BarcelonaThe incidents that occurred this Sunday during the visit of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, and the kings to Paiporta have highlighted the indignation of the people in the areas most affected by DANA. Also the presence of members of the extreme right, who infiltrate and try to take advantage of the drama that is happening there to capitalize on the discontent. In an interview with TVE, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, attributed the events to “a small group of violent marginals” and assured that there was “a minimum” of organization behind them. The attack is already being investigated by the court of instruction number 3 of Torrent for assault, public disorder and damage, as reported by La Sexta and confirmed by ARA.
The minister was referring to the presence of members of different fascist groups in the protests against the visit of the authorities in this Valencian town. In fact, one of the protesters who appears in the images talking to the king is part of Revuelta, Vox’s youth brand, which drove the protests against the Spanish government at the PSOE headquarters on Carrer Ferraz for the approval of the law of amnesty This youth organization, as well as Núcleo Nacional or Desokupa, have traveled to the Valencian coast to collaborate with the distribution of food and cleaning tasks while trying to ignite the streets and social networks.
They do it with incendiary proclamations accusing Pedro Sánchez of being the most responsible for the debacle for not sending reinforcements earlier, even though it was the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, who had to ask for it. Using the left-wing slogan ‘Only the people save the people’, the aim is to denounce that the administrations are leaving the inhabitants of these localities helpless with the sole aim of extracting political income from them. In fact, the Vox union has offered its legal services to the protesters who broke the windows of one of the official cars of the Spanish president’s team.
This is reported by Miquel Ramos, a Valencian journalist specializing in the extreme right: “They have not come to help, they have been campaigning since minute zero”. “In the face of chaos, the lack of information and the incompetence of the authorities, the one who has the least scruples always wins, and is more prepared to take advantage of it. And here, the extreme right has an advantage because it has no ethics or moral limits to be able to fish in such a catastrophe”, he adds in conversation with ARA. Regarding the massive landing of members of the extreme right in the Valencian Country, Ramos puts it into perspective and makes it clear that they are “more present on the networks spreading lies than on the ground, where there are thousands of volunteers who have nothing to do with this ideology”. What they do, he says, is to put themselves “on the front line” as they did on Sunday in Paiporta to “make themselves visible”. In this sense, he explains that the neighbors were protesting against all the authorities and that they were the ones who “began to utter insults against Sánchez”.
Aleix Martí, professor of communication at the UPF, believes that the extreme right is curdling its message: “Far-right groups and activists take advantage of the tragedy to generate a populist movement in which they present themselves as the saviors of the people and capitalize on the outrage”. Although he does not dare to venture how it will affect the parties politically in the future, Martí is clear that the drama of the Valencian Country “opens up a scenario of disaffection and in this scenario the ultra-right moves better”. All of this, he adds, seasoned “with rumors ofinfluencers of the extreme right and like-minded journalists who talk about apocalyptic situations like the death of hundreds of people in a parking lot that have been proven to be false.”
Precisely one of the collaborators of the program Horizonte, directed by Iker Jiménez on the Cuatro channel, far-right activist Rubén Gisbert has been fired by the director after it was revealed that he soiled his pants before going out on a broadcast of his show.
Far-right journalists, such as Javier Negre or Vito Quiles, have also been in the area for days fueling resentment against the executive of Pedro Sánchez for the management of DANA, but without criticizing the role being played by the Generalitat Valenciana. “They don’t want to say the time when Sánchez visits, together with the kings, the affected municipalities. One of them will be Mula except for a change of plans. If it catches you close, you know,” tweeted Negre shortly before the riots in Paiporta and looking to direct the anger of the population towards the Spanish president and not towards the monarch.
Quiles, with the far-right MEP Alvise Pérez, who has also been seen in Valencia, were unloading products for the affected neighbors of Paiporta between two and four in the afternoon, precisely the time slot in which they had place the incidents.
Among the ultras who were present at the Paiporta protests was identified a member of the ultra stand Mario Kempes of Valencia, who was expelled in 2023, for the racist insults against Vinicius Jr. Also the spokesman for Tabàrnia, the journalist Jaume Vives, known for his Islamophobic and pro-Spanish proclamations, who urged him to “salute” Sánchez.
Amidst the wave of public solidarity with the thousands affected by DANA, the extreme right is also flooding social networks with fake news with the sole aim of holding the left responsible for the tragedy. One of the most proactive is Daniel Esteve, chief executive of Desokupa, who is also in the Valencian Country and is dedicated to spreading videos where he accuses immigrants of occupying properties of families affected by the floods while he boasts of going “hunting” at night. Ramos regrets that the extreme right talks about a problem of insecurity related to immigrants “which is not real” while they present themselves as “the only ones who distribute food” when it is thousands of solidarity people who are helping all the towns affected
