Escrache

Imagine you´re a Member of Parliament. And you have decided you are not going to give your support to something. And then you get a group of people protesting against you.

You would say. “Well, nothing new”

… calling you cockroach and threatening to kill you.

You would say something like “Well, you know. People sometimes say things they don’t really think.”

… at the street in front of your home.

… or even inside your building and hitting the door of your flat while your children are inside and you are not there.

I’m very worried. For several reasons

• They are Member of Parliament. They are representing thousands of people.
• MP are being harassed to make them vote something different (at best). Not trying to convince with reasons, but with fear.
• They are being harassed not only at the Parliament or giving a speech in some random place. But at their homes. Threatening their neighbors with “it’s not safe to live near an MP”. Threatening their families.
• The rhetoric (crockoachs, we are going to kill, you don’t deserve living) shows the “objectification of the enemy”. The enemy is everybody who does not think the same.
• I hadn’t heard the word escrache until a month ago. But it is another symptom of a trend. It is not something new. It is not something big. It’s some little thing here. That comic strip there. A little piece of news over there.

And last but not least, because the unemployment rate in Spain is over 26% for the general population and over 55% for people under 25 y.o.

Some people say “Yes it’s violence but…”. Yes. Violence is justified against people who think something different. And even other members of Parliament support this form of pressure.

However, every cloud has a silver lining. There are other MP that oppose to this trend.