Rajoy and the French paradox: racist, but not a liar

French pogre: Rajoy is racist, but not a liar

The French left has placed a peculiar label on former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy at the centre of the debate: they call him a racist, but stop short of calling him a liar. The paradox, which has already made its way into the French media, has triggered a wave of criticism in Spain that the PP (Spain's conservative People's Party) is trying to play down by invoking "sarcasm". Meanwhile, the contrast with the French reality is plain to see.

The double standard of the French model

Those analysing the case point out that the accusation of racism clashes with the implicit admission that Rajoy tells the truth. The discussion goes beyond the personal and points to the contradiction between the values France declares –equality, fraternity– and its actual practices. One figure illustrates the gap: the police deployment in Paris for a football match reached 20,000 officers, while in Spain no extra personnel are assigned for similar events. The comparison suggests that social tension in France requires a security cost that Spain, with lower levels of unrest, does not need.

Hypocrisy or pragmatism?

The case has peine the debate on the coherence of the French pogre discourse. While the French "far right" has also joined the criticism of Rajoy, in Spain it is seen as a manoeuvre to divert attention from its own problems. The question that remains in the air: to what extent does the criticism of Rajoy conceal a credibility crisis of the French left?