Sánchez claims the vote to combat the cultural censorship of the far right

"What's coming is the wafer, boys", explicitly warned the singer Miguel Ríos.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
14 July 2023 Friday 11:05
6 Reads
Sánchez claims the vote to combat the cultural censorship of the far right

"What's coming is the wafer, boys", explicitly warned the singer Miguel Ríos. "The only possibility to stop them is to go to the polls, because if not, this country will go back after so much blood, sweat and tears shed along the way", warned actress Marisa Paredes for her part.

Panic is spreading among cinema and theater people, music and other artistic expressions after Vox, in some of the town halls where it already governs with the Popular Party, has censored the representation of works by Lope de Vega or Virginia Woolf , the animated film Lightyear or children's magazines in Catalan such as Cavall Fort and Camacuc.

And Pedro Sánchez, due to the fear unleashed in the so-called world of culture by the forecast that the ultra-right could reach the government of Spain with the hand of the PP after 23-J, decided late on Thursday to join the event organized yesterday at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid to read several manifestos in favor of culture and against censorship.

Accompanied by the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta - who already took the opportunity to promote some of the children's magazines in Catalan banned by Vox at Borriana Town Hall, in Castelló - the President of the Central Government made a few brief statements before the start of the event to emphasize that "the best tool to fight against censorship is the vote".

Sánchez emphasized that "freedom of expression and freedom of creation is something indispensable in a democratic society". But he regretted that since the new town councils that emerged from the May 28 elections began to walk, "we are seeing an impudent exchange of rights for votes, of principles for seats" between the PP and Vox.

"Censorship is making its way into municipalities and autonomous communities, where the broadcast of films or the celebration of plays even from a hundred years ago is being banned", warned the also leader of the PSOE . "An absolutely unthinkable thing", he criticized.

Sánchez wanted to claim that "one step back in free creation and free expression, especially of our artists, cannot be allowed". "We must reaffirm our will to continue moving forward", he encouraged. And he transferred the support of the PSOE to the world of culture, which in his opinion is "threatened" by the government pacts between the PP and Vox.

After his statements, the head of the Central Executive attended the reading of several of these manifestos of arts professionals, sitting in the front row of the event between the actor Miguel Rellán and the poet Gioconda Belli, who was stripped of her Nicaraguan nationality by Daniel Ortega and then given Chilean nationality thanks to the offer made to her by Gabriel Boric.

Sánchez then returned to Moncloa, where he received precisely the president of the Republic of Chile, Gabriel Boric, with whom he showed great political harmony, and then the president of the General Council of the Judiciary and the Supreme Court, Rafael Mozo.

The President of the Spanish Government resumes today his electoral agenda in the most unusual campaign that the PSOE remembers, since the candidate barely takes part in rallies. After leaving last weekend blank to prepare for a single face-to-face with Alberto Núñez Feijóo in which he punctured, Sánchez will try to regain his breath and restore morale to his ranks already in the equator of the campaign, with rallies today in Valencia and, tomorrow, in Barcelona.