The Spanish Prime Minister celebrates national holiday and Columbus Day in video without flag or references to Hispanic America

Spain's national day without the national flag and Columbus Day without any mention of Hispanic Americans or Hispanic America. This is how Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez marked both occasions in a social media video, where the most notable aspects were what was missing. 

He also makes no reference to the military, even though the most characteristic feature of the day in Spain is the parade of all branches of the armed forces in front of national authorities, led by the king and queen.

Pedro Sánchez's flags: LGBT and Palestine

Of course, the video prominently features the LGBT flag and references to the LGBT community. It also includes the flag that the Spanish president has frequently displayed recently—Palestine—alongside images of anti-Israeli demonstrations, seemingly to divert attention from the corruption scandals surrounding him.

Although the absence of the national flag is partially addressed in the social media text with an emoji, there is still no mention of Hispanic Americans or the armed forces.

"It is something senseless and unforgivable"

The absence did not go unnoticed by one of the main critics of the Spanish government’s leader, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. After seeing the post, the Popular regional leader commented:

"It is not that his subconscious has betrayed him, that too. It is that he has decided that he is not the president of all Spaniards and that Spain as a nation, as the project that we are, is the least important thing for him. He is into polls, demoscopes, civil war and opening gaps between Spaniards. This is a question of patience until we can change things."

"This is turning into a war of trenches, of hatreds, he feeds it, he is responsible for having a united Nation, sister regions and cohesive citizens. Sanchez is doing something else and his feeling of 'guilt' (in reference to the corruption cases that affect both the party, the Government and the President's family) is permeating everything and we are always at odds with each other, in a clash. It is something senseless and unforgivable."

Far Left praises Sanchez's video

The omissions did not go unnoticed by the far left either. Pablo Iglesias, founder of Podemos and former vice president under Sánchez, highlighted the post—but in a very different tone from Ayuso’s.