On March 11, 2026—just a few months ago—Pedro Sánchez made a big fanfare about announcing a new body: the "Hodio" (spelled with an 'H'). Its function is to monitor polarization and prevent hate. Now, let’s see what this new rabbit pulled out of Sánchez’s hat has to say about the incident you are about to witness.
What you
see here is a 16-year-old kid whose "crime" was walking around with a Spanish flag during the World Cup. Several "brave souls" attacked a 16-year-old boy who was simply walking with a Spanish flag, celebrating the World Cup final. Isn't this hate? Well, this is hate *without* the 'H', so I suppose it doesn't count.
We ought to add a new definition to the Royal Spanish Academy’s dictionary: "hate" as that generated by ideology, gender, or way of thinking, and "Hodio" (with an 'H') as that which affects only the Left. Perhaps that is why they added an 'H' to the word—to distinguish between the two types of hate—because I am still waiting for them to speak out. Nor have I heard anyone on social media label this for what it truly is: fascism—the real kind, not the label they freely slap on anyone who thinks differently than they do. What you have just seen is, in fact, fascism.
Fascists attack a 16-year-old boy for carrying a Spanish flag; the prosecutor's office deems this a hate crime. This incident is not an isolated case; we have also seen military personnel assaulted for the terrible crime of wanting to watch a soccer final in a bar. We have seen this pattern repeat itself across the Basque Country and—though fortunately less frequently—in parts of Catalonia; yet here, there is no talk of hate crimes, and the prosecutor's office takes no action.
The people behind these attacks—particularly the assault on the military personnel—are the usual suspects. These are the very people we were told to "turn the page" on because ETA was over and Bildu was part of the institutions. Yet, while we are urged to move on, they constantly trot out the bogeyman of Franco, labeling people "Francoists" and dredging up history at every turn—feigning outrage if some forgotten town has a street named after Calvo Sotelo (a man assassinated by whom, exactly? Let us recall the facts).
The hostility persists; people are still being attacked for carrying the Spanish flag. These assaults happened just hours ago. We are told we must "turn the page"—that Bildu is in the institutions, has a right to be there, and is now a democratic party—yet the "pups" of ETA are slowly re-emerging. Meanwhile, Franco—who died half a century ago—remains a topic of debate on every self-styled progressive talk show.
And then, of course, we’re supposed to be afraid of the far right. Afraid? Afraid of what? That people from Vox might burst into a Catalan bar and pull an expandable baton on you because you’re watching a Barça match or carrying a—uh—nationalist flag? That’s the fear we’re supposed to have—because we’ve never seen that happen, and I doubt we ever will—whereas the opposite—"democrats" doing that—is something we see with increasing frequency, unfortunately. But, you know, the fear is supposed to be of the far right.
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