Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has accused this Wednesday, without mentioning him, the multimillionaire Elon Musk, owner of the social network X, of leading a “reactionary international” that “stirs up hatred and openly calls for support for the heirs of Nazism in Germany in the next elections”.
Sánchez pronounced these words at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, in Madrid, during the opening ceremony of ‘Spain in Freedom’, the program that the Government will develop throughout the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of the dictator Francisco Franco.
“It is not necessary to be of a certain ideology, neither left, nor center, nor right, to look with sadness and terror at the dark years of Francoism and fear that this decline will be repeated. It is enough to be a democrat,” declared the President of the Government.
“In 1975, at a time of great political uncertainty, Spanish society decided to opt for democracy and freedom. Spain decided to undertake a long and risky process of political, institutional, social and economic transformation that was successful and that ended up turning us into the advanced, open, influential and tolerant country that we are today. That is what we celebrate. That is what we demand,” he added.
“On an anniversary like the one we are celebrating, today more than ever, we have to demand, defend and strengthen democracy,” he continued. In that defense, he warned, it is necessary to combat “fake news,” “because lies and misinformation are the main weapon of the enemies of democracy.”
“The richest man on the planet,” he warned, referring to Musk, heads a “reactionary international that openly attacks our institutions, incites hatred and openly calls for support for the heirs of Nazism in Germany in the next elections.” “All of this is a problem, it is a challenge, it is a challenge that should challenge all of us who believe in democracy,” he said.
The South African-American billionaire Elon Musk, a man very close to the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has recently attacked several European leaders of the progressive spectrum, such as the British Labour Party member Keir Starmer or the German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, and has openly expressed his support for the German far-right party AfD in view of the early elections in Germany, which will take place on February 23.
During his speech, the president also recalled the lack of freedoms during the Franco regime and warned of the advance of autocratic values and regimes in the world and the rise of fascism in Europe. “Autocratic regimes are advancing all over the world,” he warned. “The fascism that we thought we had left behind is now the third political force in Europe,” he added.
“Those who praise the virtues of authoritarianism want us to forget that, as late as 1970, Spain was governed by an authoritarian and repressive minority that used fear and power to impose its interests and values on the rest of society,” said Pedro Sánchez.
