Before reading this article it is important to think about who are those who work on our streets laying the paving stones or paving the road. Those who care for our elderly and dependent people. Those who lay the bricks in the houses and tile the toilets. Those who collect fruits and vegetables in the field. Who, in short, perform an essential job that others do not want.
The introduction comes from a message that the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, published yesterday in X after the terrorist attack on Monday night in Brussels. The president of the third national party, present in the governments of six autonomous communities and some prominent city councils, proposed “taking them down.” “Yes, to all the heartless people who bring hatred, pain and death,” he added. “In Barcelona, in Brussels or in Israel,” he specified. “But first we must prevent them from entering, and we must hold responsible those who have opened the doors to them,” he stressed.
It is an interesting reflection, based on the reactions generated, but misleading. Does Abascal defend opening fire on a suspect without even asking? It is not possible to answer yes. But his followers interpreted it that way. There were even messages defending arming the Spanish. As it is.
Contributing to the generation of this type of comments was the fact that the police in the European capital took hours to arrest the murderer. Until early yesterday morning he was not killed. “He commits a terrorist act riding a scooter with a reflective vest (not exactly camouflage), he records his face, crosses half of Brussels and after four hours he is still not arrested,” said @wallstwolverine. “The warning to sailors about the absolute weakness of the system is a poem. Macabre”, said Iker Jiménez.
The world is in suspense and it is important to call things by their name. Equidistances, none; murderers are classified as such, just for starters. But it is also advisable to moderate messages in the era of hot takes or hot opinions, and not generalize. Suggesting that to prevent an attack a retaliatory law should be applied preventively is dangerous speech, even more so coming from a public representative. Terror is pursued with means and the law is applied. The rest is demagogy.
