The use of past events as political symbols in Spain. The example of Vox and the need for a new archaeology of ethnicity

ABSTRACT

The emergence of far-right positions in Europe and beyond has exposed, once again, the misuse of history and archaeology in the political discourse. The role of social media and new forms of political communication is crucial in this sense. Building from the example of Vox, the latest intrusion into Spanish politics, this article frames the relation between nativist nationalism and the use of historical references as a factor to promote reactionary positions. Furthermore, the direct relation between ethnicity and the pillars of a nation, leads to a critique of the traditional use of the concept in archaeology arguing for the need to settle a more inclusive perspective and make it present in a transformative educational model that can build the basis of a critic society.

KEYWORDS:

• Past
• ethnicity
• public archaeology
• politics
• radical right parties
• Vox
• Spain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. El País 7/03/2018, ‘El Born reniega de su pasado’ [The Born denies its past].

2. Alongside revisionist books about the Spanish Civil War by best-selling non-Historians (like Pio Moa or Arturo Pérez-Reverte), there are direct attempts to silence researchers working on the field with academic rigour. See elDiario.es 21/02/2021, ‘La guerra contra la memoria: demandas contra investigadores e impunidad para crímenes franquistas’ [The war against memory: lawsuits against researchers and impunity for Franco’s crimes].

3. David Duke, 5th Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan celebrates the ‘victory’ of Vox in the regional elections of Andalusia in 2018 with a retweet of the official announcement: https://t.co/qF4R2PA5e3 [Accessed 11/05/2021]. His account is now suspended.

4. See, for example, El País 12/04/2019, ‘Ni España existía ni la Reconquista es tal y como la cuenta Vox’ [Neither Spain existed nor the Reconquista is as Vox tells].

5. El País 13/04/2019, ‘Abascal lanza desde Covadonga su cruzada contra separatistas y “progres”’ [Abascal launches from Covadonga his crusade against separatists and ‘progressives’].

6. https://t.co/EGLhBBTuus [accessed 24/06/2020].

7. According to Vox leader, ‘today we celebrate the 528th anniversary of the day our ancestors finished the most powerful enemy that Spain and Europe had, the Islamic invasion. They were defeated in a reconquest that is not finished and continues today’ [El País 02/01/2020, ‘Vox se apodera del Día de la Toma en Granada’ (Vox takes over the Day of the Conquest [of Granada] in Granada]).

8. Vox leader using the opening of the mosque-cathedral of Cordoba to Muslim prayers as a threat, https://youtu.be/Jj2-y41BwRw [accessed 24/06/2020].

9. El Confidencial 14/04/2019, ‘Vox comienza la reconquista al pie de Blas de Lezo y camino de Covadonga’ [Vox begins the reconquest at the feet of Blas de Lezo on the road to Covadonga].

10. Eldiario.es 04/04/2019, ‘Candidatos de VOX piden un “trato justo” hacia la figura de Hernán Cortés’ [VOX candidates call for ‘fair treatment’ of Hernan Cortés]. El Periódico 27/03/2019, ‘México: La petición de disculpa por la conquista española levanta polémica’ [Mexico: Apology requested for the Spanish Conquest raises controversy].

11. Dozens of tweets wrongly portray Queen Isabel the Catholic as the one who abolished slavery, or the conquest of America as a kind process where the Crown granted full rights and goods to everybody.

12. In a long list of declarations and proposals, Vox even registered a ‘harmony’ law, against the current Historical Memory legal framework, diluting and whitewashing the dictatorship. El Español 30/01/2020, ‘La “desmemoria histórica” de Vox: ni rastro de Franco ni de la dictadura en su “ley de concordia”’ [Vox’s ‘forgetfulness history’: no trace of Franco or the dictatorship in their ‘harmony law’].

13. Abc 13/02/2020, ‘Vox impide una declaración institucional sobre el Día de la Mujer’ [Vox blocks an institutional declaration on International Women’s Day].

14. A detailed description of the process would be unaffordable in this article as European nationalisms in the 19th Century are complex. A comprehensive summary for Spain in English can be found in Núñez Seixas (2001).

15. Like a Constitutional appeal by Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia to the Heritage Law in 1985 for the protection of regional competences that ended, for example, with Catalonia using the term ‘National’ in their museums and protection figures.

