Un observador inglés (4) – Forget dialogue. Forget real politics. This was a week in Spain …

Forget dialogue. Forget real politics. This is just some of what’s happened in the past week – all whilst there are still four political prisoners in jail, still without trial:

Spain’s Interior Minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, tried to justify the €87m (plus) spent on failing to stop the referendum in Catalonia on 1st October. He refused, however, to appear in Congress to explain anything about the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils last August, or how much the Spanish intelligence services knew about the Imam of Ripoll, the mastermind of those attacks.

The new speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, asked to meet Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, to discuss the situation of the Catalan MPs in prison, and five more in self-imposed exile in Belgium (including ‘ex-’Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont). The meeting was refused.

Hearing that Carles Puigdemont would be travelling from Brussels to Copenhagen to take part in a debate at the University of Copenhagen on Monday, and to meet with Danish MPs at their parliament on Tuesday, the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office said it would ‘activate all the mechanisms to stop Puigdemont if he travels to Denmark’ and seek to re-issue a European Arrest Warrant (EAW). A spokesman at the Spanish Embassy in Denmark said that he ‘did not like the fact that Danes will be able to hear Puigdemont’.

In the end, Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena rejected the urgent petition to issue an EAW. It was easier for Puigdemont to travel from Brussels to Copenhagen on that Monday than it was for Mariano Rajoy to travel from Madrid to Castellón on the new AVE ‘high-speed’ train that he was inaugurating – as it was delayed for 30 minutes. Puigdemont went ahead with his debate at the University of Copenhagen, with huge media attention. It was a very balanced, democratic debate. The pro-Rajoy media in Spain, however, focused only on the questions of one participant in the debate, Marlene Wind, but failed to report on any of Puigdemont’s replies.

Whilst in Denmark, someone obliged Puigdemont to kiss the Spanish flag whilst he was sitting at a café in a shopping centre. He did so, later Tweeting that he had no problem with Spain or the Spanish flag, as ‘democracy is more important than all borders, all flags and all constitutions.’

Catalan Parliament speaker, Roger Torrent, proposed Carles Puigdemont as the candidate to lead the new Catalan Government, with the plan for the house to vote on his investiture on 30th January. He stated: ‘Puigdemont is the candidate to be invested because the majority of representatives of the chamber have so decided. We need to find political solutions to enforce democratic measures.’

Zoido (again), interviewed on Spanish TV, said that he’d ‘prevent Puigdemont entering Spain in the boot of a car’. The comment was made in response to the possibility of Puigdemont sneaking back across the border to attend his own investiture – or whether he could be invested via Skype. ‘There are many country paths and you can get in by boat, helicopter or in a microlight,’ said Zoido, ‘but we are working towards that not happening.’

Roger Torrent then travelled to Brussels to meet with Carles Puigdemont and the four other politicians – but he had to pay for his own flight. On arrival, he found the offices of the Catalan delegation had been closed down by the Spanish government – and they had to find an alternative meeting room. Meanwhile, Torrent was being threatened with ‘all kinds of measures’ by Spain’s deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, if Puigdemont were to become Catalan president. Despite Puigdemont being democratically voted for (again) as the Catalan president (and despite obviously being allowed to participate as a candidate in the elections in the first place), Soraya simply told Torrent: ‘You can’t propose him.’

The offices in Barcelona of the two Catalan civic organisations, ANC and Omnium, were visted again and searched by Civil Guard officers – although no-one could really understand why. It took place, however, on the same morning that the former Secretary General of the Spanish government’s Partido Popular (PP) in Valencia, Ricardo Costa, admitted in court that the PP had been financed with black money. He also identified Francisco Camps, former PP president in Valencia, as one of the ringleaders.

Rajoy said on radio that his PP party was clean. He also said that he didn’t want to talk about equal pay for men and women (‘no nos metamos en eso’).

Spain’s Civil Guard and National Police started to inspect car boots at the French border, the sewer system outside the Catalan parliament, and even an airfield at Sant Fruitós del Bages, normally used by parachute enthusiasts.

One of the Spanish government’s candidates to be a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, gained zero points on the technical test for his failure to speak English. It was revealed that a second Spanish judge elected as candidate, Maria Elósegui, had previously made homophobic statements and also falsified her CV.

King Felipe VI turned up at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and in his speech said, ‘Catalonia has tried to undermine our democracy.’

Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría announced that the Spanish government would make a legal challenge to Spain’s Constitutional Court against the decision of the Catalan Parliament to propose Puigdemont as president. Spain’s Council of State swiftly announced that there was no basis to challenge Puigdemont’s candidature. The Spanish government proceeded with its challenge, regardless. Late on Saturday evening, the Constitutional Court unanimously decided to suspend Tuesday’s planned Catalan parliamentary session for Puigdemont’s investiture, unless the candidate attends in person … for which he would have to obtain ‘authorisation from the judge’ conducting the case for which his arrest is sought.

