legislative project to decriminalise insults and insults to the figure of the monarch. Neither the declarations, nor the front pages, nor the talk shows now place the same emphasis, nor are they as scandalised as they were when they picked up on the Madrid president's words.
From the misrepresentation of some statements to the justification of others, everything obeys the same old rulebook: I am scandalised or sympathetic depending on my interests, even in relation to the figure of the King. It is the book that has so often been put in front of us.
