308 | nº 31, pp. 303-314 | doxa.comunicación
July-December of 2020
The notion of homeland in Unidos Podemos discourse (2016-2017): the articulation of a constructive patriotism
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
[The problem is that your corrupt political model works in the Spanish difference, conceiving our homeland as a periphery of Europe (Iglesias Turrión, DS, 06/13/2017, p. 61)].
[The economic crisis proved, Mr. Rajoy, that there was no transfer union, that there was no federalism, that Spanish interests are very different than German ones in the European Union; and that proves the failure of the political project of the European Union (Iglesias Turrión, DS, 03/15/2017, p. 15)]
Unidos Podemos also emphasizes that the economic and political elites have no homeland other than their money. Although in their speeches they extol the concept of Spain, their leaders have bank accounts in Switzerland or Panama. Faced with the blind patriotism of the conservatives, Unidos Podemos advocates a constructive patriotism, based on the redistribution of wealth and on the respect for the rights and freedoms of the citizens. Those who defend Spain in a chauvinist way –wearing bracelets with the Spanish flag in football stadiums– are not patriots. For Unidos Podemos, Spain is the working class, “the chamber maid who earns a pittance for each room she cleans”, the pensioner who can´t make ends meet or the young person who works in precarious conditions.
[When we talk about paying taxes, your homeland is not Spain; your homeland is Panama, ladies and gentlemen (Montero Gil, DS, 06/13/2017, p. 16)].
[It is not a motion against Spain, it is a motion for Spain and against the Partido Popular, which is the one who is looting this country and taking the money of the Spanish people to Switzerland, Andorra and Panama, which is the homeland that you like the most (Montero Gil, DS, 06/13/2017, p. 33)].
[“What is Spain, ladies and gentlemen? Is Spain a brand? Is Spain the box on a football field where you see gentlemen wearing bracelets with the colors of the Spanish flag and whose bank accounts are in Switzerland? That is not Spain, ladies and gentlemen. Spain is their working people who get up early to provide for their families. Spain is a maid with back pain and who earns a pittance for each room she cleans (...) Spain is a tele-operator who earns 700 euros a month, a retired woman who stretches her pension to help her loved ones and who has to pay for her medicines because of you (Iglesias Turrión, DS, 06/13/2017, p. 39)].
Regarding the populist matter, the conceptual domain of homeland is useful to reinforce the opposition elite-working class. This dichotomy shows up in the discourse of Unidos Podemos during at least their first two years in the Spanish Parliament. Homeland is the feeling that “gentlemen” boast about; but those who really defend it are the workers. The economic elites are not characterized by a “patriotic spirit” but live at the expense of the state and citizens. The government held by the Partido Popular constitutes an “anti-patriotic plot” that deliberately favors the interests of large corporations which extort money from the people. The conservative wing demonstrates, therefore, an “anti-popular and patronizing” behavior when it makes social housing available to the vulture funds.
[I want to remind you of something mentioned in that book. Antonio Machado said it in the words of Juan de Mairena regarding the idea of homeland: Homeland is, in Spain, simply a popular feeling of which the upper class gentlemen tend to boast about (Iglesias Turrión, DS, 06/13/2017, p 65)].