It seems that Núñez Feijóo has decided to change his speechwriter. And the new scribe isn't mincing matters. The Galician leader isn't aiming for statesmanship, because plurinationality still rankles him, but rather for the main ideological leader of the Spanish far-right conglomerate. It's no different to talk about "identity essentialism" in relation to emigration than to say that "they've made us believe that democracy was better than prosperity." It's worth remembering that "identity essentialism" was the basis of the Holocaust and, now, it underlies the Palestinian genocide and violence against migrants; and prioritizing prosperity over democracy has been the main justification for what we might call the "Asian development model" in countries like China and Singapore, where economic growth is used as an argument to restrict political freedoms—models that serve as inspiration for Trump and the American tech oligarchs. She acts as a leader of order, but the most memorable snapshot is shared with a drug dealer.
In 'Irreal Madrid' the star is Isabel Díaz Ayuso, champion of freedom as the absence of external obstacles to choosing and consuming freely. A corrosive idea in a society that leaves the individual facing themselves, trapped in the pressure of having to constantly choose, so as not to be left behind, and the fear of not making mistakes. It is neoliberal libertarianism at its dark side, which generates self-exploitation and frustration and ignores the material and social conditions that influence this supposed personal autonomy, disregarding interdependence and human vulnerability. Díaz Ayuso, better than anyone, embodies the fear of the system, of solidarity, of social struggle and of collective organization that can endanger thestatus quo of power. She acts asinfluencer A big-mouthed man who "likes fruit" to discredit the opposition and social movements, in order to preserve the bad neoliberal habit of using public resources for the benefit of private capital.
Mark Fisher in the book Capitalist Realism He insists on a "strange compulsion" of neoliberalism to repeat some of the vices of Stalinism, so it tends to "implement initiatives whose real effects on the world only matter as long as they are registered at the level of appearances and public relations." Thus, we come to the third protagonist of the article: Prohens's speech at the State of the Union ceremony shows a prolific tendency to list headings that may have little or no effective impact. A complete list of wishes that will be vulnerable to the extent that facts and effectiveness do not corroborate it. The futility of the narrative could become a problem for the president.
She seems to shy away from depth and pretends that the "emigration-prosperity" triangle has nothing to do with her. versus democracy - individual freedom versus social movements', as defined by state coreligionists. But not only is this not the case, but it is interpreted radically. "We need to respond to the needs arising from the population growth already experienced so far" would be one of the central arguments of the speech, but it does not propose a single step back in all its expansionist legislation aimed at satisfying the demands of a real estate market for foreigners, nor in the one that consolidates the escape of housing to the holiday market. Prohens' radicalism lies in what he has been doing and continues to do or has stopped doing, not in what he says. Negative radicalism.
"We are the greatest exponent of the Spain that is filling up"; but they move like a fish in water in a system where democracy gives way to the implacable logic of the market, and where prosperity, understood as growth and attraction of capital, is erected above the real needs of society. Islands in which the apparent brilliance of growth hides the cracks of inequality and the loss of spaces for effective participation. If there is no will to act globally on the economic model, without excluding people, talking about demographics is embarking on the dangerous path of limiting who is "in" and who is "out," and quite possibly fueling exclusions based on identity criteria. This is corroborated by the ambiguity of the conservatives' theses on immigration, in which there is a systematic and dangerous dehumanization of the "other," to the point of turning them into an enemy.
Despite the naive atmosphere of regional theater that the Prime Minister's office often attempts to convey, this island scenario is not isolated, but rather a small-scale reflection of a global dynamic that frames the predominance of corporate and technological capital as the new axis of world politics. In the Balearic Islands, the commitment to an ultra-liberal and technocratic economic model is at the service of venture capital that speculates with the territory. I reiterate the real estate slogan, which I have used in previous writings, to illustrate the economic moment fostered by the conservatives: Don't wait to buy Real Estate, buy Real Estate and wait (Don't wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait.) The paradise of second homes for Europeans designed by conservatives in the 1980s and 1990s has now become a Babel of speculation. Radical subservience to the market.
The prospects for success generated by the discourse of technological "revolution" and diversification, which the president explored in a string of budget items, are rather slim. There is no real possibility of diversification without simultaneously addressing the macrocephaly of tourism, which has historically stifled other sectors. There is no tourism for the future without considering the decline in supply. It cannot move toward a diverse and balanced society without reversing real estate speculation. None of this is present in the president's speech: the presence of absence as a negative radicality.
