Spain’s conservative Folks’s occasion (PP) has pulled a Temptation Island-themed video attacking the nation’s socialist prime minister, his spouse and his colleagues after the quick, AI-generated movie provoked an embarrassing diplomatic incident with the Dominican Republic.
The 30-second video – which aimed to piggyback on the recognition of the Spanish version of the fact TV present – was the PP’s newest try and capitalise on the corruption allegations surrounding each Pedro Sánchez’s administration and his spouse, Begoña Gómez.
A bare-chested picture of Sánchez featured within the video, as did a swimsuit-clad Gómez and a mock-up of the previous transport minister, José Luis Ábalos, holding a cocktail.
Gómez is being investigated by a decide after a self-styled commerce union with far-right hyperlinks accused her of utilizing her affect because the spouse of the prime minister to safe sponsors for a college masters’ diploma course that she ran. Ábalos, in the meantime, was suspended by his occasion in February final yr after refusing to resign when his assistant was accused of taking bribes to facilitate masks contracts through the Covid pandemic. Each Gómez and Ábalos have denied any wrongdoing.
Though supposed as a home jab, the video, posted on the PP’s social media channels, incurred the wrath of the Dominican Republic, the place Temptation Island is filmed. The small Caribbean nation, which shares the island of Hispaniola with neighbouring Haiti, was angered by the juxtaposition of its flag and a map of the nation with the message: “As soon as Temptation Island has completed, the brand new adventures on Corruption Island start.” The video additionally made point out of “corruption, lust, ambition and lies”.
On Thursday, the Dominican Republic’s international ministry posted an indignant message on X, decrying what it referred to as “the malicious and incomprehensible assault” on the nation and stressing that it had made nice strides in strengthening the rule of regulation and transparency.
“The exploitation of the nation’s picture and the distortion of its nationwide symbols is unacceptable – much more so when it’s for home Spanish political ends,” it stated.
On Thursday night, the PP pulled the video, which, it stated, had been solely supposed to “denounce the corruption of Pedro Sánchez’s authorities”, including: “There was by no means, at any time, any intention to break the picture of the Dominican Republic, a rustic with an extended custom of friendship and closeness to Spain.”
Regardless of being the butt of the backfiring stunt, Sánchez additionally apologised. Talking after Thursday’s summit of European leaders in Brussels, the prime minister stated that he had been too busy to observe the video however nonetheless needed to apologize for its content material.
“All I can say is that I’m deeply embarrassed and I apologise sincerely on behalf of Spain,” he stated. “[The Dominican Republic] is a pal and a rare nation with which now we have cultural and historic hyperlinks.”
The video was launched in the identical week that the previous PP prime minister Mariano Rajoy appeared earlier than congress to disclaim any data of a shadowy political and police plot to focus on and undermine each Catalan independence leaders and senior figures within the leftwing Podemos occasion. Rajoy, who was prime minister from 2011 to 2018, misplaced energy after Sánchez used a movement of no-confidence to unseat him following a string of damaging corruption circumstances involving PP members.
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