this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2024
127 points (99.2% liked)

Europe

1509 readers
294 users here now

News and information from Europe 馃嚜馃嚭

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in [email protected]. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)

(This list may get expanded when necessary.)

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @[email protected], @[email protected], or @[email protected].

founded 4 months ago
MODERATORS
 

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/46537396

top 26 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[鈥揮 [email protected] 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

having kings and queens in the year 2024 is just entirely ridiculous.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

I honestly had no idea that Spain was still a monarchy.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 27 points 1 week ago

Perfectly valid behaviour. He is the symbol of the state. People are pissed at the state for being slow to react. He is simply dealing with what comes with the job. If he doesn鈥檛-t like it, he can always abdicate.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Abandon people for days > Going to take photos with the same people. What did they expect?

Edit: fix typo

[鈥揮 [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Tell you have no idea how civil protection and emergency response works in Spain without telling me you have no idea how civil protection and emergency response works in Spain.

Emergency response is the responsibility of the autonomous communities not of the national government which only makes resources available to the regional governments. Valencians were abandoned by their own politicians.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I know it all too well; I'm from Valencia and I've seen firsthand how official help barely arrived on time鈥攐nly the volunteers, the local community, and a few from the UME stepped up. Politicians from both the Valencian Community and Spain promised assistance, but it never came. It took days for official help to show up. Then they come for a visit, just to take photos, like that actually does anything. They cleaned the streets where they were going to walk, but left the rest of the neighborhood a mess. People have lost everything, and the politicians just come to play politics. The reaction is totally understandable.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Woah there mate, clearly the solution is to get more politicians to walk all the streets so that everything gets cleaned. You need more, not less politicians

[鈥揮 [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago
[鈥揮 [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Apparently they were primarily mad at the politicians, not the royals.

Prime Minister S谩nchez and the head of Valencian regional government, Carlos Maz贸n, joined the royal couple on the visit, but were swiftly evacuated as the crowd grew increasingly hostile.

Spanish media reports that objects were hurled at S谩nchez, while footage verified by the BBC appears to show stones being thrown at his car as he was driven away.

After he left, the crowd chanted: "Where is S谩nchez?"

[鈥揮 [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So fucking funny that they chanted against Sanchez when it was their right wing regional party who had a horrendous management of not closing businesses and having tons of people killed. Carlos Maz贸n is the one who abandoned them, not Sanchez.

For Americans, this is just like Texans that chanted against Biden when Ted Cruz fucking fled with the weather issue they had some time ago.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They chanted against Maz贸n too: "隆Maz贸n dimisi贸n!". It's the fault of both Sanchez and Maz贸n. Both regional and national politics have failed. And the royals are useless; they take a large chunk of money from our taxes and then serve no purpose. It's normal for people to get angry with them.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Then it's OK. I agree that nationally more should have been done, too.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hola, 驴lo conoces [email protected] ? Estamos intentando reunir a los hispanohablantes de Lemmy.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

hola, s铆, estoy suscrito desde hace tiempo pero me acabo de dar cuenta del mensaje fijado, porque no veo los mensajes, ahora lo arreglo

[鈥揮 [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago
[鈥揮 [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

This seems like... a bad idea? If I understand you correctly, each region maintains disaster relief infrastructure & staff with help from the central/national government? If so, does that translate to richer regions being less affected by calamities (since they can pour more money into said infrastructure than the bare minimum)?

In most countries (with such plans in place) the national government maintains all disaster relief management to assist local governments, right?

Sorry I've asked a lot of questions, but I'm genuinely interested to know!

[鈥揮 [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Does the Spanish royalty have any actual power?

[鈥揮 [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Not really, just representative. They are useless. They are just eating spanish money because yes.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Right. But that doesn't really make sense to blame them when they had no power to prevent this either. This should be put onto the actual politicians and all the voters who did not vote for Green politicians (which I would guess includes a lot of the people now trying to scapegoat the royalties here).

[鈥揮 [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Right. But that doesn't really make sense to blame them when they had no power to prevent this either. This should be put onto the actual politicians and all the voters who did not vote for Green politicians (which I would guess includes a lot of the people now trying to scapegoat the royalties here).

[鈥揮 [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

The problem with the monarchy is that it costs money and is useless, except for visiting affected places, as if that did any good; they don't provide solutions. At the same time, they have cleaned the streets where they were going to pass but haven't cleaned the rest of the streets, which angered the people.

All of this happened because the monarchy, the president of Spain, and the president of the Valencian Community all came at the same time. Everything added up and ended up like this.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

Wow, Spain is even more progressive than England in finding out that their monarchy is nothing more than a resemblance of colonialism and religious death cults.

[鈥揮 [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The violent protests during the visit of the Spanish royal couple and Prime Minister S谩nchez to the flood disaster area may have been organized by right-wing extremist groups.

As the Spanish Interior Minister Grande-Marlaska explained, there are clear indications of this.

Deutschlandfunk (German source)

Another source (DPA, English)

[鈥揮 [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

The idea that early kingdoms are despotisms in which the people exist only for the sovereign, is wholly inapplicable to the monarchies we are considering. On the contrary, the sovereign in them exists only for his subjects: his life is only valuable so long as he discharges the duties of his position by ordering the course of nature for his people鈥檚 benefit. So soon as he fails to do so, the care, the devotion, the religious homage which they had hitherto lavished on him cease and are changed into hatred and contempt; he is ignominiously dismissed and may be thankful if he escapes with his life. Worshipped as a god one day, he is killed as a criminal the next. But in this changed behaviour of the people there is nothing capricious or inconsistent. On the contrary, their conduct is quite consistent. If their king is their god he is or should be, also their preserver; and if he will not preserve them he must make room for another who will. So long, however, as he answers their expectations, there is no limit to the care which they take of him, and which they compel him to take of himself.

  • J. G. Frazer, Taboo, The Burden of Royalty
[鈥揮 [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Does the Spanish royalty have any actual power?

[鈥揮 [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Once I was the king of Spain.

Now I eat humble pie. 馃し