Guillermo Díaz, the Citizens' deputy who praised comics in Congress before Casado's mockery
Guillermo Díaz (Melilla, 1978), deputy for Málaga de Ciudadanos, never imagined that his intervention last Tuesday in the Culture Commission of Congress in a non-law proposal presented by the PSOE on the "recognition and dignity of the comics sector in Spain ", was going to have the repercussion that it has had. At least, in the networks. His passionate comments on his personal learning through comics, as well as surprising his peers, deserved praise on Twitter. Among others, of the journalist and talkative Antonio Maestre, who called him a "rare bird in the parties of the right."
Díaz boasts of writing "personally and by hand" all his speeches. He explains that it was an intervention that was prepared with special "affection" during the early hours of the previous day and on the AVE trip to Madrid, in response to the disparaging comments that the leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, when accusing Pedro Sánchez of distributing the 400-euro cultural bonus "so that young people could spend it on video games and comics." Some criticisms that he later repeated in Brussels.
Casado's mockery outraged the deputy who is a great collector and furious lover of the genre, and for about three minutes he paid his particular tribute to those authors and characters from before and now from what he said he had "learned." "They are artists and creative geniuses who have done so much and so good. We do not dignify the comic by supporting this here today, we dignify ourselves by dignifying the comic", was released as a final culmination.
The deputy reveals that the shelves of his house, in addition to being flooded by loads of comics that he reserves for his three-year-old son, house thousands of movies and history books, his other two great passions. In fact, he has worked in the audiovisual world. He managed the exhibition halls of the Malaga Film Festival and collaborates with some media in scientific and historical dissemination programs. In addition, he has three books to his credit: Hypatia of Alexandria (2009); The lies of war cinema (2013) and Big battles on the screen (2021). Another of his secrets is that he loves heavy metal, magic and mentalism, which he practices at dinners and party events surprising his teammates.
Díaz has been in Congress for three legislatures, but it has been in the latter that he has begun to stand out within the diminished group of Inés Arrimadas, who after the escape of Sevillian Pablo Cambronero to the mixed group has been left with only nine members in their ranks. Being such a small group, they have to divide the work and the people from Malaga have become used to multiplying themselves and going from commission to commission after the plenary sessions, sometimes marathoners, held by the Chamber.
As soon as he landed in Congress, after the 2016 general elections - the first for the party then led by Albert Rivera - he was appointed spokesman for the Mixed Commission of RTVE. It then became one of the lashes of the president of the corporation, José Antonio Sánchez, as it has since been of his successor, Rosa María Mateo. They have good memories of that time, especially for the wonderful relationship he forged with the Podemos deputy, Noelia Vera - recently retired from political life - with whom he ideologically admits to being "in the opposite direction." The two defended tooth and nail the need for a public contest to elect the leadership of RTVE, a process that in the end has not been carried out despite the promises of the Sánchez government, something that outraged Díaz. "It was a scam," he concludes.
Guillermo Diáz is coordinator of Citizens in Malaga, he has been Secretary of Communication of the National Executive in Rivera's time and is now part of the Permanent Commission, the hard core of the leadership of Inés Arrimadas who considers him a leader of her absolute confidence despite his old friendship with Fran Hervías - the former secretary of Organization who fled to the PP and architect of the hostile takeover against Ciudadanos - whom they accused of having finger-tagged him. 'as number two on the list for Malaga in those first elections. It is something that the deputy denies and recalls that to occupy the second places on the lists at that time it was no longer necessary to submit to primaries. Later, in the following generals in April 2019, he won this internal process to lead the candidacy again for this province, where he has lived since he was a child since his father, a military man, was finally stationed there.
In Malaga he studied Law, a career that he does not exercise. And in Malaga he began his approach to politics. While still a teenager he enrolled in the New Generations of the PP - "I do not deny it, like others", he points out -, where he was active for a few years until he was encouraged to join Ciudadanos in 2013 after "listening and admiring" the founders of the party and after meeting Albert Rivera at a dinner, with whom he continues to maintain "a great friendship." Hence, he does not want to criticize him or speculate on the supposed role attributed to him of being in the harassment and demolition operation against Citizens. "Albert is not in it, I'm sure," he insists to anyone who asks him.
After the November 2019 elections, Arrimadas, in addition to keeping him on the RTVE and Culture commissions, entrusted him with the Health Commission, which premiered "without knowing" the one that was going to "fall on him" since since it exploded the pandemic its parliamentary work has intensified. But the position has also served him to have greater media visibility. With Vox he has been confronted by his denial and rejection of vaccines.
However, the most vehement and harsh interventions are reserved for the "nationalists and populists" and for the Government of Pedro Sánchez. His most furious attacks are for the ERC bench, despite acknowledging that he gets along very well with Gabriel Rufián "on the fringes of politics." Díaz sends a message to those who see him making the leap to the PP or to another party if things look ugly. "From Ciudadanos, a casa", he affirms because he believes that politics is a place "of passage".
