Gistert: Muslims in Ceuta defend Spain, says Spanish politician

Pizzpi Gistert's speech on Ceuta ignites the nationalists

Can you praise the Jovenlandeses of Ceuta and still be a right-wing politician? Judging by the reactions, the answer has made Pizzpi Gistert a hero to some and a traitor to others. At an event that will go down in history for its lack of an audience — literally zero attendees, according to circulating reports — the politician stated that the Jovenlandeses of Ceuta «were the first to come out and defend this land out of love for their homeland (Spain)».

The remark has laid bare a rift that Spanish nationalism has spent years trying to close: what defines a Spaniard? One camp holds that blood, heritage and the Catholic faith are the root of identity. For that camp, a Muslim from Ceuta, no matter how Spanish their passport, is a foreign body. Another camp, in which Gistert appears to serve, insists that the national ID card makes the citizen and that patriotism is proven by deeds, not by surnames.

The contradiction is only apparent. Gesture politics has its rules: the same figure who champions birthright over bloodline has been ridiculed for arriving at the event by helicopter in a groom's outfit. «He looked like a sitting prime minister», one onlooker summed up. The image sums up better than any analysis the spectacle of a politician who wants to please everyone and ends up pleasing no one.

The debate over Spanish identity is once again left in no man's land. But there is one detail that should not go unnoticed: the event drew zero attendance. Perhaps identity politics can no longer even rally its own. Or perhaps, as in the joke, the politician took the helicopter and left the audience at home.