Who watches over whom in a democracy, and what does Pedro Sánchez want with his 'HODIO'?

There are politicians who claim to be democrats but who have a completely distorted and false view of what democracy is.

Spain deserves a government that monitors the railways, not opinions on social media
A minister in Pedro Sánchez's government calls for “ban Twitter”, like in Russia, Iran and North Korea

Yesterday, in a new attempt to distract people from the corruption scandals and incompetence of his government, Pedro Sánchez presented a new opinion control tool called “HODIO” (Footprint of Hate and Polarization). Once again, the socialist leader attacked social media, a public forum he dislikes because opinions are freely expressed without censorship, and many of those opinions are unfavorable to his government. Sánchez had the cynicism to state: “If hatred is already dangerous, social media has turned it into a weapon of mass polarization. A weapon that is easy to find and use. And extremely lucrative for some.”

This is coming from a government allied with Bildu, a far-left party that does not condemn terrorism, and which is also allied with other far-left parties that have not condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine or Hamas' terrorist attacks against Israel. Sánchez also depends on the support of separatists (parties that promote hatred of Spain) to stay in power. In recent years, the government and its allies have become a constant source of attacks on the opposition, the free media, judges, the crown, and Catholics; it is also the most anti-Semitic government in Europe, which has gone so far as to do such savage things as promoting violence to disrupt a stage of La Vuelta a España, leaving 22 police officers injured, simply because an Israeli team was participating.

Seeing that government complaining about hatred and polarization is like seeing a Nazi complaining about racism. What Sánchez is doing is a colossal exhibition of cynicism, and with it he is doing something else: revealing his idea of democracy. In a democratic society, it is the citizens, the media, and the judges who must monitor the government's actions. It is up to us to oversee what the government does with our money and with the power we have given it.

On the contrary, Sánchez assumes the right to monitor citizens, scrutinizing our opinions on social media, in an attempt to intimidate us so that we do not dare to speak out against corruption and abuses by his government. Sánchez is using the coercive power of the state to instill fear in Spaniards, so that people will not dare to say anything that might contradict the government, for fear of being singled out and suffering reprisals for it. This is how power works in dictatorships such as communist China, a totalitarian regime that Sánchez has openly praised and which has the Spanish socialist leader as its main ally—or perhaps it would be better to say fifth columnist—in the European Union.

In the China that Sánchez likes so much, citizens are arrested for their opinions, simply for saying anything that makes the single-party regime uncomfortable. This regime has held power in that country since 1949 without ever holding free elections and in violation of the most basic human rights. “HODIO” is yet another example of Sánchez's desire to turn Spain into China, a country where the government monitors the opinions of its citizens, which is exactly the opposite of what should happen in a democracy. Of course, Sánchez can be sure of one thing: many of us are not afraid of him and we will continue to say loud and clear what he does not want to read or hear. Spain is a democracy and we will not allow an apprentice dictator to tell us what we can and cannot say.
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Image: Grok.