In 2008, an open microphone revealed a conversation between left-wing journalist Iñaki Gabilondo and Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The journalist asked Zapatero about the polls, to which Zapatero replied: “Well, what suits us is that there is tension.” The tension worked, and the Socialists won the elections again.
The strategy of confronting and dividing society antagonistically, an old tactic of the Left, won votes, and Zapatero’s government passed controversial laws such as the law of historical memory which reopened old wounds for the purpose of rewriting history. Unfortunately, the centre-right People’s Party did not react and even supported the socialist drift.
Zapatero lost the elections in 2011, but, although he left national politics, he became a leading figure in the Puebla Group, a left-wing political forum, where he has worked to whitewash the dictatorships in Cuba and Venezuela, support Ortega in Nicaragua and Petro in Colombia.
Now we know that the representative of the Puebla Group and friend of Nicolás Maduro may once again play an important role in Spanish politics; it was announced that Zapatero will participate in the meeting between the ruling socialist PSOE and the Catalan separatist Junts party on Tuesday 21 November in Geneva, Switzerland. This meeting will once again include fugitive former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and Santos Cerdán, number 3 of the PSOE.
Given the relationship the PSOE has with Venezuela, the fact that Podemos has been financed by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, and the Spanish bailout of a tiny Venezuelan airline, the likely presence of the main Spanish representative in the Puebla Group does not seem a coincidence.
Several separatist politicians have also announced from the rostrum of the Congress that they will not let the PSOE renege on its agreement. “Don’t gamble with it,” deputy Gabriel Rufián, from the hard-left separatist Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, warned Pedro Sánchez during the investiture debate that culminated in the election of the Socialist candidate as prime minister.
The PSOE presented the debate as a victory for progressive forces, avoiding a radical government of the “extreme Right,” consisting of VOX and the centre-Right PP. In an Orwellian speech, Sánchez presented himself as a wall against the ‘extreme Right’ and justified all his concessions to separatism in the name of coexistence and democracy.
PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo accused Sánchez of “political corruption” in exchange for keeping his seat in the Moncloa (the prime minister’s residence) and that the investiture session was born “of a fraud” bought with cheques that all Spaniards will pay for. “History will not grant you amnesty,” Feijóo concluded.
For his part, Santiago Abascal, denounced Sánchez, accusing him of carrying out a “coup d’état,” and adding that “the only seat he deserves is in the dock.” The reference to the coup d’état was removed from the journal of sessions by order of the president of Congress, the socialist Francina Armengol, a decision which, for the leader of VOX, “demonstrates that his denunciation is indeed a reality and that not even the deputies have freedom of expression in the speakers’ gallery.”
Abascal and the VOX deputies left the chamber before Sánchez’s response to join the demonstrators protesting against the investiture outside Congress: “Now you can spout your lies at whoever wants to listen to you. We will leave together with the Spanish people who are fighting your coup.”
The election campaign earlier this year, in which the socialists denied a thousand times the possibility of granting an amnesty, let alone a referendum on self-determination, only for them to have finally conceded this and more to gain the votes of the fugitive Puigdemont, now seems a long way off.
However, the reality is even worse. Asked by journalists whether the pact with Junts could be in danger, Santos Cerdán said no, and acknowledged that negotiations had begun in March. While socialist MPs were crying out against Puigdemont’s separatism, they were meeting secretly with him to buy his support. With the support of the communists and Basque, Catalan, and Galician pro-independence supporters, Pedro Sánchez is embarking on an uncertain path that will be marked by blackmail from his partners, political instability, and the breakdown of the rule of law. For many, what has just begun is a real regime change.
The protests outside the PSOE headquarters, especially in Madrid, have been happening for 16 days now. The riot police have continued to use tear gas and rubber bullets, which they did not use in Catalonia, and have sent camouflaged agents among the demonstrators, where they have allegedly caused trouble.
The excessive use of force has provoked anger among many of those who previously supported the police. VOX deputy Javier Ortega-Smith, who has always been a defender of the state security forces and called for the equalisation of the national police with the regional police—the national police in Spain have a lower salary than the Basque and Catalan police—warned the riot police that he would monitor their actions. Any officer who used excessive force would be denounced, he said. The police are losing much of their popular support.
In addition to these rallies, on Saturday 18 November a million people joined a demonstration in Madrid called by civil society organisations, with the support of VOX and the PP, against the amnesty. It was the largest demonstration in the capital since 1997, after the murder of the popular councillor Miguel Ángel Blanco at the hands of the terrorist group ETA.
The truth is that all these mobilisations have put the spotlight on what is happening and the international media have begun to report on the amnesty and the end of the separation of powers in Spain. The American journalist Tucker Carlson was also present at one of the rallies in Madrid, and his interview with Santiago Abascal has been seen by millions.
A debate will be held in the European Parliament next Wednesday on the state of the rule of law in Spain in the wake of recent events, however both Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel were quick to congratulate Sánchez on his re-election.
At the same time that hundreds of thousands of Spaniards were demonstrating against the coup, three of Sánchez’s allied parties were demonstrating in Bilbao. Convened by EH Bildu, a party that counts numerous former ETA terrorists among its ranks, the demonstration was attended by representatives of ERC (Catalan separatists), BNG (Galician separatists), various far-left formations, Ireland’s Sinn Féin, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Western Saharan Polisario Front, and the KNK of Kurdistan. EH Bildu leader Arnaldo Otegui, convicted of terrorism, lashed out at the Madrid demonstrators and called for “anti-fascism,” pointing to the current moment as an “opportunity.”
To thwart that opportunity and keep Spain united and safe from unscrupulous politicians like Sánchez, corrupt ones like Puigdemont and terrorists like Otegui, thousands and thousands of Spaniards are taking to the streets every night. VOX remains committed to a permanent mobilisation and has asked for a meeting with the PP to stop the coup d’état. The next event to keep in mind will be the general strike called by the trade union Solidarity on 24 November.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/spain-is-still-standing/
