The Communist Party dismisses the Pope more warm than Vox | Spain

Pope Francis’s relationship with Spanish politics has always had a paradoxical point. At the head of an essentially conservative institution, its pontificate has raised more sympathies on the left than on the right. The paradox extended until this Monday, day of his deathwhen – for example among many possible – the general secretary of the Communist Party of Spain said goodbye to Francisco with much more warm than the general secretary of Vox.

« Evangelizing Spain of the middle of the orb; Spain Haeres hammer, Luz de Trent, Sword of Rome, cradle of San Ignacio. This is our greatness and our unity. We have no other, » wrote Menéndez Pelayo on a country where the secular intimacy between throne and altar has historically awakened the suspicion of liberals and progressive. National Catholicism, which embedd John Paul II and Benedict XVI They affected the distrust of the left towards the ecclesial hierarchy, which found its maximum expression in Pedro’s chair. It was until 2013 a constant: the samples of political tune with the Holy See used to come from the conservative field. Francisco turned the tortilla.

This Monday was not, of course, criticism. Not even among who were his detractors. But the difference from messages according to their ideological origin is in sight. Most were disseminated through social networks. The president, Pedro Sánchez, who avoided publishing a photo of himself with the Pope, highlighted the « commitment to peace, social justice and the most vulnerable » of Francisco. That was the usual tonic in the Executive and its leftist allies, which stressed the features of a papal work that are aligned with progressive values. The Government stressed the importance of the moment with an institutional declaration of Felix Bolaños, Minister of Presidency, praising a religious who « leaves a legacy for history. »

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He was « an ambassador of decent work, peace and social justice, » Yolanda Díaz wrote, of Sumar Movement, who in 2021 starred in a Sound meeting at the Vatican With – a very smiling – Francisco, whom the vice president presented her the following year in Madrid A book about his first ten years of papacy, I beg you in the name of God (Messenger editions).

That presentation had political back room. A few dates of celebrating, there was no known face to star in. Editorial sources point out that it was Francisco himself who gave two names: Jordi Évole or Yolanda Díaz. The vice president accepted without hesitation. « Every person who is in the public thing should not only read it, but to work it, » said Díaz, who joined the choir of praise with Francisco on Monday.

So did the Minister of Health, Mónica García, from Más Madrid, who stressed her « concern » about « climate change, poverty and inequality. » Even from the communist ranks they arrived. IU leader Antonio Maíllo – « a brave voice against social injustice » – and the general secretary of the PCE, Enrique Santiago – « fraternity and respect values ​​of the environment » – dedicated to the Pope messages of recognition and tune. In Podemos, which is usually differentiated from the left on each occasion, this time its main referents joined the warm farewells. Like that of his Europarliamentary Irene Montero, for whom Francisco « used his power against inequality » and against « genocide » and « immigration policy » of Trump.

Of the farewell disagreements

The reactions in the conservative field presented different degrees: colder the more to the right. Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been far from seducing the PP as Karol Wojtyła and Joseph Ratzinger did. Pablo Casado, who presided over the game until 2022, came to replicate Francisco when he said he would visit Spain “When there is peace ». « In Spain there is already peace, » said Casado, although there are analysts who interpret that Francisco did not refer to « peace » among Spaniards, but among the currents of the Spanish hierarchy, that the Pope saw little excited about his reforms.

The toughest attack of the PP against the Pope came in 2021 by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who criticized that « a Catholic who speaks Spanish », in reference to Francisco, apologized for the « sins » of the church during the conquest of America. « I am surprised that he speaks of a legacy that was to carry the Spanish and through the missions Catholicism, and, therefore, civilization, freedom, the American continent, » said the Madrid president. Francisco never heard any comparison between Christianity and civilization.

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But this Monday was not day to underline those discrepancies in a party that is declared in its statutes legatee of « Christian humanism. » Feijóo, who, like Yolanda Díaz published a photo of a meeting with Francisco, said goodbye to the « Pope who spoke Spanish and Punto was a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. » « It has served the world and the church since its convictions, » he noted. Ayuso, in an official act in Madrid in which there was a minute of silence, gave the condolences to the Catholic world for the goodbye of the « first Latin American pontiff. »

Unlike government messages and their leftist partners, neither Feijóo nor Ayuso underlined ideological tune with Francisco, a pontiff who wrote encyclical paths against the « Dogma of neoliberal faith » And about the need to take care of the earth Faced with climate changeand that placed at the center of his speech the demand for reception abroad. More proximity showed the Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno, who in an act in Seville highlighted the “commitment to the weakest and most vulnerable” of Francisco.

The Argentine pontiff raised during his papacy multiple Vox criticisms. Its president, Santiago Abascal, came to refer to Francisco as « Citizen Bergoglio », analogously to the « Bourbon citizen » dedicated by some Republicans to Felipe VI. The previous year, the one who was spokesman for the party in Congress, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, tried to disassemble the discourse on immigration of the Pope encouraging him to welcome himself in the Vatican to foreigners “without papers” that he wanted, but without getting into what other states do.

But no one in Vox came as far as two priests from the Diocese of Toledo who were rebuked by the archbishop after expressing their YouTube channel their wishes of a prompt death of the Pope. That episode evidenced the antipathy towards Francisco of sectors of the ultra -Catholic right, whose war was intensified when the Vatican published in early 2024 A statement in which he approved blessing homosexual couplesalthough without equating them to marriage.

Vox, aligned with the sectors of Catholicism that believe that the priorities of the Church should be to combat abortion and strengthen the Christian identity of Europe before Muslim immigration, dismissed this Monday with correct coldness to the pontiff that focused on the fight against poverty and the denunciation of abuses against abuse. Abascal was earned one hundred characters: « We joined the prayers of millions of Catholics for the soul of Pope Francis. Rest in peace. » The general secretary of the party, Ignacio Garriga, who studied at the Farga, a religious school linked to Opus Dei – organization that he saw his power with Francisco in Rome – was also succinct: « Catholics today are in mourning and we pray for the soul of Pope Francis. Rest in peace. » The Europarliamentary Hermann Tertsch, which usually takes the messages, did not hide his critical assessment: « Of course he will not be remembered for his love of Spain. »