Pride enters the campaign this year. Not only because of a coincidence of dates, but because the defense of LGTBI rights has directly become an electoral weapon. With one month left for the appointment with the general polls and in the middle of a political earthquake due to the pacts between PP and Vox, the parties have their focus on this group.
Vox opened fire a few days ago with the placement of a gigantic canvas in the center of Madrid, in which a trash can was displayed in which various logos and flags were thrown, including the rainbow. This image, in fact, was used by the president of the PP of Extremadura, María Guardiola, to justify her break with Santiago Abascal's party. “I cannot allow those who unfurl a canvas and throw the LGTBI flag into a bin to enter the government,” Guardiola said.
His words had a clear recipient: the leader of the Valencian PP, Carlos Mazón, who had just signed an agreement with Vox to be sworn in as president of the Generalitat in exchange for his entry into the government. Hence, the PP en bloc, especially in the large cities it governs, has rushed to display the LGTBI flag to mark distances with Vox. The message that is sent to the electorate is clear: that there are pacts with Vox does not mean that the red lines are completely diluted.
Balcony of the Logroño City Hall, with the LGTBI flag. . Manzanares EFE
The spokesman Borja Sémper himself, during the presentation on Thursday of the PP campaign, emphasized one of those red lines: the popular “do not want to throw anyone away” and, consequently, “they are not going to let contaminate by aggressiveness”. In the background, the tune of Verano Azul, which in turn has served the PSOE to denounce that Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party seeks its own trip to the past. Specifically, to Chanquete's 80s, “when the LGTBI collective had to hide in the closet.”
Countering this image has been precisely the objective of the new mayoress of Valencia, María José Catalá. The popular leader, who despite the regional pact will lead the consistory in a minority after refusing to even sit down with Vox to negotiate her entry into the government team, announced this Friday that the LGTBI flag will hang from the municipal balcony. Not only that, because in reality this action was already designed by the previous Compromís and PSOE government, but it has also ordered the façade of the consistory to be illuminated with rainbow colors.
At the gates of Pride, the PP of Valencia directly declares itself “reformist but not reactionary”, a position in which Vox is nevertheless located. This is how the municipal spokesman, Juan Carlos Caballero, justified yesterday that Valencia is going to continue turning to these celebrations as in the years of government of the left. “This City Council and this group know that Valencia is a diverse city and they not only want to maintain it, but also to bet on holding these important events,” said Caballero, who even went further by highlighting that “the things that have been done well they want to maintain and even improve”.
It should not be forgotten that, a few kilometers from the Valencian capital, in the municipality of Náquera, the only mayor of Vox has prohibited the LGTBI flag in municipal buildings. So the Valencian Parliament, which on Monday will be chaired by Vox, will wear the colors of Pride all weekend.
Another of the cities that takes out its Pride flag is Logroño. Its mayor, the popular Conrado Escobar, demanded yesterday to “banish any type of sign of intolerance and violence” against the LGTBI collective. In his opinion, the capital of La Rioja “is a city of coexistence, in which everyone fits and can express themselves with absolute tranquility”.
In Madrid, however, its mayor, the popular José Luis Martínez-Almeida, hides behind a Supreme Court ruling so as not to hang the flag from the consistory. Of course, he stressed yesterday the “total and absolute support” of the City Council, which will be illuminated with rainbow colors like the Cibeles fountain.
The discordant note is put by Toledo, who with the entry of Vox into the government will stop wearing the flag. The mayor of the PP, Carlos Velázquez, justified himself by stating that this legislature “requires great consensus”. And all this on the day that Equality launched its video claiming, in what may be the last Pride of Irene Montero, that “Spain is now proudly different.”