Vox, theme park

The advantage of globalism, a supposed conspiracy of international interests against the nation and traditional values, is that its limits and representatives are diffuse. For Vox it serves as a container for troubles. When he's not financier George Soros, he's Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft and a regular target of criticism from the far-right for his insistence on the goodness of vaccines. Also Pedro Sánchez, in a lower rung, lately on account of the management of the pandemic, and the media "lackeys", as appropriate.

The event, halfway between the theme park and the folk festival, had as a second leg the exhibition of Spanish diversity from the provinces, explained through 52 booths located on the sides of the around four hectares of the enclosure. The green party spared no expense for the setting. Up to nine giant high definition screens, four on each side plus the center of the stage, broadcast the speech of the leader, Santiago Abascal, who after a morning of hugs and smiles between militants and supporters, started in the afternoon with a speech that perhaps he was not strictly Falangist or national Catholic, but in which he harangued in favor of the "irrevocable Spain" of "inalienable destiny" and praised the "Spanish solar empire, [que] it was the empire of human rights. "The colonization process was, in that sense," the best that any nation has done in the history of mankind. "To the spectators," executors of an imperishable stock, "he claimed, ' a la Trump ': "Let's make our country great again."

By then the fervor in Ifema was unstoppable. The bars had been open since noon and the beer - three euros a beer, seven euros a liter - had been circulating for hours. "Long live the thirds!"

Fervor against the "progressive consensus"

The morning had passed relatively quietly before the explosion of Spanish sentiment against the "progressive consensus." The visits to the posts in the provinces, run by the leaders of the respective groups, were pointed out in a 'compostela', in imitation of the register of passage that pilgrims seal to Santiago. Each booth repeated a similar scheme, with murals showing a couple of gastronomic specialties and others of a cultural or architectural nature, a bit haphazardly. For example, from Pontevedra the mussels and oysters stood out; of Murcia, the tubes for the transfer from the Tagus to the Segura, without which, the explanation said, "everything would be a ruin". In Burgos the cathedral was mentioned, but also Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente. The names of the provinces were in Castilian, but in Barcelona the cedilla was respected in the reference to calçots.

The central aisle housed like-minded companies. There was one from a new environmental NGO. "Like Greenpeace, but on the right," explained one of his young employers. There was also a chocolate shop, one with wooden figures from Zamora (the shotguns were notable, although plastic had been used for the trigger) and another one for patriotic merchandising, with products on offer: "Abascal kaki T-shirt, 39 euros. With the purchase we give you a bracelet with the flag of Spain ". El Toro TV, a network related to Vox and without apparent globalist mortgages, also had its own booth, as well as associations against domestic violence (not gender-based because there are also male victims, the brochure explained) and others that aspire to become a laboratory of ideas for Vox.

After Abascal's speech, the production cameras recorded Macarena Olona correctly dancing the Macarena, the song by Los del Río, under the stage. A woman followed the sequence on one of the screens. "It's big, it's smart, it's good. It has everything!" Teresa and her husband, who came from Albatera (Alicante), complained that the phone battery had run out, recording unforgettable moments. The other figures of the party –Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, Rocío Monasterio, Jorge Buxadé and Ignacio Garriga, among others– took walks and attracted groups of supporters.

"We are existence, we are perpetuity"

There was a parade of giants and big heads, correfocs, mascletá, procession of Moors and Christians, until one step of Holy Week, all to record the cultural richness of the diverse but indivisible nation. The dance and music performances and the circular of provincial flags on the stage, carried by young people in white shirts in the Olympic manner, could awaken in the most veteran memories of the Choirs and Dances of the Feminine Section of the Falange, also very folkloric in Your day. The Malaga deputy Patricia Rueda and Senator Jacobo González-Robatto served as masters of ceremonies, who were near paroxysm as the afternoon progressed. "'We are existence! We are perpetuity!"

The night closed with the bonfire, preceded by 15 minutes of fireworks (predominantly red and yellow) and performances by rocker Sherpa and rappers Don Aitor and Norykko, who complained that due to their ideology they had no opportunities in the traditional music circuit. They then proceeded to sing against Pedro Sánchez with a consonant rhyme: "Dissident: screw the president's sucker." Most of the people danced, raised their arms and chanted. Others were leaving now, always peacefully.