Puente and the racial slur: Spain's PSOE faces its own banners

Puente accused of racism: the PSOE and the immunity it never applies to itself
Nothing unites Spain's right like a Socialist minister and a verbal affront. The latest controversy comes from Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport, with a racially charged term aimed at Alvise Pérez and Santiago Abascal. The word, circulating on social media since early morning, reopens the debate over double standards in the fight against hate speech.

The PSOE has made the fight against racism one of its defining banners. Hence the surprise: a member of the government, who also holds a strategic portfolio, coming out with an epithet many see as a direct insult to the skin colour of his political rivals. The opposition, unsurprisingly, has erupted in fury. But the uncomfortable question is not whether Puente got it wrong, but whether the same would happen to a Vox or PP leader. For a significant share of the analysis, the answer is no.

The double standard on hate speech
Some argue that Spain's left enjoys a kind of historic impunity: it can call its opponents "fascists", flirt with dehumanisation and get away unscathed. Meanwhile, any outburst from the right becomes a hate crime. The Puente case fits that thesis perfectly: had Abascal uttered the phrase, there would not be a single day without front-page coverage.

The irony is that the PSOE itself has pushed through laws against hate crimes and made political correctness a badge of identity. The contradiction is hard to explain without mentioning electoral payoffs: the pogre base, the argument goes, does not punish these outbursts as long as they target the right. On the contrary, it applauds them.

What now?
The Ministry of Transport has issued no official statement so far. Pressure on Puente is mounting, but the story has a limited shelf life: the left will not purge one of its heavyweights over an outburst its electorate neither feels nor suffers. The right, for its part, has found the perfect example to illustrate its opponent's hypocrisy.

A reasonable doubt remains: if the scandal were measured with the same thermometer applied to others, would Puente still sit in the Council of Ministers? The question will go unanswered as long as sarracena standards keep running in two directions.