“Organized disinformation erodes public trust, discredits the advances made in equality and rights and erases from collective memory everything that in this country we have built thanks to progressive policies. No free society can afford this setback”
Democracy is an everyday miracle that we sometimes forget. It is being able to gather in a square without asking permission, to debate without fear, to dissent without fear of retaliation.
It is knowing that no person will be detained for expressing an opinion, nor silenced for thinking differently, nor punished for being who they are. Democracy in Spain is that common space where the word replaces the shout, where respect overcomes fear. It is equality of opportunities, of rights, and the certainty that every person has a place in public life.
And it is precisely that freedom, so normalized today, which we must protect with more strength than ever.
Because democracy does not weaken suddenly. It wears out when we stop taking care of it. When we normalize attitudes that would have alarmed us before. When we accept that lies are part of public debate. When we allow insult to replace argument. When we let suspicion prevail over facts. And when we forget that there was a time, a not-so-distant dictatorship, in which we could not choose those who governed us, nor meet freely, nor express our ideas without fear.
“Municipal politics is the first school of democracy: here is where citizens see if one governs with respect, if accountability is rendered, if one listens, if one dialogues even when there is disagreement. Here is where we demonstrate that politics can be useful, honest, and close”
Today we are witnessing a particularly damaging phenomenon: the deliberate manipulation of public narratives. Organized far-right groups —sometimes acting in the shadows and other times in plain sight— spread falsehoods, distort facts, and fuel a climate of permanent suspicion.
They use social media to reach those who do not remember, did not live through, or are unaware of what it meant to be deprived of freedoms. And they do so with a clear objective: to erode trust in institutions, discredit the advances made in equality and rights, and erase from collective memory everything this country has built thanks to progressive policies that have expanded freedoms, strengthened public services, and guaranteed rights that did not exist before.
We cannot allow these lies to circulate unchecked. We cannot accept that the dictatorship is trivialized, that equality between women and men is ridiculed, that public education is attacked or that the idea that “everything is the same” is sown. Because nothing is the same. Every right we enjoy today was conquered with effort, with dialogue and with courage. And every setback always begins with indifference.
As mayor of San Bartolomé, I deeply believe in daily work, in education, in active listening and in historical memory as pillars of a healthy coexistence. Municipal politics is the first school of democracy: here is where the citizenry sees if one governs with respect, if one renders accounts, if one listens, if one dialogues even when there is disagreement. Here is where we demonstrate that politics can be useful, honest, and close.
That is why we must firmly reject certain practices that today have become too frequent: turning disagreement into enmity, delegitimizing institutions when they do not favor us, spreading half-truths, attacking women's rights or trivializing the authoritarian past of our country. None of that builds. All of that divides.
The Spanish democracy was conquered with effort.
We cannot allow it to be diluted amidst disinformation, tension or misunderstood nostalgia. Freedom is not inherited: it is cultivated, it is built, it is taught and it is practiced. And it is defended from whoever distorts or manipulates it.
Democracy is not perfect but it is the only system that guarantees that we can build a better future than our past. Taking care of it is our duty.
