It is a widely accepted
fact that Spain and, in general, the Spanish society takes highly into account
the opinion of our European neighbours, as well as other democratic nations
with solid and consolidated democratic systems. It is a natural consequence of
the dream, of the far and placid horizon may I add, which democratic systems
pictured, throughout the 36 years of Military Dictatorship (1939-1975) under
Francisco Franco’s rule, to a nation violently deprived by its own civil
conflicts of a liberal democratic regime. A nation that had embarked itself in
1812, with the third Constitution in History -after the US and France
respectively-, as a pioneer in Constitutional European History, and would
nonetheless be deprived of a stable Democracy for the better part of the
following two centuries, due to the endless and always recurrent civil wars
that would batter repeatedly its own progress. This is what Otto Von Bismark
would describe as the perpetual effort of the Spanish people to destroy its own
Nation, stubborn effort concerning which the very survival of Spain throughout
the centuries demonstrated the Nation was, indeed, in the Iron Chancellors’
vision, the strongest of all.
Forty years now from the
approval of Spanish 1978’s Constitution, there is a natural advantage in such a
high consideration of other democracies’ opinions regarding internal affairs:
as hesitant as it may show us Spaniards, it is a notorious stronghold against
any return to pre-democratic adventures, a strong and durable vaccine against
perverse twists in the Nation’s political future which other rather more
self-complacent nations do not hold. It is an antibody, may I highlight, that
responds to the Spanish people’s sense of responsibility regarding a democratic
rule that was for long denied to us by our own History, that we have
achieved and we know we must at all cost preserve. It is the very reason why xenophobic
populism thrives in Europe’s major and finest democracies and finds no
reflection, notwithstanding the strong impact of the economic crisis, in Spanish
society. We do not blame the EU (Brexit, Cinque Stelle Movement), the
immigrants (Le Pen, Alternative Für Deutschland, Trump), some other part of the
country (Flemish, “Padanian”, Bavarian or Catalan nationalism) or the Mighty
West (Russia) for our troubles; we do not fall into the warm embrace of
nationalism as a shortcut to escape our own problems: we generally rather just
blame ourselves first -sometimes unfairly-. A simple reason, thus, behind this fact: we have the
memory of worse days a little too close in our past to fall into the temptation
of some other political propositions, to forget the real value of Democracy.
Naturally, not everything
is remarkable in this attitude towards external opinions. There is always an
ugly side in the coin, which can be identified (in a way only
comparable, to my own experience, with the same attitude in an important part of Italian society) with a general
lack of self assurance, a permanent “defeatism” as it regards the own
capacities of our society, often accompanied by a miss value of our merits or
achievements. An unfair approach to our own country which is not only easily
perceivable, but also revealed repeatedly in statistics (Real Instituto
Elcano’s studies permanently demonstrate the notorious breach between the external
opinion upon Spain -quite good, in general- and the internal -very poor, on the
contrary-). An unfair approach that, in a sort of Pigmaleon’s “sociological”
effect, somewhat burdens our own future as much as it would do with the aims of
a child repeatedly discouraged by others in his early years. There
are, in conclusion, as we may see, both beneficial and negative aspects of the
general Spanish attitude towards external opinions.
Reconciling myself, at
last, with the title of this article, I have observed these days, following the
detention of Carles Puigdemont in Neümunster, Germany, a wide tendency
-probably healthy- to examine ourselves in the eyes of the World regarding
the judicial consequences of the Independence process carried out illegally by
some Catalan mandataries last Autumn.
It does not surprise me, as
the story successfully spread by a part (approximately 48%) of the Catalan
population, radicalized by an upgrowing nationalism, has doubtlessly gained the
hearts of some persons outside our country. It is the tale of the fictional “oppression”
of the totality of a distinctive people, a regional minority, subject to
multiple and permanent injustices by an abusive and always mean Spanish nation,
still attached to old phantoms’ habits (Franco, the Holy Inquisition, take your
pick). It is, I must admit, a well knitted argument, an easy trap to fall into
where no other contact with actual reality of the situation is held.
The fact that a majority of
Catalan population does not support the independence unilaterally declared by
the escapees, the fact that the Spanish Constitution and Catalonia’s superior
law (Estatut de Cataluña) have been pulverized by a well organized minority in
the Region, the fact that permanent abuses have actually been committed by the
Nationalist politics (fining advertising in Spanish -in Spain-, imposing an
exclusive monolingual public School system -non-bilingual, like any other
European system-, condemning to ostracism any Catalan citizen’s challenge
against the identarian convictions and policies) are no rivals to the romantic
vision of the small but brave David against the mighty Goliath.
