Rosa Mary: FAQ: The Democratic Farce that is the Spanish Constitution

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This week, you’re likely to see #resacelebrar pop up on Twitter’s trending topic list. The hashtag, translated quite literally, means “nothing to celebrate”. What Catalans will be refusing to celebrate is the Spanish holiday dedicated to Spain’s Constitutution. There are many reasons behind that refusal, chief amongst them the fact that many Catalan citizens identify themselves as precisely that, Catalan citizens, and find celebrating the Spanish Constitution as foreign as celebrating the Polish Constitution. But that isn’t the only reason behind the contempt. Here’s a quick guide to understanding why Catalans have nothing to celebrate on December 6th.

1- Does the Spanish Constitution respect democracy?

In short, no. There are plenty of democratix oxymorons within the text, but we’ll stick to the theme that hits closer to home for Catalans: while the Constitution’s respect of human and cultural rights is established in its preamble, it bans the nations that form Spain from exercising their right to self-determination.

2- Was the Spanish Constitution the product of a democratic process?

No. While the “fathers of the Constitution” were picked as a theoretical representation of the Spanish political spectrum in 1977, the Constitution itself wasn’t a product of democratic consensus. During a debate regarding the Spanish Army’s role in a democratic state, one of the fathers of the Constitution, Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón, received a letter from the Army threatening Herrero and his fellow “fathers” of military intervention should the Army not be recognized in the Constitution as the entity which grants “Spain’s territorial unity”.

In democratic countries, contracts signed under duress have no validity. In Spain, they become Supreme Law.

3- Was the Spanish Constitution democratically approved by the people of Spain?

The Constitution was approved by an overwhelming majority (88%) of those polled in 1978. This, however, does not mean democracy was respected in the process. The Army’s pressures created a collective mindset that coerced many into voting for the Constitution in fear of yet another dictatorship if the referendum failed to approve it.

You’ll recall that Hitler was voted into Reichstag in an election where the threat of violence hovered over the polling stations. Vote for the NSDAP, or else. In Spain, the Army threatened to turn the clock back to 1939 by bringing Goebbels’ methods back into the fold in 1978. The answer to the question, then, is a resounding no.

4- Were the “fathers of the Constitution” legitimated to carry out their task?

Again, no. Four of the seven “fathers” had been members of the Fascist apparatus, the choice of the litter being Manuel Fraga, Franco’s Minister of Propaganda. No German democrat would allow Germany’s Supreme Law to be written by Goebbels, but most Spanish democrats have no problem with being governed through a Constitution crafted by a group with a Fascist majority.

Spanish politicians will spend this week glorifying the Constitution. Us Catalans, meanwhile, will be keeping Saint Augustine’s words in mind: unjust law is no law at all.

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