The criticism of the lack of reference to social issues and the demands of the population was aimed directly at King Felipe VI’s last Christmas speech. Lucía Muñoz, Podemos secretary for housing rights, denounced that the Spanish head of state did not address issues such as the European rearmament process or the diversion of public funds into military spending to the detriment of basic services. As Europa Press reported, Muñoz expressed that this imbalance occurs as millions of people struggle to access housing, healthcare and employment in stable conditions. The spokesperson for the political grouping it represents stressed that these omissions reinforce Podemos’ disagreement with the content, structure and tone of the monarchical message of Wednesday, December 24th.
According to a Europa Press publication, Muñoz pointed out that the monarch’s speech was empty and far from the reality of the working class in Spain. “Felipe VI asks us not to polarize, to reduce tensions and warns against tensions in the public debate, but he ignores that these tensions are a consequence of the inequalities that increase every year in our country, inequalities that the most vulnerable people in this country suffer and that he does not forget to mention in his speech this year,” the Podemos secretary said in a public appearance on Thursday, according to media.
In her speech, the Balearic representative of Podemos expanded on her criticism and pointed out that the king creates insufficient equidistance by placing victims and aggressors, fascists and anti-fascists, racists and anti-racists, as well as sexists and feminists on the same level. To explain her position, Muñoz used an ironic comment: “The king comes to tell us that there are neither Nazis, nor Jews, nor genociders, nor Palestinians, neither victims nor sexual aggressors,” which, in her opinion, shows a supposed “false equidistance” that, in her opinion, would only serve to maintain unjust power situations and protect those who benefit from these dynamics, including – in Muñoz’s words – the monarch himself, as reported by Europa Press reproduced.
Muñoz’s intervention detailed that Felipe VI. He said he had not commented on the rise of the far right in Europe or the West’s complicity in what he described as genocide in Palestine, Europa Press reported. She also regretted the lack of references to the spread of racist and exclusionary discourses in European institutions, as well as the lack of mentions of the feminist movement and the fight against gender-based violence. He also pointed out the lack of allusions to Francoism and presented all these issues as central axes of the current public debate, which, from Podemos’ point of view, the monarchy would have preferred to ignore.
The Podemos spokesman emphasized that since its founding, it is believed that the royal family has remained far removed from the everyday problems faced by the majority of the population, especially the working people, who, according to their statements collected by Europa Press, found neither support nor recognition in the monarch’s speech. Muñoz questioned that by appealing to coexistence and harmony from a supposed neutrality, the king is constructing a narrative that favors ultra-conservative interests and reinforces polarizing tendencies that have been “irresponsibly” fomented in recent years.
In his assessment of the royal message, Muñoz emphasized that the lack of explicit support and attention to social movements, feminist demands and struggles against inequalities by Podemos is associated with a strategy of the monarchy, seen by this formation as linked to conservative positions. In addition, the Balearic Secretary considered that Felipe VI’s used narrative that called for self-reflection on social and political tensions, ignoring the responsibility of elites for the creation and increase of social tensions, particularly those caused by persistent inequalities, Europa Press reported.
Among the aspects highlighted by Muñoz, reference was also made to the culture of “anti-politics” that, in his opinion, the king had created by downplaying in his speech the fundamental debates about justice, equality and civil rights. Muñoz explained that the monarch’s speech used recurring metaphors and formulas in advertising campaigns, which Podemos believes increases depoliticization and dilutes the weight of societal demands.
Finally, Europa Press highlighted that Lucía Muñoz’s public intervention represented one of the most forceful responses in the political sphere to the Royal Family’s traditional Christmas address, highlighting the current distance between different political groups and the Head of State in terms of social priorities and ways to address the country’s main challenges.
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