At the moment, it is unclear precisely what Puigdemont’s next move will be. What is clear is that Rajoy’s government is totally incapable of dialogue. This isn’t politics anymore. It’s One Big Fat Court Case. And until they all sit down with mediators and talk through a solution, it will probably end up in Strasbourg …

12 thoughts on “Un observador inglés (4) – Forget dialogue. Forget real politics. This was a week in Spain …

  1. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    Herbert Steubesand

    January 28, 2018 at 7:45pm

    Hi Tim
    as always a very good summery of the situatuon. I always ask myself how to help the Catalans. Its just not to comprehend that Europe is just not doing anything to solve the situation. I mean they should be interested in keeping up the democratic ideals. All the human rights are not respected at all by Spain, its a very bad joke and embarressing they got a seat at the European Court of Human Rights. When someone will stop this what Spain is doing? How we can be helpful giving useful support to the Catalans?
    Best regards
    Herbert

    • Permalink  ⋅ Reply

      Pilar

      January 28, 2018 at 8:20pm

      EU will not do nothing because Spain owes a lot of money.

      • Permalink  ⋅ Reply

        Fio

        January 29, 2018 at 4:02pm

        Spread the word Herbert! That will help. Thanks.

    • Permalink  ⋅ Reply

      Luna Catalunya

      January 29, 2018 at 1:08am

      thank you very much for your support

    • Permalink  ⋅ Reply

      Aco

      February 4, 2018 at 3:48pm

      If you are really worried about Catalans, maybe you could start by worrying about the 53% of Catalans who don’t agree with fanatic nationalism…What about them? Nobody is helping the clear majority of Catalans. Just some crazy people are making a lot of noise and inventing problems where there was none. Just ask an independentist one simple question: what problem was causing Spain in your daily life one year ago? The lack of concrete answers will give you the best clue about this situation.

  2. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    Dvora

    January 28, 2018 at 9:26pm

    The meeting that Rajoy refused with Torrent was not to discuss the political prisoners, it was a pro forma meeting where the Speaker of the Catalan Parliament informs the President of who the candidate is that has been chosen by the parliament to be invested president. And the Constitutional Court did not suspend the investiture session, because they cannot take preemptive steps. They said that Puigdemont had to appear in person and that his appearance had to be approved by the judge in charge of his rebellion case.

  3. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    Luna Catalunya

    January 29, 2018 at 1:22am

    Hello Tim, fantastic summary of what happened. The TC has broken the law by issuing precautionary measures for Puigdemont without being requested, and can not decide on how the Catalan Parliament interprets the regulation because it has its own sovereignty, but in Spain we already know that there is no separation of powers. Now professors and jurists hallucinate with these decisions of the Courts and while the EU follows in silence buying favors to Spain

  4. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    David Sketchley

    January 29, 2018 at 12:52pm

    Hi. Thanks for this. You state: “One of the Spanish government’s candidates to be a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, gained zero points on the technical test for his failure to speak English. It was revealed that a second Spanish judge elected as candidate, Maria Elósegui, had previously made homophobic statements and also falsified her CV.”

    Perez de los Cobos also falsified his CV. In it he claimed he spoke French and English, which he doesn’t. That’s a former President of the Spanish Constitutional Court, a judge, lying to the European Court of Human Rights.

  5. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    Penelope Willis Fleming

    January 29, 2018 at 5:10pm

    Excellent summary! Thanks!

  6. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    María José

    January 30, 2018 at 5:18am

    Latest news: Pablo Casado, from PP, menaces Roger Torrent, reminding him that they know he has two kids, and he knows what that means…. And there’s a video of Puigdemont speaking to nacional.cat in which he explain that he was followed by helicopters sent by Zoido as if he was a criminal. I think he’s talking of 1-O, but I’m no sure. And he says also that his family was receaving telephone calls from advising that they would kill the whole Puigdemont family. It’s not new from Rajoy’s gov, you should only search for info about the long list of people who should testify about Gurtel and have died in strange circumstances. All about Rajoy is a lie. Every time someone from his party wants to defend him, they always say he was a former brilliant Property Registrator, and passed hard exams for that….. In fact, he is one of five brothers, and they have all passed the same exams, but it seems it was all a price for “the oil affair” in Galicia. A corruption issue focused on his father…. There are so many dark things in this country…. Thanks for your articles. We need foreign people to know what’s happening in Catalonia…

  7. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    Mike Pritchard

    January 30, 2018 at 8:34am

    Good analysis if the farcical situation that we are seeing and living every day. Well done @tim

  8. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    Mike Pritchard

    January 30, 2018 at 8:35am

    Good analysis of the farcical situation that we are seeing and living every day. Well done @tim

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