“New top-right strategy: “Emptying the façade and claiming it”, noted the news published a few months ago in ARGIA by Leire Artola. It was written by Artola on the occasion of the #SOYFACHA video made by NEOS and later shared by Isabel DI by Ayuso on his Twitter. The video used the term Ni ere (Me too) to express affinity with the word facade, to feel proud of it and to claim that it was not Spanish.

One of the symptoms that can be distinguished from this phenomenon is the blurry confusion of the political table, since accepting and internalizing the word "facade" on the right is using a strategy traditionally typical of the left, which is to turn the mocked into praise and symbol. (“Proletargo” in the case of Marxisma, “marica” and “bollera” in the case of LGBTIQ+). Along with this strategy, the groups on the right have also demonstrated their ability to reach the left the framework of social criticism and claim. The issue of feminism, immigration and environmentalism, the right has something to say to strengthen its position and weaken that of its opponent. Because the social claim, the manifestations of revolution and justice are increasingly used in the political communication of the right. What is striking is that, in addition to the issues, the political aesthetics of the left has been achieved. Surprisingly, now being right-wing is also revolutionary. Fight for an ideology that tries to impose on the threatening left, challenge authority (especially when the government is progressive), oppose feminism, not be politically correct, protect the laws of the market, prioritize individual desires more than collective judgments…

Faced with this recovery from the right, the parties, collectives and sectors on the left, believing that they had won several struggles, have forgotten to really fight. Instead of rigorous argumentation and serious discourse, the left is dominated by indirect claim and unfounded criticism. The contemporary left of progressism seems to be a statu-quo ideology rather than a revolutionary ideology. It now seems more revolutionary to refuse the cultural and moral imposition of the Left Progra. So things, several questions come to mind: To what extent have the participants and followers of the left enabled this transformation? And why do the facades on the left and the facades on the right look like?

Just as the right sector has extended the use of progres, communists and other words, the left sector has been filled with words such as fascist, right tip, right far-right. The fact that these words are repeated so often and shouting meaningless has led to the words being misused. Conclusion? Delete the words we use both in institutional policy and in street language. It is thus clear how the word facade has become a mockery. Because only that facade is one more mockery, one worthless offensive word. In the line that Leire Artola pointed out to us, an utterly empty word of political content. Along the same road are the words that throw fascists, ultra-right, right tip, totalitarian, dictatorial and left like stones. The title of this article, therefore, does not tell us anything from the left, because it only gives it an insult, because the word facade is at the level of any other insult.

The word "facade" comes from Italian fascism. In our use of the street we use it to point out people who are in favor of Spain and against the Basque world. PP and Vox; facade with Spanish flag; facade, which feels Spanish; facade, which does not match the proposals of the left; facade. The fact is that suddenly, if we turn everything into fascism and Franco, we will hardly distinguish the true fascism from the apparent. I mean, if everything is fascism, it's nothing. There is no more fascist behavior than the repetition of the same mantra and the adoption of what the ideology of the party says as a moral imperative. If the left does not want to become the right that insults and despises, it has to work hard. We must demand genuine criticism; the correct use of words, the exact expression of concepts and the social and profound treatment of disputes, without resorting to demagogy or moralism. In the meantime, let us no longer use the word ‘façade’ or, at least, use the word with conviction, with foundation and directed exclusively to what it deserves.

Joanes Tovar Torres, a student of philosophy, economics and politics at the University of Deusto.