Tels of the cassandres, Benoît Pellistrandi and Manuel Valls resume in their tribune (The world of November 16) all the arguments of the Spanish right against the amnesty promoted by Pedro Sanchez to provide a response to the Catalan problem: attack against the separation of powers, breakdown of the equality of Spaniards before the law, upheaval of the institutional architecture which calls into question the rule of law, a fool’s bargain serving the interests of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) [centre gauche], “intellectual and moral disqualification of Spanish democracy”a blank check for nationalism ” dangerous “ And “violent”, falsification of history against a backdrop of ethnic claims. Nothing less !
We could return to each of these arguments, which are, to say the least, questionable. But the important thing is not there: it lies in the deployment of a catastrophic rhetoric which poorly masks an absence of political project for Spain.
This alarmism is based first of all on a hackneyed strategy of double delegitimization: that of left-wing governments first, which Mr. Pellistrandi has enjoyed relaying for a long time; then that of the nationalist currents, accused of the worst evils, the worst intentions and manipulation of history.
Their criminalization thus makes it possible to never consider their project for Spain, although clearly identified: that of a plurinational State based on autonomy with expanded budgetary and managerial powers.
Rage
This rhetoric of the Spanish right is then based on a reversal of principles which places the defense of the unity of Spain allegedly under attack above the normal game of democracy and the right to form coalitions. From there to imagining solutions to correct this supposedly perverted democracy, there is only one step José Maria Aznar, former president of the government, crossed during a debate organized by the conservative think tank Neos October 9: “It is no longer the time for silence. Everyone has a responsibility, something to say, something to do. Today we can do a lot of things, except keep quiet”. Sad reminiscences.
This rage has a meaning: it refers to the impasses into which the Spanish right has found itself, compromising their chances of governing.
The first is that she sets herself up as the sole authorized reader of the 1978 Constitution, through a sort of institutional patriotism which replaces the definitive demonetization of the great myths of Spanish nationalism since Francoism. Irony of the history of a right quick to denounce so-called coups d’état (in 2017, in 2023…), to better forget the one for which it was explicitly responsible, July 18, 1936 [date du soulèvement nationaliste qui entraîna le pays dans la guerre civile].
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