The Spanish malaise may be deeper than the economic hole
Earlier
this month, the top judicial authorities in Spain forced the
resignation of the State's Chief Prosecutor in Catalonia. This is not an
elected official but a public servant appointed from the capital, and
the post traditionally goes to a non-Catalan. The latest incumbent was
summarily dismissed only hours after remarking in an interview with a
news agency that "the people must be given the opportunity to express
their wishes". It sounds mild enough, except that the statement was made
in the context of the Catalans' right to decide about their political
future. Perhaps this is why he immediately qualified it adding that he
meant "in general, any people", and only after making clear that there
is not in Spain "a legal framework allowing a referendum on
independence". All seemingly aboveboard. And yet, the mere implication
that perhaps a way should be found for Catalans to have their say on the
matter turned what was essentially a platitude into an inflammatory
pronouncement, causing the prosecutor's fall from grace. So much for the
independence of the judiciary – not to mention freedom of speech.
A
month before, a retired Spanish army general spoke to a formal
gathering of fellow high-ranking officers about the
"separatist-secessionist offensive in Catalonia" and reflected on the
eventual position that the armed forces should take. "The Fatherland is
more important than democracy", he concluded. "Patriotism is a feeling,
and the Constitution is nothing but a law". The audience greeted with
applause what could be easily read as an invitation to flout the laws of
the land, or even as a justification for a military coup. Like similar
statements made by others in the past, it has produced no significant
response from the civilian authorities.
These
two events –and the very different official reactions to them– point to
fundamental flaws in the workings of a democratic State, and suggest
that Spain's problems may go well beyond the admittedly atrocious
economic environment. And the trigger in both cases is the situation in
Catalonia.
***
In
Spain today the economy is in dire straits, and there is no real plan
for the future that doesn't involve the State's continuing plunder of a
few productive communities in order to perpetuate itself. Many Catalans
believe that the present political arrangement is threatening to ruin
their economy, wipe out their culture and ultimately bring about their
irrelevance as a nation. Lately the people have become less inhibited in
their expressions of discontent with this state of affairs. Their
elected leaders too seem to have abandoned their traditional policy of
going out of their way to avoid confrontation. Reacting to a widespread
popular demand, they have proposed a new course of action that might
lead –if the people so decide– to separation from Spain.
The
Catalan side would want this to be a negotiated, gradual, peaceful and
fully democratic process, and it has offered to discuss the terms with
the Spanish government. So far, all overtures have been spurned. The
official line in Madrid remains that the law, such as it is, must be
strictly adhered to, and a suitably narrow interpretation of the 1978
Constitution is used to reject, among other things, the possibility of
asking the Catalan people's opinion in a referendum.
In
the meantime, the newly-found Catalan assertiveness has awakened the
worst instincts of a State that feels threatened. While putting on an
unfazed front, the Spanish government is using all the tricks in the
book to undermine the Catalan administration and to intimidate the
Catalan people. The familiar weapon of financial strangulation is now
accompanied by a political and judicial offensive against the Catalan
institutions of self-government and a media campaign against carefully
selected individuals. Moreover, the prosecutor's peremptory purge shows
that the government is determined to silence all expressions of dissent
even from its own ranks. And a real or imagined military threat is
conveniently kept alive as part of a strategy of fear.
Those
watching from outside the latest goings-on in Spain have tended to
focus on the economy. A closer look into the political underpinnings of
the State might reveal that, even in its present incarnation as an
ostensibly democratic country, Spain retains not few of the
authoritarian habits of the dictatorship that it grew out of. Indeed,
something must be very wrong in a country where a general's
pronouncement amounting to a call for the armed forces to place
themselves above the law is overlooked, while stating such a basic
principle of democratic governance as the people's right to express
themselves is punished as an act of sedition.
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