Abascal
Abascal, the leader of Spain's far-right party, went to Argentina to
congratulate the new right-wing president Milei, and there in an
interview indirectly compared Prime Minister Sánchez of Spain to a
dictator, by hinting that Spain would someday wish to kill him as
Italians killed the fascist dictator Mussolini.
His statement was typical right-wing bullshit, accusing left-wing
leaders of the very wrongs that right-wing leaders are visibly doing.
Their tactics are the road to fascist dictatorship.
What worries me is the idea of prosecuting the statement as
"incitement to violence." The statement in question predicts a desire
for violence, but doesn't actually urge violence.
It's clear that Abascal's statement was meant to encourage right-wing
hatred that his party is based on, and clear that such hatred
sometimes spills out as physical violence. Abascal surely knows this.
But I am still afraid that criminalizing such statements will become a
form of repression. Compare this with the widespread state-supported
effort to cast the protests against Israel's lightly veiled mass
murder in Gaza as "support for terrorism". Protesters in the UK have
been threatened with prosecution for "glorifying terrorism"
based on statements in support of Palestinians.
That is directly comparable to the prosecution of Abascal.
It is also an exaggeration comparable to Abascal's own exaggeration.
(A controversial coalition agreement is not tantamount to becoming a
dictator.)
Such exaggeration always deserves a rebuke, but criminalizing it is a
threat to freedom of speech. That path leads to oppressive
practices such as these, found in Thailand.