Regardless of whether an agreement is reached on the appointment of Mr. Sánchez, which is a perfectly legitimate goal and whose circumstances will be analyzed in due course, the fact that Yolanda Díaz went to Brussels to meet with Carles Puigdemont shames me as a Spaniard and as a citizen as well It makes you angry. .
As a Spaniard, I am ashamed that the vice president of my country’s government paid tribute to a criminal who escaped justice and tried to stage a coup at the last moment, even though his pulse was trembling.
As a citizen of democracy, I am angry that the vice president of the government smokes cigars with our Constitution and laws with politicians who resort to Article 155, leaving our Justice, which demands the extradition of the fugitive, in disarray. With the work of the Security Forces. The situation is very serious.
Ms. Díaz traveled to Brussels to rally the votes that would allow her and Mr. Sánchez to continue in government. There are two possibilities: Sánchez sent him to prepare the ground, in which case he is responsible for the disgrace, or Sánchez did not know, in which case he dismissed him. Negotiating with Junt deputies in Congress is not the same as going to Brussels as vice president to meet with a fugitive from justice.
Both Díaz and Puigdemont were smiling after the meeting. I understand his smile, but I do not understand his, he already knew the Catalan demands as a precondition for sitting at the table to talk, because from now on the appointment negotiations would be something else: the “democratic legitimacy” of the independence movement; “The complete and effective abandonment of judicial remedies against the independence movement” with amnesty since 2014; a “mediation and verification mechanism”; framing the negotiations within the boundaries of “international agreements referring to human rights” and not the Constitution. The referendum on self-determination was postponed, but a warning was made that unilateralism had not been abandoned and that they would soon renounce it.
Giving in to these demands poses very serious problems for the Rule of Law: No one disputes the legitimacy of the independence movement, arguing that it is not a crime, that sedition (later turned into disobedience) and gross embezzlement are crimes, and that is why there are convictions; The government cannot waive judicial proceedings against pro-independence supporters who commit crimes because there is a separation of powers in Spain and this decision is solely the responsibility of judges; The government has been saying for 4 years that amnesty does not fit into the Constitution, but now it seems that it has changed its mind and I hope it explains this very well; The mediation is reminiscent of the “rapporteur” from 2019 and implies placing Catalonia on the same level as the state, do they want it to be international as a bigger mockery? And already in 2008 (Ibarretxe Plan) the TC had rejected the right to self-determination because, regardless of other considerations, the Constitution only recognized the Spanish Nation as the owner of an indivisible sovereignty. It is very worrying that we believe it is necessary to remind the government that it must respect the Constitution, and if we do so it is because we do not trust him, the president does not lie but he changes his mind a lot. As the TS president just reminded us at the opening of the Year of the Judiciary, institutional degradation puts our democracy at serious risk.
Meanwhile, Esquerra, unsettled by the defeat of Junts (together they have fewer seats than the PSC) and the PNV, unsettled by the defeat of Bildu, are forced to raise the bar of their demands to avoid being left behind. Bidding begins! This wouldn’t be so serious if they were looking for the best for Spain, the best for everyone, but that’s not the case, they want the best for their tribe and we bring the rest to them. They want inequality, not equality, among Spaniards. Hence, amid the loud complicit silence of the PSOE and its government, their constant disdain for the King and the Constitution, the vaulted arch of the building that has supported the best forty years of our collective history for several centuries. people. Responsibility for what happened lies only with those who accepted it, not with the nationalists in their role.
I don’t trust what will happen next. There seems to be no respect left. Will there be principles? I’m sorry but I doubt it. Maybe there are too many of them, as happened to Groucho Marx when he said “these are my principles, but if you don’t like them there are others.” My hope is that Bismarck is still right when he says that Spain is the most powerful nation in the world, because the Spanish have been trying to destroy it for centuries… and have failed.