- (Analysis) Down and Out of Power in Iberia: Conspiracy as Ideology - 19 November, 2025
- (Human Story) American Scientists in Search of Safe Harbor - 14 July, 2025
- (ANALYSIS) Freedom of Speech Under the Meloni Administration - 17 November, 2024
Who Turned off the Lights?
At 12:33 CEST on April 28th of this year, the Iberian Peninsula was plunged into darkness. While Portugal was able to see power restored near the end of the evening, it would not be until the early hours of the 29th for Spain to be fully back online. While the hazards of a blackout in general are serious enough, the ensuing discourse surrounding the blackout would prove equally perilous. Speculation was rife early on the same day as the blackout across both Spain and Portugal, with theories ranging from rare atmospheric phenomena, to potential sabotage, to the use of renewable energy. There is certainly nothing wrong in seeking to understand the situation, but the manner in which these theories were generated, particularly that of blaming renewable energy, took on a more conspiratorial nature.
The proliferation of conspiracy theories during such an event is as regrettable as it is understandable, and yet it is not just the generation of conspiracies that is of interest here, but their amplification by political parties such as Spain’s far-right Vox as well. There is a peculiar, alchemical process that has been undertaken to shape the narrative of this blackout then, intertwining both conspiracy and ideology for political effect. Seeking to accrue a political advantage in the wake of such an event is certainly nothing new, but to fully appreciate the specific context and implications of what is going on here in this relationship between conspiracy and ideology, one must first make sense of what actually happened, to only then look at how it has all been skewed.
The World of the Real
So, what happened exactly after power was lost? After the first ten minutes in Spain, the France-Spain line was reenergized, following interconnection with Morocco and other parts of France; full power was restored in Spain by 4:00 CEST on the 29th thanks to the use of hydroelectric and gas sources 16 hours after the backout; whereas, in Portugal, Environment Minister Maria Graça Carvalho said, “[Portugal] had a complete recovery after 10 hours, which for an event of this kind is an exemplary recovery.” Overall, the recovery across the Iberian Peninsula occurred in phases gradually; with Spain benefitting from neighboring interconnections, whereas Portugal had to work independently before beginning to benefit from the stabilization of the Spanish grid. As of writing this, the official death toll attributed to the blackout in Spain is 7 and in Portugal is 1. Of course, such catastrophic failings and consequences of two countries experiencing prolonged blackouts would warrant explanation, not least of which to dispel the rampant rumormongering that appeared at the inception of the incident.
The previously noted ‘theories’ which spread like wildfire almost immediately after Spain and Portugal lost power are far more tantalizing than the more likely causes the Spanish government would announce some two months later after preliminary investigations. The primary causes according to the preliminary investigation would appear to involve an initial overvoltage in Spain which led to a chain reaction across the peninsula, coupled with a number of energy companies disconnecting their plants to protect their instillations, as well as insufficient voltage control capacity on the 28th specifically due to a programming flaw. While it is important to reiterate that these are the findings of a preliminary investigation, and that an official investigation by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) is not expected to be completed until 2026, these findings nonetheless point to more complex, technical failings than the strikingly nefarious animus that characterizes the ‘theories’ which first spread on the 28th.
Liar, Liar
The initial postings were innocuous enough. In Spain, those whose phones were still charged and were able to find adequate enough connectivity posted videos of dancing and guitar playing, coupled with ironic memes about the ‘end of the world’ and other such content reminiscent of the COVID-19 pandemic era of the internet. In a post for the London School of Economics (LSE), Dr. Kavyanjali Kaushik describes how quickly things turned darker though by writing that, “but as news of the grid failure spread wider, online conversations also turned dark. Thousands of users circulated misinformation about cyberattacks by foreign powers such as Russia, Israel or China. Conspiracy videos, such as AI-doctored episodes of The Simpsons predicting an apocalyptic global power blackout, emerged as classic fake news.”
Not only were conspiracies quick to circulate in a seemingly bottom-up fashion, but more ideologically minded actors were soon to follow, with Kaushik continuing that, “many radical-right politicians, online commentators and journalists used the crisis to sharpen their battle cry against Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. Alvise Pérez of Se Acabó La Fiesta (The Party is Over) delivered a slick populist tirade… insinuating that the population had been left in the dark while elites plotted authoritarian control through the promotion of an EU digital currency, which will be at the mercy of electricity and the EU. Javier García Isac, director general of EDATV, an alternative multimedia outlet in the conservative media ecosystem, framed the blackout as part of a planned ecological ‘reset’ by socialist elites.” Likewise, Spain’s far-right Vox accused the Sanchez government of hiding the ‘truth’ from the people, with the party’s parliamentary spokesperson Pepa Millán claiming that, “[the government and grid operator] know perfectly well what has happened and they don’t want to say it… because the government is the only one responsible.”
