Luis Ayllón
The Spanish government yesterday tried to reduce diplomatic tension with Brazil, following the racist insults against Real Madrid player Vinícius Junior, and to avoid damaging its international image, stressing that in Spain racist offences do not go unpunished.
The person in charge of conveying these messages was the spokesperson for the Executive, Isabel Rodríguez, who, at the press conference following the Council of Ministers, responded to questions from journalists about the irritation caused, in the Government and in Brazilian society, by the incidents last Sunday at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia.
Rodríguez said “to all our compatriots and to the international arena” that “in Spain this type of behaviour does not go unpunished and therefore all judicial and police bodies work to prosecute them at all times”.
The spokesperson did not consider it necessary to adopt legislative changes, as she recalled that Spain has a law against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport dating from 2007. She also pointed out that a distinction must be made between actions that fall within the internal regime of sport and even within the League itself, and those that have to do with common legislation and that “are applied regardless of whether these events take place on a football pitch, in a supermarket or in a factory”. “These acts in Spain are prosecuted and punished”, she insisted.
Isabel Rodríguez condemned the racist insults against Vinícius and said that Spain is “anti-racist” and has “full legal security, both in police and judicial actions”. She stressed that the State Security Forces are already “identifying and arresting the people involved”, in reference to the three people arrested for their possible involvement in the events in Valencia and the four others arrested for their alleged connection with the hanging of dolls with Vinícius’ shirt hours before a match between Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid.
The official position expressed by Rodríguez has some nuances with respect to that maintained by the Unidas Podemos sector of the Executive, in which the head of the Department of Social Affairs, Ione Belarra, said that the Government will speed up the work to have a law against racism as soon as possible.
In any case, it is the ministers of Unidas Podemos who are having a much closer dialogue with the Brazilian authorities, to the point that the Spanish Ministry of Equality and the Brazilian Ministry of Racial Equality issued a joint communiqué yesterday on racist insults. The text, which points out that “racism is structural in our societies”, demands that these insults “do not go unpunished” and, after showing their solidarity with Vinícius, demands that all the competent institutions respond “with the maximum diligence to take measures” in this case and all those that occur in the sporting sphere.
This connection with the podemite sector of the Spanish government can also be seen in the telephone conversation held last Sunday by the Minister for Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, with the second vice-president, Yolanda Díaz, and in the request for a meeting with the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, made by the Brazilian ambassador in Madrid, Orlando Leite Ribeiro. According to the Brazilian Embassy in Madrid, the ambassador has requested meetings with Montero, as well as with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the leadership of LaLiga, the Spanish Football Federation and Real Madrid, and has apparently already arranged meetings with the minister, La Liga and the Federation.
The embassy, which thanked the police for their action following the arrests of those allegedly involved in the insults against Vinicius, has not, however, requested a meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to sources in this department consulted by The Diplomat. Until yesterday, diplomatic relations had been limited to a telephone call from Itamaraty, the headquarters of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, to the Spanish ambassador in Brasilia, Mar Fernández-Palacios, to express the dissatisfaction of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government.
Sources in the Brazilian diplomatic representation justified the contacts being maintained more with Equality than with Foreign Affairs, on the grounds that it is a matter related to racist attitudes and not so much political ones. Furthermore, there is a desire to avoid an escalation that could lead to a diplomatic conflict, something on which the Spanish government agrees.
Moncloa is trying to lower the tension, and government sources said yesterday that the Brazilian government’s reproaches cannot be considered to constitute “a diplomatic conflict”.
And in Valencia, where he was taking part in a meeting with his counterparts from Poland and Romania, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured that “we are very far from a conflict situation from a diplomatic point of view”. and that the telephone call to the Spanish ambassador was made in a “diplomatic and cordial” tone.
Although not formally expressed, Pedro Sánchez’s government is concerned about the repercussions that the incident in Valencia could have on Spain’s image, and insists on stressing that Spain is not a racist country, but on the contrary, has a tolerant and anti-racist attitude, beyond the occasional cases recorded, as is the case in other countries.
