Published originally in Spanish. Víctor Gómez Frías. El Español
May 1974. In the presidential election debate, Giscard d’Estaing forcefully responds to Mitterrand, who had accused him of insensitivity: “Vous n’avez pas le monopole du cœur.” Four decades later, this answer has become a French proverb used to defend oneself against those who claim a monopoly over good intentions.
In the Catalonia conflict, some have realised that claiming a monopoly of the heart would be a powerful weapon. Presenting themselves as oppressed people trying to peacefully protest becomes a powerful symbol, against which any image of police presence looks very harsh. Supporters of independence knew that there would end up being photographs of ‘police against defenceless crowds’, and that it would be the chance to convince the world that the Spanish state is synonymous with illegitimate violence.
This story has even spread among many pro-Constitution Spaniards who have now resigned themselves to the inevitability of independence or at least to having to make large concessions to the nationalists. Was all police action on the 1st of October disgraceful? Was it avoidable? Who is at fault? Before answering those questions, let’s take a wider view.
The majority of those of us who support a meticulous respect for the Constitution do not do so for identity-based reasons, and even less for supremacist ones. We do it because we believe that we live under the rule of law, which guarantees us solid freedoms, rights and guarantees. Various international bodies class us as a “full democracy”, among the twenty most consolidated in the world – higher than countries like France on some country rankings.
Pluralism, separation of powers or political participation work better – not only in theory but also in practice – than in any other part of the world (except some of our European neighbours, Australia, and New Zealand. Our economic or social situation is a different matter, also objectively one of the best in the world despite everything – although it is getting worse because of the decisions of a government that many have questioned, and that is tainted by corruption. These are serious issues – but ones that can be solved at the ballot box and in the courts. Spain, then, is not a failed state but a vibrant democracy.
We are not glorifying the unity of Spain as an end in itself, but as the foundation of this “social and democratic rule of law” as declared in the first article of our Magna Carta. It guarantees that absolutely everything can be debated and voted on according to the established procedures. Additionally, it ensures that minorities do not have to fight a battle in which the majority has got its way before it even starts. It makes sure that differing opinions can be openly aired and debated. This has nothing to do with those who sought to impose an independence referendum with less of a majority than would be needed to reform the Statute of Autonomy, or even to choose the síndic de Greuges (state Ombudsman of Catalonia).
However, the worst nationalist delusion of grandeur goes beyond manipulating how we vote: attempting, above all, to control who votes and what they vote on. If the Spanish Constitution ceases to be applicable in Catalonia, many of us will lose the opportunity to settle down in or travel to another part of the territory with the rights and guarantees that our citizenship provides us. That in itself is serious. What’s worse is that some Catalan citizens will suddenly find themselves feeling like foreigners in their own land.
Supporters of independence deny this, assuring them they could have dual nationality. What is dual nationality worth outside Spain? Maybe they should be thankful that they’d be allowed to go and vote at the consulate? The Catalan nationality is exactly what they don’t want: to have an uncertain citizenship of a precarious State that would be an international pariah pushed on them, instead of enjoying Spanish nationality which, as we have seen, is recognised as a ‘full democracy’. The ‘political death’ of those who would be deprived of the very basis of their rights and freedoms cannot be a matter for Catalans alone to vote on, but it’s not even desirable for all Spaniards to vote on it.
Politically opposing nationalist goals, then, is just as necessary as confronting any other ideology that seeks to undermine the civic rights of others. Should we support the people of Navarra if they wanted a referendum on stopping foreigners getting medical attention, or women from opening bank accounts? If a parliamentary group sought the return of the death penalty but was nowhere near the majority needed to secure that constitutional reform, would it be democratic for the rest of us not to get bogged down in ‘procedural obstacles’ and put it directly to a public vote?
Respect for the Constitution as the basis of democracy itself can be explained. But it’s not just a cold argument for the powers that be to impose themselves on the passionate independence backers. Let’s go back to the heart. Us supporters of the Constitution are deeply hurt by the spiral of silence and social pressure that the millions of Catalans that don’t support independence suffer every day.
The witch-hunt doesn’t make the cover of international newspapers because it’s based on silencing or coercion in smaller circles – the neighbour or colleague who stays quiet as not to be branded as having a ‘Spain complex’ or a ‘fascist’, the children of Civil Guards who are harassed at school, the central government employees who are ‘traitors’ (there are hardly any Catalan candidates for the national civil service exams), the shops boycotted for not supporting the protests, the Whatsapp groups where they send photos of themselves at the polls and those who haven’t gone to vote are seen as failing in a duty, the contempt for and mockery of the security forces… You are not alone, not only because we want the State to defend you, but also because the harassment you are facing, which is even leading many to think of leaving Catalonia, hurts us deeply.
Backers of the Constitution still agree that the main culprits in bringing us to this point are the pro-independence authorities, but this opposition also has cause to rebuke the government. On one hand, it has avoided dialogue for years: this has been a very irresponsible move on Rajoy’s part in not having proposed any kind of territorial reform during his five-year tenure, not even concessions unrelated to the referendum. That is irresponsible, but it’s not criminal – we cannot liken him to the coup leaders.
