ABC's hypocrisy regarding immigration and its ownership structure

Spanish emigration as propaganda: ABC and the immigration comparison it avoids

There is a scene that defines the contradiction: ABC, a historic bastion of monarchism, praising the Spanish emigrants of the 1960s to welcome today's immigrants. The article ‘We were also immigrants’ attempts to sell empathy. There is only one problem: those who crossed the border back then arrived with contracts, papers, and a suitcase; those arriving now, to a large extent, travel irregular routes without contracts or permits. This is not a nuance: it is the difference between emigration and what the UN calls ‘replacement migration’.

The controversy has erupted precisely there: while one part of public opinion applauds the initiative as an antidote to racism, another responds that you cannot equate the Spanish worker who paid social security in Germany with those entering without documentation who, according to circulating data, have higher unemployment and benefit rates than natives. The clash is statistical and defines this moment.

Who puts nostalgia on paper

ABC's editorial line does not come from thin air. The largest individual shareholder is Francisco García Paramés, manager of Cobas AM, with more than 11% of the capital. They are trinc by the Ybarra Aznar (11.07%) and Luca de Tena (10.14%) families, who have an agreement to counteract investment funds. This distribution explains many things: the liberal market rhetoric coexists with a defense of immigration that clashes with its reader base. It is not ideology; it is business strategy. Institutional advertising and NGO subsidies carry more weight than the loyalty of old subscribers.

A newspaper that has already switched sides: 1932, 1936 and the double edition

ABC's memory is also selective. In 1932, it was suspended for supporting Sanjurjo's uprising. In July 1936, the Republican government seized it and handed it over to the UGT (a major socialist trade union), which appointed the socialist Ramón Lamoneda as director. During the Civil War, the newspaper published two versions: the Madrid version, Republican, and the Seville version, Nationalist. Today, it feels entitled to give lessons in migratory solidarity. Let everyone draw their own conclusions.

What is surprising is not ABC's gesture, but that they continue to be surprised. A newspaper that has known how to change its coat depending on who is in power now claims that Spanish emigration is the same as current immigration. However, anyone reading from an economic perspective, with employment and benefit data on the table, will see that there is no mirror between that Spain and this one, but rather a paid advertisement. Nostalgia, like ownership, has a price.