The fact that Catalan
nationalist parties are unfairly overrepresented (to the point where the
majority of non-independentist votes is now a minority in the regional
Parliament), the fact the same parties have for long held a critical power when
deciding National Spanish Governments -in exchange, of course, of a
non-intervention in identarian policies from the successive Spanish
Governments-, the fact that iconic 23 years-in-a-row nationalist President of
Catalonia, Jordi Pujol, and the core of the nationalist historical hegemonic
party (CiU) has been discovered to have stolen and stored in Tax Heavens
various hundreds of millions (discovery that, surprisingly, matched with the
exact moment the independentist project is launched), the fact that Barcelona and
the big Catalan cities are by far non independentist and every poll or vote
concerning independence has denied a victory to the parties in support of the
independence, do not generally travel as fast as the “oppression tale”. The
phrase “a lie can go around the World
while the truth is still lacing its shoes” is, I am afraid, quite accurate.
Nonetheless, the fictional
tale of David and Goliath –recognisably, a brilliantly executed campaign of infamous misinformation- has a sure Achilles heel. It does not survive any
consistent, however simple, confrontation with the objective truth. The myth of
the oppression of a unified people seeking freedom, struggling before an
undemocratic State which incarcerates political leaders for their political
ideas may persuade well intended persons too distant to appreciate the
notorious flaws of a retorted truth, only founded upon the construction of permanent lie;
it does not, nevertheless, convince any sufficiently informed interlocutors.
This is, indeed, the very
reason why not a single Western Government –let alone European-, nor a single
European Union or European Council organ has had the slightest approach to an
official declaration on the matter as to criticise the Spanish authorities’
constitutional response regarding the Catalan crisis, as opposed to severe and
multiple declarations concerning internal democratic affairs in Poland,
Hungary, US or Venezuela, for the matter. Where a misinformed citizen in any
country may, indeed, be made to believe “the Catalans” are
attached to Spain against their will, any minimally informed Institution or
Government knows –last December elections official results- more than half the Catalan
population rejects independence and pro-independence parties are unfairly
overrepresented in the Catalan Parliament -due to the correlative overrepresentation of
rural Catalonia as compared to the big urban centres in Barcelona or Tarragona,
where pro-independence parties have permanently been defeated in the succesive elections-. Just the
same, where a misinformed citizen in any country may be made to believe Carles
Puigdemont is a person prosecuted for his ideas, any minimally informed
institution or Government also knows he is the actual perpetrator of a coup to the Constitution and rule of law
of a European Democracy, a Constitution which a radicalised Catalan nationalist
minority has not had the majorities to change but decided to substitute by
their own legal alternative order. A crime that, objectively, Adolf Hitler himself committed twice
against Weimar Constitution which finally substituted by the Third Reich. A
crime only conceivable in a XXI Century western European country by the perverse,
poisoning influence of nationalism and its natural tendency towards
radicalisation, a civil religion of which its expansion caused the largest and
more painful disasters of modern European History in the last century –mainly, WWI, WWII and Balkan War- but,
nonetheless, resists to disappear. Nationalism is, indeed, war, as Manuel Vals
recently but firmly declared in his frontal rejection of the Catalan secession
process; another Catalan international personality which now is a public enemy
for Catalan nationalists as Joan Manuel Serrat before.
Catalan nationalists lately
declare the European Union and all European Nations’ public support to Spanish
Institutions concerning the Catalan matter is indeed the proof of a democratic
reversion in the Continent: a treason to European democratic basic principles,
to the core of Democracy itself. As the mad man that refuses to recognise his
own madness, but prefers to declare the rest of the World’s madness, Catalan
nationalists are utterly wrong. It is precisely the basic democratic principles
which Spanish Institutions –Government, Judiciary and Constitutional Court-
have upheld in the recent crisis: the Rule of Law, separation of powers and, utmostly, constitutional supremacy. The
right to live under a Democratic regime without the abuse of authorities above
the law, the right of a people to decide its own fate in accordance to the
majorities established in the Constitution. The right of the majority of
the Catalans -the “bad Catalans”, in the view of the nationalist
leaders- to live under the Rule of Law and 1978’s Spanish Constitution without
being ripped of unilaterally from their fellow countrymen in the rest of Spain by a blindfolded nationalist minority of Catalans.
The high acceptance of the
Spanish people concerning external opinions must, thus, not make us forget to discern
serious and solid opinions on the matter from misinformed opinions and table
talk. It is in the trench of Democracy we now stand, supported by our European
colleagues; it is where we must always remain.
