![]() Throughout the debate, “Iván the Terrible” (sorry, I couldn’t resist) may as well have been reading straight from a slightly modified Ron DeSantis speech that he ran through a Bing translator. As his party has put the defense of Spanish patriarchy at the center of its neo-fascist agenda, he would undoubtedly object to my gender-neutral description (“spokesperson”) of his role. ![]() Vox spokesperson Iván Espinosa de los Monteros came across as an almost absurd caricature, his presence dominated by a cartoonishly sculpted beard and hairdo and his statements punctuated by ridiculous props that any observer of Republican histrionics in the US House of Representatives would recognize. ![]() I also want to emphasize that while I have a solid familiarity with current political and social dynamics in Spain, I was viewing the debate from the position of a US citizen who can’t help but interpret the Spanish campaign in relation to my own national context. While I won’t be commenting in detail on the regional issues, which continue to be sources of considerable tension within the country, I do want to acknowledge that the presence of the regional parties added a valuable and often critical element to the debate as each of those parties approached national issues from what might be described as a “partial outsider” position. (Click here for video of the full debate in Spanish.) Below are my main takeaways from the debate itself and some of the broader discourse surrounding it. I watched the entire “Debate of 7,” which lasted just over two hours, and was intrigued by the nature of the discussion that took place. Beyond the PSOE and PP, this included the new leftist coalition Sumar, the far-right Vox, and three regional parties representing Catalan and Basque nationalist interests. This one featured seven participants, each a spokesperson for one of the seven main parties contesting the elections. Last evening, however, there was a different sort of debate hosted by RTVE, the state-funded radio and TV corporation. In short, it was exactly the kind of spectacle that viewers of US cable news have been seeing for the better part of two decades - the kind that makes people hate “politics” even as they can’t stop themselves from watching the next segment. It was a predictably brutal encounter marked by frequent interruptions, a relentless torrent of lies and attacks from Feijóo, and a complete failure of the moderators to do even a minimal amount of fact-checking. Over the past week, Spaniards watched the only one-on-one debate between current President Pedro Sánchez of the Socialist party (PSOE) and Alberto Nuñez Feijóo of the right-wing Partido Popular (PP). Now it’s time to dig deeper into the complex political dynamics animating the campaign as well as some of the social forces shaping how the campaign is being waged and covered in the media. In my first article from Spain, I set the stage for the country’s upcoming national elections on July 23, focusing on the threat posed by resurgent fascist movements.
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