There is a suspicion that sections of the political right in Spain regard all this World Cup stuff as a dangerous diversion, with any Spanish success threatening their chances of evicting Zapatero at the next election. They probably slept soundly enough last night. Apart from that factor, it seems that some of the same people are upset about the Spanish national team being referred to as "La Roja".
Despite their recent dramatic swing to the left, there are still some capitalist roaders inside the Partido Popular who associate the term "La Roja" with Dolores Ibárruri; more famously known as La Pasionaria. So they are calling for a change of name, although the proposed "La Furia" doesn't really seem to fit with the languid passing game employed by the Spanish players yesterday against Switzerland. It will surprise few readers of this blog to discover that the even more ultra Grupo Intereconomía has also got involved in the debate by insisting on referring to the national team with the far more patriotic "La Rojigualda".
Meanwhile the Spanish press has picked up today on the way in which both The Times and The Guardian managed to use the Spanish defeat as an excuse to write about the relationship between goalkeeper Iker Casillas and the TeleCinco journalist Sara Carbonero. The pretext for leading with a nice bit of celebrity gossip was a fairly lame suggestion that the presence of Carbonero in South Africa may have affected the performance of Casillas. That's why they call it the quality press.
No comments:
Post a Comment