However, it would be cynical to rebuke the Government for its impotence on the 1st of October alone. On the 9th of June, after a Catalan Government meeting (what difference does it make politically that they made an institutional declaration but did not pass an agreement?) Puigdemont announced that he would call an illegal referendum on 1 October and would apply its result. On the 6th of September they forced a vote on it in the Catalan parliament, and even then neither the Spanish Government nor the pro-Constitution opposition dared to propose removing the power of those who had already committed a crime of disobedience and perversion of justice, and announced on TV that they would also commit the crimes of misappropriating public funds, sedition and – once independence had passed – that of rebellion.
If, until the eve of the 1st of October, no party had suggested pre-trial detention of the coup leaders and taking control of the institutions they were abusing, what did they expect would happen on referendum day? Should the Government have given the state security forces the same shock that the Mossos did with the disloyal orders from their superiors, designed to paralyse them?
Faced with utter disloyalty to the Constitution and the threat to fundamental rights that the referendum entailed, and in any case in order to carry out a judicial mandate, the National Police and the Civil Guard should have been where they were on the 1st of October. Once there, could they have acted differently? It’s likely that those responsible for the operation made a mistake in not realising that, when they found they couldn’t rely on the Mossos (who made up two thirds of the forces), the operation of removing ballot boxes in over 3,000 polling stations had become an absurd game of cat and mouse and that they should have asked the judge to suspend it.
Objectively, the harm was minimal. Of course, ideally there would have been none, but given the crowd, you have to recognise that it demonstrated the professionalism of the security forces. The rowdy protesters, who were not where they should have been, sought to block (sometimes even using children as shields) the police and Guards from carrying out their mission to remove the ballot boxes.
There were hundreds of disturbances, each one involving about a hundred gathered protesters. In other words, among thousands of people determined to physically throw themselves on the police (without a doubt the largest disturbance in the history of Spain) there were 900 people bruised from being pushed (the same order of magnitude as among the security forces themselves) and two cases that had to be treated as serious and which, fortunately, are recovering.
It’s easy to say from an armchair that they should have asked the judge to suspend the decision to block the vote, but if the security forces had to hesitate before taking on any operation that looked difficult, the rule of law would come to a halt. In fact, by mid-morning, the operation had come to appreciate its own ineffectiveness. This was followed by planning errors (of course, by the Government, but complicated by Opposition demands to not anticipate using more effective methods) and political myopia, but by no means a desire to carry out brutal repression (apart from perhaps in one case which is under examination by the public prosecutor’s office, in which there could have been disproportionate methods used to try to get through.)
Asking for Government members to be censured for this action entails accepting the pro-independence narrative that we are a failed, heartless state. Who truly deserves not only censure, but also dismissal and pre-trial detention, are those who insist on continuing to announce that they will commit ever more serious crimes.
The coup-supporters are growing in number. They’re right that there are more of them than there were before the 1st of October. They have managed to hold a referendum (at the very least, managed to get 30% of the population to cast a ‘Yes’ ballot to secession) and the front covers of international papers are covered with images of police and ballot boxes. They have already announced that the declaration of independence will come in a matter of days. It is necessary to stop them before it takes effect, and to look for solutions.
Dialogue? Of course, but between those who respect the Constitution. Our democracy is strong, but it cannot resist the division of the people and of the institutions who are responsible for defending them. It is partially as a result of the lack of capacity to react and the differing views among pro-Constitution actors that such serious crimes announced so far in advance have been allowed to take place. They cannot be allowed to represent all Catalans in a negotiation while they are trying to take the political rights of millions of them, and even less to claim a monopoly of the heart.
As such, I propose the following. The current government should immediately send a legal document to the Catalan president that will allow Article 155 to enter into effect in a few days (just as independence is declared, which will of course mean the current post holders in the autonomous institutions are abandoning their positions). At the same time, the law of national security must be activated in relation to the risk posed by the attempts of the Mossos leadership to stop that corps from holding itself back and to confront the powers of the State. Additionally, Rajoy should hand in his resignation in favour of a consensus candidate between the three pro-Constitution parties, leading a government of national unity that will restore normality and the presence of the state in Catalonia and give continuity to Catalan institutions until Catalan elections can be held in a few months time.
That government should promote a constitutional reform that provides answers to territorial tensions and other important issues, at the same time delegitimising nationalism’s proposals that have done such damage to our ability to live together. There should be no more entry conditions put up between the pro-Constitution parties. There will of course be a lot of tensions to go and take big and small decisions, but they will resolve them more quickly if they’re sat around the same Cabinet table.
Is this suicide for the PSOE? I don’t think so, but that’s the least important thing when the very survival of our rule of law is at stake, facing independence-supporters’ aggression but also the self-serving equidistance of Iglesias, Colau and other leaders. Do we have to marginalise Podemos? No, in fact I think we should suggest that they take part in the proposed pact between pro-Constitution parties and participate in the national unity government, although, I don’t hold out much hope for their reply. Would they take votes from the PSOE at the next elections? I trust that the majority of progressive voters would understand the responsibility we had to take on to avoid the rupture of our constitutional order. But each of us will know how to see in their heart if they have done what’s right – as a leader and as a voter.
Víctor Gómez Frías is a PSOE (Socialist Workers’ Party of Spain) activist
