Eduardo Fernández Rubiño (Madrid, 32 years old) has been a councilor for Más Madrid in the capital's city council since May. As an LGTBI activist, he entered politics in 2015, where he was a member of the regional assembly until the last local and regional elections this year. On Friday, after six o'clock in the afternoon, during the monthly plenary session at the Cibeles Palace, he suffered an attack from the Vox spokesman in Madrid and also congressman Javier Ortega-Smith. The councilor finished his speech on the bench, walked up to Rubiño, confronted him, hit the table of the Más Madrid bench and a bottle of water was thrown out. PSOE, Más Madrid and PP have asked the Vox councilor to leave the minutes. However, he refuses.
Questions. Did any of the five Vox city councilors contact you during these hours?
Answer. No. All Vox members support this violent attitude because it is in their DNA. Vox systematically produces institutional violence. They are aimed at LGBTI people, migrants and vulnerable people. They are stoking this hatred and saying that the number of homosexuals is increasing alarmingly. This is in line with the dotted line of what Vox represents in Spain: an anti-democratic force that is corroding our institutions. I know what I have ahead of me and what we Spaniards stopped in the July elections. Vox is a party whose mission is to flood institutions with hate. He is the PP's only partner and wanted to participate in the government. Ortega Smith wanted to be Interior Minister. I will return to the Cibeles plenary session with full determination.
Q The plenary cameras recorded the moment of the attack. However, they exchanged a few words beforehand.
R. It all started with the speech of PSOE councilor Adriana Moscoso, who told how she experienced her childhood when her father was threatened by ETA. With that in mind, Smith said that Moscoso suffers from Stockholm syndrome. I was outraged and as he walked past me I said “how disgusting,” alluding to the words of a terror victim. I couldn't imagine that reaction when he said to me, “What are you saying, what are you saying?” He got very close physically. He slammed his hand on my seat and a water bottle flew through the air. There he said to me: “Now cry.” These words are no coincidence. He tells me this because he thinks I'm less of a man than him. These words remind me of what bullies say to the fag in class. This corresponds to a model of fragile and self-confident masculinity. What Vox stands for. They want to impose this sexist and outdated model on the rest.
Q What was your relationship with Smith like during those months?
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R. Cordially. We agreed on this at speaker meetings and at many institutional events. I have been very tough on him in these plenary sessions because, in my opinion, his way of doing politics should have no place in the institutions. I probably felt like it. But in my political time I have never experienced a situation like this. He lost his temper and behaved like a nightclub thug in front of all the cameras at six in the morning. If he did this in front of everyone, what would he have done if he didn't attract the public's attention?
Ortega Smith, at the time of the attack. Video: EPV
Q Smith wrote a text on his X profile, formerly Twitter, after eight in the afternoon. In it you claim that you “mocked” the victims of terrorism.
R. It is absolutely wrong. Lie. It is a shame that they continue to abuse the victims of terrorism for political purposes. How can a member of the public say that an ETA victim has Stockholm Syndrome?
Q Hours later, various members and former members of Vox came out to defend Smith. Former deputy Víctor Sánchez del Real wrote Smith liked this comment.
R. (silence) It qualifies.
Q At the end of the plenary session, Smith appeared before the press and said: “I will not leave my council record, nor will I stop denouncing the left, which is thrown into the mountains, and the cowed right, which does not know how to stand up.” the knees go. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and may the victim recover from his serious injuries.”
R. It is an example of the absolute political degradation that they are trying to turn the institutions into. They are trying to create a quagmire in which the policy is unworkable. This should make us think about how important it was that Vox did not join the Spanish government. Alberto Núñez Feijóo could have made Ortega Smith minister. We have to close the door to people who want a Spain of 50 years ago.
Q The 12 city councilors from his party and the 11 from the PSOE immediately left the plenary session. The council members from PP and Vox remained in their seats. Has anyone from the PP contacted you?
R. Yes, Almeida and some city councilors. All with condemning and supportive words. I appreciate that, but the problem is that Vox is his main partner across Spain. Can the PP feel comfortable with such a partner?
