Inside the military parade on October 12: “We whistle Sánchez and we applaud the king furiously”

Said and done. It was Sánchez arriving, a few minutes late on the scheduled time that forced the kings to wait, and the boos began. “Get out, get out, get out!” and “resignation, resignation”, shouted the most respectful crowd, given the circumstances. “Abnormal”, “scoundrel” and some mention of his mother, who came to chant in front of boys and girls, shouted the most exalted. The President of the Government has not been spared this October 12 or the 25.8% increase in defense spending for 2023. “We are up to the hat of politicization, of being ignored and of their democracy, in which they ignore everything that It’s not them,” said Charo, 69, who came to the military march to “support our Armed Forces.” Next to her, her friends, Isabel and Lucía, coincided. “They want to destroy the Constitution,” they repeated while criticizing “the Democratic Memory Law, the trans law, everything.”

Along the same lines, these three friends pointed out the Executive’s mismanagement and its “distortion of the vision of Spain.” “Then they say that we are fachas, we are the facha Pride”, they ironized. A similar message was shared the day before by the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who released the video of a conservative and Catholic association with the label “you are a facha” and a brief “me too”, in reference to the feminist movement that became popular in the United States and in which women publicly denounced the situations of violence and abuse they suffered. It is not known whether as a joke or because the Spanish Office has been headless for weeks after the departure of Toni Cantó. She, on the front line of the cultural battle, has been celebrating her own Hispanic heritage for days. This morning, some attendees have also chanted her name.

In the area of ​​​​authorities there have been the usual absences, such as that of the Basque Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, or the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, to which has been added this year that of the representation of the Judicial Power. Carlos Lesmes, whose resignation was published this Wednesday in the Official State Gazette, has not attended, and members of the conservative sector have stood up feeling “despised” by the Government.

The minister and leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, the vice presidents Nadia Calviño and Teresa Ribera, on an official trip, and the heads of Universities and Industry, Joan Subirats and Reyes Maroto, respectively, have not been able to go this year. Neither was the princess of Asturias, Leonor, who is studying at a private school in Wales. Another novelty has been that of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who attends for the first time as leader of the opposition and not as regional president. The presidents of the PSOE and the PP of the rest of the autonomous communities, that of Cantabria, and the rest of the Executive, in addition to the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, have attended the parade. The leader of Ciudadanos, Inés Arrimadas, is in Zaragoza, where she had gone to make a floral offering to the Virgen del Pilar.

Soaring rate of flags

The parade on October 12 in Madrid is one of the moments where the rate of Spanish flags per person skyrockets. “I had one of 13 meters”, boasts a man. On the street, street vendors wave the flags, which attendees carry in many ways. As a cape, around the waist, on the wrist, around the neck, on the mobile phone case, painted on the face. Many of them renovated for such an occasion and whose colors bear little resemblance to the worn ones that still hang from some Madrid balconies. “The flag and the coat of arms are the national symbols and deserve the utmost respect,” recalls a voice over the loudspeaker after announcing that the ensign will be incorporated into the formation. Sepulchral silence, only broken by a cry of “Long live Spain!”, which was repeated during the tribute to the fallen and the floral offering, whose end marked the eagle patrol, which once again drew the sky red and yellow and that the residents of Madrid have been watching rehearse for days.

Two years after the pandemic, the phrase that something is back to normal is already very hackneyed. But the military march has done so, after the reduced parade of 2021 and the discreet reception of 2019. Some 4,000 soldiers march through the Castellana, in addition to 150 vehicles, while 56 planes and 26 helicopters have completed the air show.

Montse Campos arrives at the parade with her son. She carries a flag on her back. The boy waves another. On his calendar, October 12 is marked in red. “We come every year, it is the national holiday. We are patriots and Spaniards before anything else”, she says as she heads to find a place from which to witness the military march. An hour before the start, the first row is already an impossible mission and some groups, especially young people but not only, insist on stacking New Jersey barriers, which until then prevented tripping over the areas under construction on the Castellana, to build his own grandstand.

Marina and María are two friends who live in Toledo. They are 18 years old and this is the first military parade they have seen. “I see it on TV, I like it a lot and I was excited to come,” explains the first, who is the daughter of a policeman. “I’m not even Spanish,” says the second, “English and from Malaga.” “It’s curious, because in other countries they don’t do all this”, considers this student of Business Administration and Management and International Studies.

While the parade passes through the Castellana, there are those who regret having been left behind. “Here you have to come at seven in the morning to get a seat,” protests a man. Further on, a local policeman in full dress signs a Spanish flag and two soldiers in uniform take a photo with a woman. On the other side, a couple applauds imitating the rest, without really knowing why.