Friday, March 29

Adding’s photo


Hello,

How are you? I still have a cold, although somewhat better than the week before. Starting this Saturday, I take a few days of vacation with my family. I hope to return from Easter fully recovered. A few very complex months are ahead, and not only because of the current situation: in the kitchen of elDiario.es we have several important investigations underway that I hope we can tell you about soon. For now, I can’t tell you anything else. But I’m sure these are topics that will interest you.

Do you think there will be an agreement between Sumar and Podemos before the presentation of Yolanda Díaz’s candidacy this Sunday? I don’t know how you see it. We have asked our readers in a survey and the vote is very close.

My opinion? I think not: that there will be no short-term agreement. But not only because of what is seen with the naked eye: the enormous division and even greater personal distance between Pablo Iglesias and the candidate he himself named, Yolanda Díaz. I am also pessimistic because of what different sources from all the parties involved tell me, that on one side and the other it is difficult for there to be an agreement in the short term. “I don’t think it’s going to be fixed, although we keep trying,” a person who is in the negotiation tells me.

I hope my sources are wrong. I hope I’m wrong. And hopefully this Sunday will be the first photo of the unit on the left. Because if there is no agreement between Yolanda Díaz and Podemos, if there are finally two candidacies instead of a single electoral list, the main beneficiaries of this colossal disaster will be the right and the extreme right. If there is a good time to “stop fascism”, that day has arrived today.

When going down to the detail of the disagreement between Sumar and the hard core of Podemos – not the entire party, a part of its leaders and deputies will be there on Sunday – this crisis seems difficult to understand. Podemos and Sumar had almost agreed to a common declaration: around three pages, where they agree on practically everything, except for just two lines. In Podemos they ask for a bilateral agreement and “primaries open to the public.” While in Sumar they propose that in these primaries “the citizenry participate” but that they be agreed with the rest of the parties in a “multilateral” way. And because of that stumbling block, so minuscule, the possibility of an agreement is supposed to be shipwrecked. Seeing is believing.

Regarding the primaries, I really liked the article that Isaac Rosa published with us. I quite agree with him.

And as for the “multilateralism” that Sumar proposes, it does not seem like an exaggerated demand. Despite the fact that in Podemos they try to portray this electoral brand as “a new party” of Yolanda Díaz, the reality is that we are talking about a coalition. Where fifteen parties will participate. Among others, the party that governs the city of Barcelona –Catalunya en Comú–, the party that governs the city of Valencia –Compromís– or the left-wing party with the most votes in the Community of Madrid –Más Madrid–.

Is it reasonable that Podemos wants to negotiate a minimum before the wedding photo? I think so. Is it also understandable that there is talk of positions on the lists or at least how they are going to be named? If the distrust were not so great, it would not be necessary, although I understand that it is so now. But is it reasonable for Podemos to try to negotiate as if the other parties did not exist or were all a unit? I honestly think not.

The tension with the lists is not exclusive to this coalition. Politics is made with people and seats, not with manifestos. Although it would be desirable for these agreements – which are always complex – to be negotiated more discreetly. Showing how the sausage factory works is not the best way to whet the appetite of voters.

There are those who do not rule out that a solution may be found at the last moment. That this same Saturday, in the citizen council of Podemos, the leadership of the party changes its position and agrees to send some representation to the coming-out of Sumar: that even the general secretary, Ione Belarra, go. Other sources believe that this will never happen. And that after this new disagreement the possibility of any agreement is closed, at least until the regional and municipal ones pass.

Right now, and assuming the ability of the left to agree to a solution three minutes before the clock closes, the possibility of an agreement looks pretty bad.

In the curriculum of the current president of Madrid, it appears that, between 2005 and 2018, Isabel Díaz Ayuso was the director of the online area of ​​the PP in Madrid. She sounds very bombastic, but it was a minor charge. “Ayuso was the service of Esperanza Aguirre’s service,” says a person who knows her from those years, in a correct definition. Thanks to this exclusive from our colleague Pedro Águeda, today we know a little more about what this work consisted of.

It wasn’t just Freckled Dog’s Twitter. Ayuso was also dedicated to creating false profiles of left-wing politicians on social networks to ridicule them, spread false news or muddy them. What is popularly called “trolling” on the Internet.

Among other accounts, Ayuso wrote the tweets of @contigoZP –against José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero– or @tomasodiparla –against Esperanza Aguirre’s then rival, Tomás Gómez–. They are messages like this: Ayuso thought in its purest form.

The “Di Parla” thing also has an explanation, which Ayuso herself gave to the creator of the Punic plot, Alejandro de Pedro, in messages that we have also published in elDiario.es.

–How do you say macarra in Italian?

“No idea,” answers Alejandro de Pedro.

–Say Parla– finishes Ayuso.

Tomaso Di Parla’s account was active on Twitter until September 2012. In his last months, he tried to copy another famous parodic account that became very popular in those years: Espeonza Aguirre. This was the original:

And this was Tomaso Di Parla’s copy.

Espeonza Aguirre left the networks with almost 170,000 followers. And the Tomaso Di Parla that Ayuso launched? Only 80. Clearly, the humorous talent of the current president of Madrid was quite deficient.

The owners of this majestic palace in Mallorca donated it to the council during the Franco regime to build a museum. It never was. It is doubtful that it ever will be. For decades, the Marivent Palace has served as a private residence for the royal family, a good place to spend the summer.

Our colleague Aitor Riveiro has published in elDiario.es a detailed investigation into Marivent’s papers: the file of that donation that was never fulfilled. It is the story of an abuse: how the administration – first Francoism, then democracy – got hold of this imposing palace through broken promises. If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend this story. It helps to understand this country.

Margarita Díaz-Andreu is a renowned archaeologist with numerous awards. The least known part of it is the treatment it provides to its workers and interns, who have filed several complaints for workplace harassment. Threats, psychological abuse, or having to act as a babysitter for her son or as a hostess at the presentation of one of her books were commonplace. “I felt like a slave,” says one of the complainants. Several of them have ended up with psychological problems or sick leave due to anxiety.

This research is part of the work that our colleague Pol Pareja from the world of the university is doing. It is not the first report that he has published about bullying in classrooms and in the most prestigious scientific centers in Spain. It won’t be the last. For weeks now, we have not stopped receiving new reports of other cases, in which Pol is already working.

I’ll leave it here for today, as I’m just expanding this letter and my family reminds me that I’m supposed to be on vacation. I hope you can rest these days too. I will at least try.

A hug,

Ignatius School



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