Spain’s main right-wing opposition party, the People’s Party (PP), has taken down an AI-generated attack video titled ‘Corruption Island’ which portrayed a shirtless Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, following objections from the Dominican Republic, where the video was digitally set.
The video also included Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, former transport minister José Luis Ábalos, and other individuals connected to the prime minister’s socialist (PSOE) party who are facing corruption accusations. ALSO READ: Spanish PM’s brother David Sánchez quits state role after judge suggests it was ‘created for him’.
All of them are depicted wearing swimwear on a picturesque beach in the video, which the PP had shared on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) but has since removed.
Mimicking the introduction of the Spanish edition of the popular reality show ‘Temptation Island’, which is filmed in the Dominican Republic, the clip displays a map of the Caribbean nation and its flag alongside the words ‘lust’, ‘ambition’ and ‘lies’.
The PP issued an apology and deleted the video on Thursday night after the Dominican Republic’s foreign ministry condemned it as a ‘malicious and incomprehensible attack’.
‘The exploitation of the country’s image and the distortion of its national symbols is inacceptable — and is even worse when it is for Spanish domestic political motives,’ the ministry stated.
In response, Sánchez apologised ‘to the Dominican Republic and the Dominican people for this shameful video’, adding, ‘The people who published it will have to answer for it.’
On Friday, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares criticised the PP for ‘openly embracing the communication strategies of the far right, with insults, slander and the use of artificial intelligence’.
Albares accused the party of causing a ‘diplomatic incident’ with the ‘brotherly people’ of the Dominican Republic, which was once a Spanish colony.
The controversy emerged shortly after a clip from the Spanish version of ‘Temptation Island’ went viral, showing contestant José Carlos Montoya running down a beach at night to confront his girlfriend while she was getting intimate with another man.
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