J. M. de Prada: Heading for the abyss

Juan Manuel de Prada argues that the Spanish government, which he calls "jackal rulers," is using the eviction of an elderly woman to divert attention from corruption and the "barbaric invasion of Ceuta." The writer claims this maneuver, along with a housing decree riddled with legal errors, shows that Spain is a people in the hands of demagogues leading it toward the abyss.

The writer **Juan Manuel de Prada** has published an opinion piece, dated **October 4, 2026**, in which he analyzes the Spanish political situation with extreme harshness. His thesis is that the country is inhabited by a people defenseless against rulers he labels "jackals" and "demagogues." He maintains that they are capable of molding citizens "like plasticine" to lead them into whatever fold suits them or, if necessary, toward the deepest abyss.

## The diversion of attention and the case of the evicted elderly woman

According to De Prada's account, recent events demonstrate a deliberate strategy of distraction. The author states that the rulers, with the help of a press he brands as "servile," have managed to make all of Spain forget two serious matters: what he describes as the "barbaric invasion of Ceuta" and the corruption cases in which, according to him, they are wallowing. To achieve this, they have diverted the masses' attention to the "picturesque case" of an elderly woman evicted from an apartment.

The writer acknowledges that the eviction was carried out "very clumsily and even impiously," but introduces a fundamental nuance: the woman had been occupying the home in fraud of law for decades. De Prada contextualizes this figure by recalling that in the last two legislative terms there have been **300,000 evictions** in Spain, a reality that, in his view, has not generated the same social reaction. The elderly woman benefited from a law with a sense of social justice repealed decades ago, precisely by the same rulers who now defend her.

## A youth without purchasing power as the emblem of the cause

The article focuses on the youth, whom it describes as "lobotomized" and deprived of the minimum purchasing power to live with dignity. De Prada denounces the paradox that this generation has erected the evicted elderly woman as the emblem of their cause, when she is a person who benefited from a repealed law that this same youth will never be able to benefit from.

The author accuses the rulers of setting themselves up as champions of this cause and as whips against "vulture funds." However, he reproaches them for not having lifted a finger for more than eight years to seriously combat the problem of access to housing. Instead, he maintains, they have devoted themselves to "licking the hemorrhoids" of the bigwigs at **BlackRock**, boasting of this fund's investments in Spain, which the author interprets as a rapacious hoarding of property.

## An improvised decree-law with legal errors

The criticism extends to the Government's legislative response. De Prada states that the rulers improvised a decree-law that they passed without even having drafted it. According to his version, the text was later written with the help of artificial intelligence or by "ignoramuses ignorant of law," resulting in a "farrago" riddled with legal aberrations. Among them, he mentions the infringement of the principle of non-retroactivity of laws and the legalization of the diabolical proof.

The author adds that, not content with what he considers a mockery, they decided to split the text to craft another that repeats the same aberrations, exaggerating them, and that is adorned with "crude empty promises and pestilent ideological slogans." The ultimate goal, according to De Prada, was to subject the deputies to a "sordid blackmail" so they could be pointed out as enemies of the people if they dared to bring down their "double filth."

## Electoral call and the lemming simile

The article concludes with a warning about the consequences of this dynamic. De Prada states that with this "deranged gambit" the rulers are preparing to call elections. He maintains that only a people in the hands of demagogues can swallow such an "indecent hoax." And he adds that only a sarracena debased, intellectually brutalized people possessed by a furious self-destructive appetite can plunge down the abyss, "like a blind herd of lemmings," in such a desolate manner. The text is a political opinion and not verified information.