Viral message spreads Almeida rumor in Spain, PP fires back

The Almeida rumor the left failed to handle

Can you champion diversity while using a political rival's sensual orientation as ammunition? That is the contradiction hanging over the latest episode of dirty tricks between Spain's PP and PSOE, according to several participants in the debate. A viral message, attributed to an account close to the left, dredged up an alleged incident from December 2022 suggesting that José Luis Martínez-Almeida was having an intimate encounter with another man. Far from remaining an anecdote, the text unleashed a storm of cross-accusations over hypocrisy, double standards and the use of the closet as a weapon.

From LGBTI advocacy to selective shaming

The initial message pulls no punches: it accuses equality advocates of hiring thugs while at the same time singling out lgtb people as «dirty» and «sinful» when they belong to the right. The paradox is obvious, several speakers argue. If someone uses an opponent's gaiity to wreck his life, they are implicitly acknowledging that being lgtb is still a stigma. And that, precisely, is what the left claims to fight. Several participants point it out bluntly: the incoherence is glaring. The argument is reinforced by the case of Íñigo Errejón, cited as an example of double standards: defending the community in public while despising it in private.

The date is no coincidence. December 2022, three months before Almeida «met» the woman who would become his vvife at the Flecha, according to the original tweet. The narrative suggests an operation to wear him down personally, not politically. And that is where, in the view of some participants, the shot starts to backfire.

The PP responds and the left digs in

The reaction was swift. The PP saw it as proof that the left has run out of arguments and resorts to personal attacks. «All because they took it badly that the PP has the balls to hit back on social media», one speaker sums up. The party's defense strategy, more aggressive on social media, would have wrong-footed its opponents, according to this account. The accusation of being «a worse liar than Perro Sánchez» —paraphrasing the thread's style— joins the package of mutual slurs.

But not all messages go in the same direction. Some call for calm and recall that similar rumors were once spread about Mariano Rajoy. «And what if he were lgtb or bi?», one asks. The underlying problem, the argument goes, is not sensual orientation but the hypocrisy of those who brand right-wing women and lgtb men as «half human». The criticism of the left's instrumentalization of the LGBTI community becomes the axis of the debate.

The hoax as a political weapon: from Soto Ivars to Ayuso

The conversation drifts to other fronts. The alleged romance between journalist Juan Soto Ivars and Madrid's regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso is mentioned, which Soto Ivars himself reportedly dismissed with a curt «it got out of hand», according to a message in the thread. The comparison serves to show that rumors about politicians' private lives are not the property of one side alone, participants argue. The hoax machine works regardless of political tonalidad, they maintain.

The most acid intervention comes from the flank that questions the whole system: «Do you want to vote for all this crap?». Political disaffection blends into the analysis. At bottom, the episode reveals a perverse dynamic, in the participants' view: private life becomes a battlefield when arguments run short.

The awkward question: does sensual orientation matter?

The debate leaves a bitter conclusion, several speakers say. If a right-wing politician's gaiity is used to discredit him, the message conveyed is that it remains something shameful. The left, which claims to defend diversity, falls into the trap of treating the closet as a weapon, they claim. The final irony comes from the dynamic itself: while some cry homophobia, others use the lgtb rumor as ammunition. And in the middle stands Almeida, who neither confirms nor denies, turned into the rag doll of a war that is not his, according to the thread's account. Spanish politics, once again, proves that mud sticks best when a closet is involved, they conclude.