Bolsonaros

Although Spanish public opinion is usually very isolationist, when it looks at what goes on abroad, it views it through glasses that are quite different from those used to look at itself. I spent my entire childhood feeling how racist Americans were, unlike the Spaniards, who were not so at all. What was considered racist in the United States was a harmless joke or a justified prejudice when it happened in Spain. From time to time, there have been waves of solidarity in Spanish public opinion, generally on the left, with international causes that addressed the rights of peoples. But when someone within Spanish borders proposes the exercise of democracy to decide their own future, that solidarity disappears. These days we can read strong criticisms of Bolsonaro - which he undoubtedly deserves - from sectors that believe that Vox is almost a centrist party, and must enter into governmental pacts without any hindrance; yet, in a classification of authoritarianism Vox at least ties with Bolsonaro and probably surpasses him. Perhaps it is an effect of isolationism: when something affects others it can be seen as more radical and viewed as simpler. When it affects Spain they change their glasses.