Q Also striking was the attitude of the chairman of the plenary session of the city council, Borja Fanjul of the PP, who denied his intervention after the attack and even demanded an apology from him.
R. Well, the thing is… we have already registered the resignation of the President of the Plenum. He behaved equidistantly. He even gave me permission to apologize to Smith, almost implying that I was being provocative and that this was provoking Smith's attitude. This shows the PP's double standards. There was a precedent in the plenary session when a PSOE councilor slapped the mayor and we all called on him to resign. The president of the plenary session acted disastrously that day. The contrast to yesterday's embarrassing appearance doesn't work for me. You have to resign.
Ortega Smith, at the time of the attack on Rubiño.
Q Has Fanjul, the president, called you?
R. No. He didn't call me or give me an explanation.
Q Do you think Ortega Smith will resign?
R. Most likely not. Vox is in a logic where it believes that this will compensate it electorally. That should alarm us. Luckily they lost 19 seats but are still there. They support this. It's in their DNA. They only inoculate hatred in the institutions.
Q Can Ortega's attitude be reflected on the street?
R. Everything Vox does in institutions legitimizes violence on the streets. If they spot LGTBI people from the stands, they target them. The tyrants who already existed but who were rejected by society now feel legitimized to act. Vox is playing with fire. It reinforces what happens later when we don't have cameras in front of us.
Q Have you already thought about what you will say to Ortega in the next plenary session?
R. (silence) It won't intimidate me. I'll carry on as normal. We will ask for his disapproval and resignation. If he thinks he's going to make me put my head down, he doesn't know me and he's wrong. Nothing else, but I have been supporting Vox in the institutions for many years and a schoolyard bully has not yet been born big enough to stop me from continuing to defend the things I believe in, namely a better country, free from this Spain. black and white that they want to take us back to.
Q On September 28th, as I said, there was another attack in plenary session, in this case by a socialist city councilor against Mayor Almeida. How did we get here?
R. I entered politics in 2015 and the decline in those years was incredible. The style of [la presidenta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Isabel Díaz] Ayuso and the representatives of Vox, who consist of constantly harassing opponents and creating insults and accusations, have turned politics into a swamp. The Madrid meeting is embarrassing. Unfortunately, the city council is taking the same approach. Almeida is constantly dedicated to performing shows in plenary. This creates a climate that is increasingly…
Q And how do you combat such a climate?
R. With firmness and determination. Being firm and forceful in a parliament is not a problem. The problem is that characters are generated and all boundaries are crossed. People are talking about where the Minister of Health Mónica García lives, as Ayuso did. You look for a way to destroy the one in front of you. We must counteract this by asserting that not all politicians are the same. One must not fall into anti-politics. This is not a fan where all politicians behave the same way.
Q This Friday, Isabel Díaz Ayuso canceled the regional trans and LGTBI laws passed during the presidency of Cristina Cifuentes (PP). Now, a 15-year-old transsexual minor in Toledo (Castile-La Mancha) does not necessarily have to see a psychologist before and during her hormone treatment; but a trans minor in the Community of Madrid does.
R. We have written a black page in Madrid's history. Madrid is the first place in the history of Spanish democracy where the LGTBI community is declining in terms of rights and freedoms. It should make us think. Just as you take steps forward, you also take steps backwards. The PP published this in 2016. Now Ayuso no longer needs Vox, but decided to publish this out of pure conviction. What happened? That the PP was colonized by the Vox program.
Q In 2022, there were more than 170 homophobic attacks in the Community of Madrid, mostly carried out by young men under the age of 30 who were not actively affiliated with any violent group. This is reflected in the latest Observatory against LGTBIphobia, launched by the Arcópoli Association with data from last year.
R. Because it is strict, it is very difficult to know the exact figures since the PP is responsible for depriving this independent observatory of funds. But there are also other reports, such as the one from the Home Office, which includes this increase and this increase, which coincides with Vox's entry into politics, which points to LGBTBI people and any vulnerable group that does not agree with its idea a unified and closed Spain that they propose. The fact that thugs in jackets and ties spread hate speech from a podium has consequences on the street.
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