We don’t regret Columbus, say Spanish MPS in Biden rebuke
‘Does the kingdom of Spain have to apologise because five centuries ago it discovered the New World, created universities, created prosperity, built entire cities? I don’t think so’
RIGHT-WING Spanish leaders have criticised President Joe Biden for acknowledging the suffering inflicted on Native Americans by European colonists, calling him “lamentable” and accusing him of undermining Spain’s achievements in the Americas.
In a video on Twitter, Pablo Casado, leader of the main conservative opposition Popular Party, said: “Does the kingdom of Spain have to apologise because five centuries ago it discovered the New World, respected those who were there, created universities, created prosperity, built entire cities? I don’t think so.”
Mr Casado made the comments as Spain yesterday marked its Oct 12 national day, which commemorates Christopher Columbus’s 1492 arrival in the New World, an anniversary event increasingly seen as controversial.
Mr Biden acknowledged that last week when he described the “wave of destruction” visited on Native Americans by colonists as “shameful” and issued a presidential proclamation to make the Oct 11 US national holiday Indigenous Peoples’ Day, alongside the existing Columbus Day.
Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s farright Vox party, called him “the lamentable president of the United States”.
Extinction Rebellion protesters vandalised a statue of Christopher Columbus yesterday and called for it to be torn down. The environmental activists covered the monument in Belgrave Square, London, with a bright pink substance and held banners reading: “Columbus must fall”.
The move was intended to show support for indigenous people whose lands were plundered and drained of natural resources, the group said.