While the conspiracies ranged in scope, one specific target emerged quite clearly in an ideological framing: renewables. Spain in particular generated 56% of its energy through renewables means last year, being on track for that statistic to rise to 81% by 2030. Furthermore, shortly before ethe blackout, electricity production from renewable sources in Spain stood at 70%. While these are certainly noteworthy statistics insofar as Spain is a leader in the green energy transition, they have nonetheless been seized upon as conspiratorial ‘proof’ for the blackout; when, in reality, the blackout would appear to have more to do with grid stability and interconnection issues in the Iberian Peninsula as indicated previously. The scapegoating of renewables as a culprit for political gain or ideological reasoning is nothing new in Spain, with far-right actors seizing upon the Valencia flooding of 2024 to spread conspiracies about renewable energies and climate denialism. Even outside of Iberia, anti-renewable actors have used the blackout as a means to spread conspiracies, with German chemistry professor Fritz Vahrenholt claiming online that the production of renewable energy, specifically that of solar power, is to blame for the blackout in a post that reached hundreds of thousands of people. Why is it that so much effort has been devoted to this sort of conspiratorial thinking vis-à-vis renewable energy though?
Ideology is Dead, Long Live Ideology!
Political scientist Francis Fukuyama infamously proclaimed the end of ideology in his 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man, noting specifically that history itself was not over, that things of consequence would indeed still happen, but that all ideological pretense would be dropped, and liberal democracy would be adopted the world over. History had other plans, however. In the decades since Fukuyama’s declaration, ideology has stubbornly clung on, but what is it, and what is its relevancy in relation to conspiracy theories in this context? While the world is certainly not wanting for definitions of ideology, and sifting through them all would take considerably more time than this work in of itself, one of the best, most succinct definitions comes from philosopher Slavoj Žižek. In his 1989 The Sublime Object of Ideology, Žižek conceives of ideology as a false-consciousness that would otherwise dissolve once perceived, and is therefore cynically accepted as an important element of the reality it upholds. That is to say, knowing something to be bad or untrue does not necessarily make it as such if it is integral to one’s fundamental conception of reality. This ideological view can pose a significant problem when the real world imposes itself on one’s ideological reality.
Thus, one must turn to conspiracy theories to make sense of things. Philosopher Fredric Jameson posited that conspiracy theories are actually a rational phenomenon, that they are derived from a demand for reason and understanding, and that those who turn to them in an increasingly mad and incomprehensible world are not mad themselves, but rather seeking to understand their reality. This is not meant to handwave away the danger of conspiracy theories, but rather to make sense of why they are generated and accepted. Therefore, the ideological opportunist can seize upon a crisis, such as a blackout, utilizing conspiracy theories to their own ideological ends to shape an alternative reality. This process can readily be seen in the aforementioned statements from far-right Spanish politicians and media figures, but there must crucially be a reasonable element to their conspiracies. As Jameson notes, there is always a kernel of reason in conspiracies. This kernel of reason can be seen specifically in the conspiracies that targeted renewable energy, insofar as the degree to which Spain is a leader in the green transition is a notable, undeniable truth. This kernel of reason can therefore be understood to lend credibility to the conspiracy, that Spain uses more renewable energy than most or is reliant on renewable energy, facilitating the shaping of an ideological reality in which renewable energy is not only responsible for the blackout due to how much of a portion of Spain’s energy is renewable, but a reality in which renewable energy is an overall danger for us all. These conspiracy-ideological processes would not be possible today if it were not for the ubiquitous nature of digital communications amidst a crisis-stricken world.
Postscript in a Digital Wasteland
In a review of historian Larne Abse Gogarty’s What We Do Is Secret for the Cleveland Review of Books, Celine Nguyen describes our day and age as having a paranoid style of internet politics. She could not be more right. In turning back to Kaushik’s post for LSE, they identify the top thematic elements of digital content shared online in relation to the blackout as being ideological framing, government blame, and conspiracy theories. While Kaushik makes a distinction between ideology and conspiracy, this work has sought to show how they are inseparable in this context; therefore, one can see how online discourse concerning the blackout was dominated by this conspiracy-ideological engagement. Kaushik goes on to note how grimly this augurs for the future online in which the most divisive, incendiary content has been shown to spread faster and further, especially in times of crisis. This dark, digital future must then be coupled in understanding with the ever-growing, existential horror of climate change, in which energy infrastructure will come under increasing strain, exacerbating future crises exponentially.
What is there to be done? It ought to be evident at this point that there will certainly be those ideologically committed to spreading conspiracies to support their reality as the world becomes more unstable. Not just unstable, the world in fact appears to be unraveling at the seams, and there is an urgent need to pierce the veil of ideology so as to render these conspiracies less influential, to deal in the world of the real. There would seemingly be no panacea for these multi-faceted crises, but a good place to start would be our political-economy. While green energy adoption is ramping up, the fossil fuel industry has historically sought to prevent this transition, and the industry is currently walking back from its green pledges. The transition to green or renewable energy is the key to tackling climate change, and such a transition must be fair and equitable to all, not predicated upon profit-motive. Likewise, the profit-motive incentive to spread conspiracies online must also be addressed, as outrage and division are not just profitable but spread much faster online, especially in times of crises. While these are but two elements that can be addressed, especially as it pertains to the Iberian Peninsula blackout, it is clear that in order to change our world for the better, and to truly tackle the very real crises we face, we must begin to rethink our political-economy and what we believe in.
Recommended Readings
“28 April 2025 Blackout.” ENTOS-E. 3 October, 2025.
Žižek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology. January, 2009. ISBN: 9781844673001.