16. The conservative neo-revisionism mentioned above plays in this sense a fundamental role to whitewash the past by filing those aspects that are out of tune with the heroic narrative sought.

17. https://youtu.be/IqToJ4IGW_o [Accessed 24/06/2020]

18. A term popularised in Spain by the radical left party Podemos, referring to the traditional political class.

19. We want to use this specific word to show their active reactionary position against feminism as an example of the patriarchal and hierarchical concept of society and history they support.

20. HuffPost 29/02/2020, ‘Cómo Vox ha cambiado al PP’ (How Vox has changed the PP [Popular Party]). This has been openly explained by Vox (for example, La Vanguardia 2/12/2019, ‘Vox destaca su “influencia” en el Gobierno andaluz del PP [Partido Popular] y Cs [Ciudadanos]’ [Vox highlights its ‘influence’ on the Andalusian government of the PP and Cs]).

21. Eldiario.es published the news on 10/20/2019 after a tweet was sent by mistake by Vox leaders to a distribution list, ‘Las listas negras de Vox para vetar a medios y periodistas: “Son activistas que solamente hablarán mal de nosotros”’ (Vox blacklists to ban media and journalists: ‘They are activists who will only speak badly of us’). Later, the political formation expanded the list of vetoed media (see, Eldiario.es 04/14/2020, ‘La extrema derecha [Vox] declara la guerra al periodismo de verificación en España emulando a Bolsonaro y Trump’ [The extreme right [Vox] declares war on verification journalism in Spain by emulating Bolsonaro and Trump].

22. Plural.com 21/04/2019, ‘Acoso a medios y veto a periodistas: así planificó Vox su ataque a la prensa’ [Harassment of media and veto of journalists: this is how Vox planned their attack on the press].

23. El Salto 05/12/2018, ‘Medios andaluces piden a sus periodistas que no llamen “ultraderecha” a Vox’ [Andalusian media ask their journalists not to classify Vox as a ‘far-right’ party]. Until then, only keeling-over-the-extreme-right media like Libertad Digital had done it.

24. Abc 11/11/2019, ‘Vox gana en las redes sociales polarizando el debate público’ [Vox wins on social media by polarising public debate].

25. Eldiario.es 28/03/2020, ‘Más organizada y radicalizada: la extrema derecha usa el coronavirus para impulsar bulos y propaganda en las redes’ [More organised and radicalised: the extreme right uses the coronavirus to promote hoaxes and propaganda on social media]. The message is as low as playing with the numbers of death people or the risk of infection from refugees and other immigrants.

26. https://t.co/LMiEaTsrua [Accessed 26/06/2020].

27. Vox response from their official Twitter account to the leader of the People’s Party, claiming the true Reconquest with an image of Santiago Abascal wearing an anachronistic morion in his head during the 2019 elections’ campaign: https://t.co/0g6hXtXSjv [Accessed 11/05/2021].

28. El Español 07/04/2019, ‘El “patinazo” histórico de Vox: Abascal presume de liderar la Reconquista con un casco de otra época’ [The historical ‘slip’ of Vox: Abascal brags of leading the Reconquest with a helmet from a different period]. However wrong all this might seem, it has plenty of followers in social media, reproducing the message and the icons: i.e. https://t.co/xh2UXIN5iG [Accessed 27/06/2020].

29. In 2013, a conference by Victor Cururull, adviser of the then President of Catalonia Artur Mas, became viral for the string of absurd claims about the national history of Catalonia, which left a mark in the Catalan public opinion. Some highlights can be seen here: https://youtu.be/T2l9rGO7eu4 [Accessed 28/06/2020].

30. The focus has traditionally been either in Spanish nationalism or the historical regions of Catalonia, Galicia and Basque Country (i.e. Díaz Andreu 1995), but we can follow many other cases like Asturias/León (Marín, González and Alonso 2012), or the for/against al-Andalus nationalist debate in Andalusia (Calderwood 2014; García Sanjuán 2016; Marín-Aguilera 2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jaime Almansa-Sánchez

Ignacio Rodríguez-Temiño is a senior curator at the Carmona Archaeological Ensemble (Carmona, Spain). Besides his interest for Roman archaeology, his career pivoted around the research of urban archaeology and the fight against looting.

Jaime Almansa-Sánchez is a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit, CSIC). His work focuses on public archaeology and the research of archaeological heritage management. He is also editor of archaeological publications.