Spain and the exaggerated hostility it faces abroad

There is no single international hatred of Spain, but rather a set of criticisms that often contradict one another: the same Spain is accused of being Semitic and of being the hammer of heretics, of destroying America and of having evangelised it. The 'pincer' works because each side picks the argument that suits it.

There is a form of hostility towards Spain that does not need to be coherent to work. The country can be accused of being racially Semitic and, at the same time, of having been the armed wing of European Catholicism. The two do not fit together, but both are used as convenient. That is what some analysts call the 'pincer': a rejection so broad that it fits any narrative.

## The racial argument and the myth of the Protestant north

Part of that hostility holds that Spaniards are Semitic and that this would explain an alleged backwardness. The thesis rests on a highly contested idea: that the economic success of northern Europe is due to its race and its Protestant work ethic. This racial reading of history originates in currents of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, not in empirical evidence.

The problem is that this framework is applied to Spain with an obvious contradiction. If race were the decisive factor, it would not explain why the country was a global power for centuries. The racial thesis does not withstand the very narrative that uses it.

## The Inquisition as a recurring symbol

The second pillar is cultural and centres on Catholicism. Spain appears as the defender of Catholicism against the Reformation, and without that defence the religion would have been reduced to Italy and minor groups. Hence the obsession with the Inquisition, present in films, series and video games.

This narrative contains a grain of historical truth and a measure of simplification. The Spanish Inquisition existed and carried real weight, but its treatment in popular culture turns it into the emblem of an entire country. The symbol replaces the analysis.

## Indigenism as the opposing narrative

The third pillar is indigenism. Spain is portrayed as the destroyer of an American paradise and of Al-Andalus, and also as the oppressor of Basques, Catalans and Galicians. It is a narrative that lumps very different causes under a single label.

The conquest of the Americas involved violence and severe demographic consequences, and that is an established fact. Turning it into the essence of Spain is another matter. Indigenism here functions as an opposing narrative, not as historical analysis.

## Economic failure as the final proof

The fourth pillar is economic. Spain's supposed failure is used as material proof of everything above. The logic is circular: if the country does badly, it is because of its race and culture; if it does well, it is an exception that proves the rule.

That reasoning cannot be falsified. Any data serves to sustain it. That is why it is worth separating concrete economic criticism, which can be debated with figures, from the prejudice that only seeks to confirm itself.