In a state of shock, that's how many people were after learning about the seriousness of what happened during the SER Debate, led by Ángels Barceló, in which five of the six political forces with parliamentary representation running in the regional elections in the Community of Madrid on May 4th were present. All except the PP, whose leader, Ayuso, had already announced that she would not participate. The debate began with a lot of tension from minute zero, becoming a failed debate that nevertheless served for a part of the population to see, without masks or half measures, the true face of fascism. A fascism that in recent years has been fueled and whitewashed, cheered on by a part of the population and with the complicit silence of another, who looked the other way while "the serpent's egg" that has been incubating with total impunity, now hatches and explodes in our faces in the media, without any shame, leaving a large part of the population stunned and not knowing what to do or say as they watch the spectacle.
It doesn't end there, the reactions, some too slow, revealed the perplexity and lack of reflexes of those who were not understanding the magnitude of what was happening, that this was not a brawl between Monasterio and Iglesias, that what was being questioned, without masks and "dog eat dog" by the representative of the far-right fascist party, is the very model of society in which we want to live and for which we have to opt, because half measures are no longer valid. Quoting the exact words that the journalist Pepa Bueno left us in her program "either you are with the democrats or you are with the fascists." Ángel Gabilondo and Mónica García also understood this, when - perhaps a little late but in time to make their position clear - they decided to follow in Iglesias' footsteps and leave the debate.
Now, to this initial impact of what happened in what will be the last debate of this tense campaign, we must add the subsequent outrage at the lamentable and shameful position of some parties and media outlets that, with their armies of professional opinion-makers and various commentators, have tried to whitewash the infamy of Mrs. Monasterio and the party she represents, daring to frame the issue in terms of "equidistance," as a consequence derived from extreme positions, as if the thug who threatens to kill with bullets is the same as the victims who denounce the facts and ask for protection from the danger their lives are in. No, it is not the same, ladies and gentlemen of the right and of the various talk shows, it is not the same and it doesn't wash, the thing is not about "extremes" and in the face of death threats, you know, there is no equidistance, to frame it like that is not only an indecency and a desperate attempt to continue whitewashing something as dark and rotten as fascism, it is an insult to intelligence and human dignity.
Such serious events allow us to draw some conclusions that affect the Madrid campaign, but not only, because the monster has shown more than just its paw and now we see its true face without tricks or cardboard, the extreme far right and those who support them have been more than portrayed. Their incendiary policies, of hatred, racism, xenophobia, aporophobia, denial of gender violence, against feminism, LGTBI diversity, and any diversity that does not fit into their undemocratic, despotic, and neo-Nazi model of thought are what they have shown without hesitation in this campaign. They not only invited Pablo Iglesias to leave a debate, they not only want to expel him from political life - if they could also from the country, and from life itself - there are more of us who they want to expel or eliminate, there are 26 million people who are too many for them: "There is no other choice but to start shooting 26 million sons of bitches" they said a few months ago in a chat of soldiers from that same fascist "extreme far right," nostalgic for the dictatorship.
The positive side of all this is that not only are we more, but we are also more than them, that they do not have enough bullets to send letters to each and every one of us, and that people are beginning to become aware and awaken from their lethargy, that in the face of the many voices of people and media who were moving between a certain ambiguity - playing at equidistance - and with deliberate hypocrisy because anything was valid against Podemos, today there are many articles and opinions that finally say it clearly, this is about fascism or democracy, and you are on one side or the other. And no, not all parties are the same, nor can you have the little shame to blame the victims of the threats, for the mere fact of being victims, and put them on the same level as the fascists who threaten death with real bullets.
No, this is not about extremes, this is about democracy and the urgent need to denounce fascism and those who have been feeding or ignoring it thinking that this had nothing to do with them. History is very stubborn and repeats itself in a loop, when we look the other way thinking that the tentacles of fascism - and of the de facto powers that hide behind it, promote it and sustain it - have nothing to do with our lives, that it will not affect us.
A warning to navigators, let's read Martin Niemöller's poem again in one of its versions:
"First they came for the Jews,
but I didn't care because I wasn't one.
Then they arrested the communists,
but since I wasn't a communist, I didn't care either.
Later they arrested the workers,
but since I wasn't a worker, I didn't care either.
Then they arrested the students,
but since I wasn't a student, I didn't care either.
Finally they arrested the priests,
but since I wasn't religious, I didn't care either.
Now they're taking me, but it's too late.
Be very careful with history, if we don't learn it, it has a bad habit of repeating itself.
They have put their finger on the wound, and as Luther King said: "I am not worried about the cry of the violent, the corrupt, the dishonest, the unethical. What worries me most is the silence of the good."
It's time to take a stand, fascism or democracy, look where this is going to be the real slogan of this campaign.
María Del Río
President of the Parliamentary Group of Sí Podemos Canarias
