Troy Is Burning

Troy is still burning in the column’s telling, not only in the ancient story but in Spain’s present political language. A summer of wildfires and suffocating heat has also brought renewed attention to Ceuta and the arrival of migrants.

The writer turns to Borges and the Trojan War to describe a city under siege, defended by people who know they will ultimately perish. The image carries a permanent sadness, but it also becomes a warning about a Spain where conflict seems ready to ignite over almost anything.

The central metaphor is the Trojan horse. Today, the writer says, such horses move through social networks and pseudomedia that damage social coexistence. One example is the claim that migrants are all criminals simply because they carry mobile phones or wear branded caps. The column rejects that portrayal and condemns the political rhetoric surrounding it.

The opposition leader is accused of setting Troy on fire day after day without realizing that the same slogans may consume him. The writer adds that Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso always raises the temperature further. Readers are urged to return to the classical authors and to continue reading established newspapers rather than accepting inflammatory messages.

With general elections supposedly not due until summer 2027, the column predicts a long period of political confrontation. Its closing image is uncompromising: Troy eventually fell, but the flames of its defeat never truly went out.

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The horse is inside our walls and comes pregnant with blood and fire.