REUTERS/Andrea Comas
Your country wins its first ever World Cup. What do you do? Party, of course – and then use the victory as a political symbol.
Hundreds of thousands are set to arrive in Spain today to greet the winning team as they arrive home from South Africa. The victors will take a three-mile bus trip through Madrid past their fans, and will also meet with the country’s king and prime minister. To end the night, Spanish pop stars David Bisbal and David Bustamente will play for them.
These festivities will occur after an estimated 250,000 partied on the streets of Madrid immediately following Spain’s victory. The sea of red and gold has to be seen to be believed. Video via AFP:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e0cq9B9cX8]
But the Spanish were not content with a simple fiesta – they had to go and overanalyze things. The Associated Press reports that Spanish newspapers are using the World Cup win as a metaphor for any political issue they want. This ranged from showing the win as an ideal to follow during an economic crisis, to a pro-Barcelona argument (eight of the team’s members play for Barcelona).
These newspapers are ignoring the real story – Paul the psychic octopus was right, giving him a perfect World Cup predicting record. Though Italians are now claiming he’s one of them, and are calling him Paolo.