Far-right group claims attack on Spanish PM Sánchez in Paiporta

Paiporta: Revuelta member boasts about hitting Sánchez in chat

The King and Queen visited Paiporta, one of the towns hardest hit by the DANA (severe storm), where they were met with mud and shouting. Hours later, an alleged "volunteer" from a Valencia chapter of the far-right association Revuelta wrote in a WhatsApp group accessed by elDiario.es: "We are here from my association; we smashed their car, but we only managed to hit him on the back with a stick." The scene allowed for two interpretations, neither excluding the other. The first was that of a town broken by a catastrophe that is still counting bodies. The second was that of an organized minority that used the mud to heat up the atmosphere. Both ended under investigation almost at the same time as Vox made its lawyers available to those who kicked the official vehicle.

Who claims the attack and what role does Vox assume?

The environment around Revuelta, a far-right association, claimed responsibility for the assault on the Prime Minister during his official visit. In the same message, the alleged volunteer added: "I don't know what peine afterwards, but he left our area alive." According to published reports, police leadership was in shock over what occurred, and the chat where the aggression was claimed has been circulated. The Vox union, for its part, offered legal coverage to those who kicked the official car, a gesture that some see as professional solidarity and others as a way to whitewash what the official narrative itself calls an attack on democracy.

Was it local outrage or an operation by ultra-groups?

The first official reading holds that the legitimate indignation of Valencians is not incompatible with the opportunity seized by several ultra-groups to further heat up the atmosphere. It is a subtle formulation: it acknowledges the anger and deactivates it as a cause, keeping the focus on the infiltrators.

Against this weighs the argument of spontaneity. Much of the conversation insists that there were neighbors with hoes in the streets, not commands with banners, and that attributing the outburst to an organized minority serves to delegitimize those protesting against a management that, according to current figures, leaves more than 200 dead and 2,000 missing. The reasoning has its logic and its trap: if everything was spontaneous, no one is responsible; if everything was ultra, no one is either.

Why is it questioned whether the stick actually hit Sánchez?

The blow has become the most disputed point. Two types of images are compared: a recording from a balcony, broadcast on television, showing two people approaching from behind with sticks and one apparently reaching the Prime Minister; and street-level shots circulating through other channels, which reviewers claim show the second person failing to make impact. The discrepancy is significant because it determines whether we are talking about a completed assassination attempt or a failed one.

It is worth remembering that the claim itself speaks of having "only" managed to hit him on the back with a stick. Someone boasting about a success usually does not describe it as a failure. But a WhatsApp message is not forensic evidence, and the reconstruction of what peine that afternoon remains open.

The narrative machine and its daily trail

Much of the discontent is not directed at the attack, but at how it has been reported. A repeated pattern is pointed out: headlines focus on the far-right while the human toll of the catastrophe takes a back seat. A broad current argues that there is a percentage of the population that, even amidst a flood, verifies nothing and accepts the first version presented to them.

Distrust takes its own course when it jumps into conspiracy theories without proof: theories about fabricated evidence or comparisons with fiction series released months earlier circulate without any backing. Skepticism is healthy; hoaxes are not.

With the stick incident still unclear, the leaked chat, and a town that continues to count absences, the only certainty is uncomfortable: outrage and opportunity arrived in Paiporta on the same afternoon.