Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday accused X owner Elon Musk of “openly attacking (the) institutions” and “stirring up hatred” and warned of the resurgence of fascism on the 50th anniversary of the death of the dictator Franco.
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“The reactionary international, as (French) President Macron said a few days ago, (…) led by the richest man on the planet, openly attacks our institutions, incites hatred and openly calls for support for the heirs of Nazism in Germany during the next elections,” denounced the socialist leader, without mentioning the billionaire by name.
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On Wednesday, the head of French diplomacy Jean-Noël Barrot urged the European Commission to act with “the greatest firmness” against interference, in particular that of Elon Musk, in the European public debate.
For Pedro Sánchez, it is “a challenge that should challenge all those (…) who believe in democracy”.
“Autocratic regimes are progressing in half the world” and “the fascism that we thought we had left behind us is already the third political force in Europe,” insisted the head of government in his speech at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, which houses the famous painting by Pablo Picasso “Guernica”, one of the symbols of the anti-Franco struggle.
Mr. Sánchez also called for fighting “fake news”. It is “the main weapon of the enemies of democracy”, he insisted during his speech marking the beginning of the commemorations of the death of the dictator Franco and the advent of democracy in Spain.
“Immense sadness”
The Popular Party (PP), the main right-wing opposition group, decided to boycott this ceremony organized by the executive, illustrating the fact that the wounds are still far from being healed in Spain half a century after the end of Francoism.
Considering that this event was political opportunism and had the sole aim of diverting public attention from the setbacks of Mr. Sánchez, several of whose relatives in particular are targeted by legal investigations, the leader of the PP Alberto Núñez Feijóo preferred to go to the Valencia region, affected by the deadly floods of October 29.
“Sánchez, with Franco. Feijóo, with the Valencians,” commented the PP in a press release.
King Felipe VI was not present either, citing agenda reasons, according to the government.
Dictator Franco ruled Spain from the end of the civil war in 1939 until his death at the age of 82 on November 20, 1975. Two years later, Spain celebrated democratic elections and, in 1978, the current Constitution was adopted by referendum.
“It is not necessary to be of a certain ideology, neither left, nor center, nor right, to look with sadness, with immense sadness and also with terror, the dark years of Francoism and fear that this regression is not repeated,” declared Mr. Sánchez in response to criticism of the PP, heir to a party (Popular Alliance) founded in 1976 by a former Franco minister.
The initiative to commemorate the death of the dictator was announced in December by the Prime Minister and had the “single objective” of “highlighting the great transformation achieved during this half century of democracy”, he explained.
Franco’s death had until then only been commemorated by his supporters during masses at his imposing mausoleum about fifty kilometers from Madrid, from which his remains were finally moved in 2019 at the initiative of Pedro Sánchez.
The latter also passed a “democratic memory law” in 2022 which provides in particular for the creation of a register of victims of Francoism and the removal of symbols of the dictatorship.
But the law did not allow the torturers still alive to be tried, who benefited from the amnesty law passed during the transition to democracy.
