ABC columnist Jesús Lillo responded to transport minister Óscar Puente’s “housing or vultures” campaign phrase with a satirical column drawing on a comic character and The Lion King.
Lillo builds his column around a message Puente posted on social media after Spain’s snap election was announced: “Vote with a V for vivienda [housing] or a B for buitre [vulture]. That is the choice.” The slogan links housing to criticism of so-called vulture funds, a subject of debate in Spanish politics. Other Spanish outlets also reported that Puente used the phrase at the start of the campaign after two government housing decrees were rejected.
The writer then invokes the fictional Julio Buitaker de Tordesillas, a satirical vulture character who, according to the column, appeared in ABC in 1988 after moving from the magazine El Víbora. Lillo uses him as a metaphor for a political commentator who claims not to engage in politics but continually reacts to crises and conflicts.
The column lists the Prestige disaster, the Yak-42 crash, forest fires and a terrorist attack as examples of what the writer describes as the political use of tragedies. Lillo then turns to the hyenas in The Lion King and draws a parallel with the housing slogan, vulnerable people and poverty. The comparisons, insults and claims about politicians’ motives are the columnist’s satirical views, not established facts.
At the end, Lillo links housing to the vulnerability of the middle class and asserts that people may be left without homes for eight years. This excerpt of the column provides no supporting details or data for that claim; it should be read as the author’s polemical conclusion.