2023-05-03 23:07:01
From Madrid
The Spanish extreme right This Thursday he brought up his close ties with the political organizations of his ideological sphere on the other side of the Atlantic with an attempt to boycott the visit to Madrid of the Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Vox, in whose foundation the ultra-Catholic Mexican sect El Yunque played an active rolehas been trying to organize and lead a reactionary international in the Spanish-speaking sphere for some time and took advantage of Petro’s arrival on a state visit to Spain to stage that leadership.
He Spanish government has given to the visit of the Colombian president the utmost importanceincluding a reception with honors by King Felipe VI, the imposition of the Order of Isabel la Católica -the highest distinction awarded by Spain- and a intervention in Congress in a joint protocol session of senators and deputies.
Petro anti-colonialist
On the eve of his trip, Petro made a public intervention on the occasion of May 1 that was used by the Spanish extreme right to try to wreck the state visit. In a speech, the Colombian president alluded to the patriots who fought for the independence of his country “without really understanding if it consisted of freeing ourselves from the Spanish yoke of the Crown, of dethroning kings, dukes and princes, of ending privileges that separated some beings rights of others, to put an end to a productive slave-owning regime that condemned the black man, his family, his love affairs, his children, his grandchildren, to be slaves for perpetuity”. A good part of Spanish society does not accept the critical interpretation of the time of the viceroyalties in Latin America., so Vox took advantage of that intervention to try to create a hostile climate for the Colombian president. “There was never any yoke, but a beautiful brotherhood, with a shared culture, faith and worldview. The only yoke in Colombia is the one that totalitarians like Petro have imposed on his people, ”Vox leader Santiago Abascal wrote on his Twitter account.
Madrid Forum Charter
However, the far-right formation had been organizing a boycott of the visit for some time and for that it mobilized its related pawns in Latin America. This week he released a letter from the so-called Madrid Forum that was addressed to the president of Congress, the socialist Meritxel Batet, in which 157 parliamentarians from both sides of the ocean launched a diatribe against the Colombian president in which they agitated the favorite ghosts of the extreme right. They accused him of devoting himself to “promoting the legalization of drugs, undermining the legitimacy of the Armed Forces and the Police, granting impunity to terrorist groups and destroying the economy.” Among the signatories, in addition to the 52 Vox deputies, were the Argentine Javier Miley and two other deputies from his La Libertad Avanza party and parliamentarians from Creemos (Bolivia), the Republican Party (Chile), the Democratic Center (Colombia) and ARENA (El Salvador). The boycott also included the call by Disenso, a foundation promoted by Vox, for a protest rally at the gates of Congress, where only fifty people attended.
The high point of the boycott occurred when the Colombian president was invited by the president of Congress, Meritxell Batet, to address the assembly of deputies and senators, an honor reserved only for distinguished visitors. At that moment, the 52 deputies of Vox (the third Spanish political force behind only the PSOE and the Popular Party) they left the chamber. The rest of the House, including the PP group, responded by standing up and giving the visitor a standing ovation. Hours before, the number three of the center-right formation, Elías Bendodo, had distanced himself from the boycott by recalling the democratic legitimacy of the Colombian president despite the fact that he might like his political positions more or less. “Mr. Petro is a head of state who won the elections,” he concluded.
In his speech, the Colombian president advocated an alliance of Latin America with Spain to achieve concrete policies against to the climate crisis. He stated that his message sought not “only to remember the past, the marks of history that many are among us”, but also to address what current times demand, mainly the climate crisis.
Previously, Batet had shown Spanish support for the peace process in Colombia. “Our country’s commitment has been constant and unequivocal and we will continue to provide all the necessary collaboration for the implementation of the 2016 agreement and the proper development of the negotiations underway,” he said.
At night, Petro was received at a gala dinner by King Felipe VI, to which he announced that he would not wear a tailcoat, as established by protocol, since it is a garment that “has to do with elites, with anti-democracy”, as he assured in an interview with the Colombian station W Radio in which he revealed that he does not feel comfortable with a tie or a tailcoat. “I have never worn a tailcoat,” he said.
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