/ Viral
The fashion influencer's appearance on Broncano's show was marked by her appearance with the Spanish anthem and a statement that served to clarify that she doesn't identify with any political party. This intervention sparks a debate about the political identity of centennials. A study by a French think tank shows that young Europeans between 18 and 24 are more right-wing than those over 65.
Aurora Muñoz
A few days ago, the influencer María Pombo visited The Resistance. It was supported by its figures (2.8 million followers on Instagram and a average engagement of the 4.90%), which has earned him an unbeatable record of achievements in the last year. At 28 years of age, he has won the statuette in Lifestyle of the International Influencers Awards, the Best Digital Entrepreneur award given by Forbes, and she was crowned 'Idol of the Year' at the gala organized by Dulceida. No one can match the Madrid native on social media, where she moves like a fish in water. However, the challenge of emerging stronger from the late show presented by David Broncano is a different story.
It is difficult to know if this fashion icon is a regular viewer of the format, but she most likely saw the interview Iñaki Gabilondo before attending as a guest. The journalist presented What the hell is Spain?, a Movistar+ program in which he reflects with different protagonists about our country.
This farewell to television has helped him reach a conclusion: "The most unifying element of Spain is gastronomy," he declared on the stage of the Teatro Príncipe Gran Vía and, without further ado, he took his mobile phone out of his pocket to perform a version of the anthem which he created with chef José Andrés. The menu includes dozens of traditional dishes, including the classic among classics: the potato omelet.
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That was just the gift that Pombo brought prepared to conquer the public: an arsenal of 300 tortilla sandwiches that could have come out for 2,300 euros, if it weren't for the fact that they were financed by a brand that she assiduously promotes. The youngest of the Pombashians arrived with her lesson learned and wanted be greeted with the original anthem"I want you to play it at full blast because I feel more like myself, like I'm at home," he proclaimed. Shortly after, he added that at weddings in his circle, it's common for it to play during the ceremony, at the moment of the consecration. This information was more than enough for the man from Orcera to provoke a furious trolling and play a version hummed by David Bisbal.
Not one to neglect humor, Broncano took advantage of the situation to steer the influencer toward political directions, and she ended up leaving this headline for posterity: "I'm somewhere in between for everything. For example, for the very right-wingers, I'm a red, and for the very red-minded, I'm a fascist..." My environment tells me that I am a redhead.. (…) I have a group of people who hate me, who are the reds, and another group that hates me, which are the super-fascists.
It doesn't arrive at the level of El Xokas, who this very week claimed to have voted for both left-wing and right-wing parties, but it served to unsettle the audience and provoke laughter encouraged by the presenter's comments: "I'd like to see your communist friends. (...) Maybe who you think is the reddest is Albert Rivera and someone else," he said.
Santiago Giraldo, a political scientist and journalism professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, believes this caricature influenced his self-definition: "We carry a problem with the conceptualization of what it means to be a fascist or a communist in everyday language. People use these terms without rigor, and that directly affects their reluctance to be pigeonholed into one side or the other," he explains.
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However, among the comments on the program's Instagram post, there are some thoughts that suggest that perhaps the viral phrase is not as random as it might seem. "This is what the ideological racism "that our politicians have instilled in us: to pretend to be who we are so everyone likes us, or at least not displease anyone. I wish for a depoliticization of the population. How free we would be!" explains one social media user.
Professor of Political Science at the University of Malaga, Angel Valencia, isn't so sure that her speech is fake: "It's logical that María Pombo tries to project an equidistant image to protect her brand, but her own biography pushes her to be moderate. She's had it all," the political scientist clarifies. "The influencer studied in Vancouver (Canada) and Michigan (United States), she's trained, and she's known how to do her job. There's no doubt that she made the right career choice, but the wind was already blowing in her favor. She comes from a well-off family in Madrid; she's the great-great-granddaughter of the writer." Thorn Shell [finalist for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1926] and is surrounded by a privileged economic environment," he adds.
Without that glorious life, the patriotic discourse is less resolute. "Pombo has nothing to do with people his age who still live at home with their parents and can earn, at most, the minimum wage. It's hard to be young in Spain right now."Generation Zers belong to one of the population segments most affected by job insecurity and rising rental prices," Valencia points out. The Madrid native also specified that she doesn't identify with anyone. That, however, may be a point shared by many centennials, although that doesn't mean that twenty-somethings are "disgusted" by politics, as the woman stated. influencer during the interview.
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This 2022 is the European Youth Year and the European Parliament has commissioned a Eurobarometer flash survey among more than 18,000 young people aged 15 to 30 from all 27 Member States. The survey shows that Generation Z is increasingly committed to democracy: 58% are actively involved in the society they live in and, in the last 12 months, have been part of one or more youth organizations. This represents an increase of 17 percentage points since the 2019 Eurobarometer.
"They're tired of seeing men in ties debating territorial models while many of the things they care about are left off the political agenda."
These findings reveal that centennials' disaffection with politics is a simplification. "In recent years, we've experienced the 15M movement, the Arab Spring, and an economic crisis in 2008... All of this has led to a dramatic shift in the political landscape, and the rules of the game have changed. We've gained in transparency, social rights, and citizen participation, but at the same time, there's been a resurgence of extremist rhetoric that emphasizes that our current administrative model is overly interventionist and burdensome," he explains. Manuel Rodríguez Morillo, political and social innovation consultant.
"The framework for conversation has changed, and consequently, so has the way young people engage in the public sphere. Generation Z is much more critical of the political class and institutions than its predecessors. They're tired of seeing men in ties debating territorial models and federalism. Many of the things that interest them are left off the agenda, and perhaps because of this, there's less political affiliation, while we see an increase in neighborhood associations," adds the director of the Civic Chamber.
During the first year of the pandemic alone, The parties lost 3.5% of contributors (almost 9,000), according to data from the Tax Agency from the 2020 Personal Income Tax return. "The health alarm situation established conditions of distrust in democracy due to the polarization that occurred and the disbelieving discourse of the opposition regarding prevention recommendations. We witnessed as spectators a show politician from our homes," Valencia recalls.
"This is happening at the same time as a rearmament of profiles such as those of former US President Donald Trump; andHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. They are leaders who question tax payments, who want to seal their borders, and who have based their popularity on xenophobic rhetoric. Voters are susceptible to this trend," adds Rodríguez Morillo, coordinator of Hateblockers.
A study by Fondapol, a prestigious French think tank, reflects that young Europeans between 18 and 24 years old are positioned on the right, even more than those over 65.The 'Cañas por España' phenomenon is not exclusive to our country."Other older democracies are showing the same signs of weariness. "It's possible that, in this postmodern context, the boundaries are blurred and the new generations don't identify as strongly with the label 'right-wing' or 'conservative,' but what is clear is that they feel increasingly comfortable with the label 'liberal,'" says the director of the Civic Chamber.
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In the midst of this triumph of individualism it is not surprising that one of the influencers most followed on social media would be encouraged to use their Instagram account to share stories a thread from a user who questioned the amounts of taxes we pay to public administrations. The copy The post was accompanied by hashtags as #liberal #freedom or #freethinker. "Young Spaniards see themselves reflected in a social triumph that involves less state intervention. They have assimilated this discourse of success through professions like that of María Pombo, with a brilliant individual career, and that brings them closer to his argument, even though he speaks from a privileged position," analyzes the professor of Political Science and Administration at the University of Malaga.
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