ARCHIVED - Far-right party Vox accused of racism after white-facing one of the Three Kings!

The Spanish tradition has it that King Baltasar must be black

The Cádiz branch of Spain’s ultra-right-wing political party Vox found itself at the centre of another controversy this week due to what many would see as an innocent festive greeting on its Twitter account, with an image showing all of the Three Kings as white men.

This may seem harmless enough to northern Europeans, but in Spain tradition has it that one of the kings, Baltasar, is black, and this tradition is still maintained throughout the country as those taking part in parades don the kind of “blackface” make-up which in other parts of the world cause offence – witness the furore over Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s penchant for this style of fancy dress. So engrained is the tradition that the Vox post stirred up a tirade of ironic comments referring to the party’s tough line on immigration, suggesting that perhaps Baltasar had been deported or turned away at the Spanish border and accusing the Cádiz branch of racism.

So strong was the criticism that the party soon withdrew the post and replaced it with a different image, this one showing a starlit crib scene to which, as yet, no objections have been raised!

To further highlight the difference in attitudes around the world towards “blackfacing”, it is worth remembering the row last year over a Christmas greeting posted by Andrés Iniesta, the man who scored the winning goal in Spain’s World Cup triumph in 2010. Iniesta, now playing in Japan, uploaded an image of himself blacked up as Baltasar which provoked strong criticism from BBC Radio 1 presenter Nick Bright.

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