Tendentious politics

By Jaime Netto

Reading through Paco Oliva’s Opinion on 28/11/23, had it not been written in English but, otherwise, in Spanish, I would have been able to state that his biased opinion, which he titled ‘A fistful of votes’ concerning Spain's election results, emanates directly from the Spanish news media ABC, La Razón or OKdiario. They all, including Mr Oliva, have various things in common: their detestation for progressive politics accompanied by a right-wing narrative in support of neoliberal politics.

Mr Oliva’s criticism of the amnesty bill is a copy and paste of the right-wing view in Spain that thinks that only a right-wing Government should be trusted when exercising amnesty legislation that emanates from the Spanish Constitution. Therefore, the amnesty that allowed thousands of wealthy Spaniards not to have their assets confiscated because they did not pay their taxes was proper to be pardoned since it was done by a PP Government in 2012, despite that in 2017, Spain's Constitutional Tribunal stated that the amnesty carried out by the PP was unconstitutional. Or, the ‘indultos’ to Tejero, Milan del Bosch, etc., who tried a failed military coup d’état in 1981, were subsequently pardoned by Felipe Gonzalez, is something that one will not get Mr Oliva or his cohorts in Spain criticising, despite its existential challenge to Spanish democracy. Also interesting is his silence over Jose Maria Aznar's amnesty to the terrorist members of ‘Terra Lliure’ from Catalonia, when he let go 16 members despite having committed terrorist acts. This action by Mr Aznar was made possible due to the agreement with the Catalonian Nationalists in what was labelled the “Los pactos del Majestic” to secure the investiture of the PP in Government due to not having obtained a majority of seats in Congress in 1996. Nor will Mr Oliva or his ideological colleagues in Spain mention that in 2000, Mr Aznar pardoned 1432 condemned persons, which is 11 more than the anticipated amnesty proposed by the current PSOE Government. In total, under the two terms of the Aznar Government, a total of 5,948 persons were pardoned.

The fact remains that Spain’s Constitutional Tribunal has stated that acts of ‘indultos' and amnesties form part of the Constitution under the term of ‘derecho de gracia’ and that this covers ‘indultos’ and amnesties. Other European countries, France, Portugal, Germany, Italy, and The Low Countries, have carried out amnesties. The UK, too, applied an amnesty law to the Northern Ireland Troubles.

The argument by Mr Oliva and the Spanish right-wing parties that the PSOE should not have agreed with the Catalonian independentist parties to form a government is false on several counts. Firstly, Spain is a Parliamentary democracy, not a Presidential one. This means that to have a Government in Spain, a political party or a coalition of parties needs to have half of the total number of MPs in Congress plus one extra vote in favour of a proposal to secure an investiture for Government. This time, the coalition between PP and Vox failed to obtain the necessary votes. Not even the two pro-business Nationalist parties in Catalonia and the Basque Country were willing to support the proposal due to the proto-fascist policies of the Vox party, which forms several coalition regional governments in Spain with the PP. That said, in 1996, José Maria Aznar did not obtain an overall majority of votes to form a Government and had to count on the support of PNV and CIU. The first is a pro-business nationalist party in the Basque Country, and the latter is the forerunner of Junts today in Catalonia. Whether Mr Oliva likes it or not, that's how Parliamentary democracy works. Even here in Gibraltar, the Government is formed by seven GSLP members and two Liberals.

Another criticism made by Mr Oliva is that allowing Catalonians a referendum will lead to a fragmentation of Spain, and that would be a bad thing for Gibraltar. One can assume that Mr Oliva holds to the Francoist view of ‘España: una, grande y libre’, and therefore, no tinkering with the Constitution should be allowed. In fairness to Pedro Sanchez, he has repeatedly stated that no referendum will be held outside the legality of the Spanish Constitution. Whether this materialises or not, time will tell; as Julius Caesar once said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it”. That said, the real threat to Gibraltar is if there were to be a Government in Spain formed by the PP and Vox. We all know too well how life in Gibraltar has been when there has been a PP Government. Still, the addition of Vox has the potential of seriously compromising our economic well-being due to its neo-fascist policies.

About Mr Oliva's comments over a ‘Constitutional Bust-Up between the Executive and the Judiciary, he is being too clever by half. It's not any secret by anyone keeping a close eye on Spanish unfolding events that the Consejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ) has been acting in breach of the Spanish Constitution by not having allowed the Conservative Judges' replacement due to the expiry date five years ago. The continuation of these Judges’ impartiality and objectivity over legal matters has now been questioned by a number of jurists including the Internationally acclaimed jurist Baltasar Garzon. There is a view that the PP uses the majority of Conservative Judges as a tool to derail the Government.

Therefore, the likelihood is that there will be a bust-up, but because of the unconstitutionality of the Conservative Judges holding to positions that have elapsed five years ago. What we do know today is that the Congressional lawyers in the Spanish Congress have given the green light to the drafted document as complying to Spanish law. As to whether the European Commission gets involved or not, time will tell. That said, the PP Party has made a fool of itself by trying to get the European Parliament involved against the PSOE concerning the Amnesty Bill. The two attempts to get a sympathetic hearing of its policies have failed miserably.

In his article, Mr Oliva throws in the fiscal concessions that the agreement between the PSOE and the Catalonian Nationalists have agreed. What Mr Oliva and his friends will not tell you is that the fiscal package made available to Catalonia is open to all regional governments in Spain except for the Basque Country and Navarra, which have distinct fiscal regimes. As a result of the Covid pandemic, many regional governments have accrued hefty public debt. Therefore, the same percentage reduction of loan cancellation available to Catalonia is open to all other regions. Furthermore, to reduce regional governments' debt, the PSOE has made its offer available to the Madrid regional government run by Sra. Ayuso of the PP, which, although it does not have a public debt, does have a private one for the sum of 33.000 million Euros. The agreement states “tambien podrá acudirse a transferencias para la cancelación de la deuda en caso de ser necesario”. This clause is made to allow the PP regional government to reduce its private debt, which is paying higher interest rates to private financial institutions, and at the same time have a reduced percentage loan through Spain’s Central Government. Yet, none of this information is being placed in front of ordinary people. The strategy by the PP in Madrid is to mislead people and create antagonism between citizens of different regions against Catalonians on false premises and to demonise Pedro Sanchez as irresponsible. However, the regional government run by the PP in Andalucia has already stated they want to participate in the PSOE proposal for debt reductions.

Having borrowed so much stuff from right-wing sources, Mr Oliva feels compelled to provide a veneer of respectability to his tirade against the PSOE and the Catalonian Nationalists, that he brings the ‘Historiadors de Catalunya’ and Juan Luis Cebrian as proof of his conjecture. The first thing to state is that the ‘Historiadors de Catalunya’ is another association of historians on the history of Cataluña. His prioritising this single association reflects Mr Oliva’s ideological inclinations, which can be found in the right-wing press, Libertad Digital, La Razon, El Confidencial, El Español, La Cope, etc. Juan Luis Cebrián, a former director of El Pais newspaper, left his post in 1988 and, in 2018, the presidency of the Prisa Group. Along with Felipe Gonzales and Alfonso Guerra (once personalities with prestige), they have become an irrelevant, spent political force. Their detached and anti-socialist outburst these days are only utilised by the PP and their friendly media outlets.

In truth, Mr Oliva's article and the ongoing diatribe against the PSOE by the PP and Vox with their friendly media have nothing to do with the amnesty or the separation of responsibilities between the executive and the judiciary. Their tactics have one thing in mind, and that is to delegitimise the current coalition Government in Spain with constant misleading and false arguments. What the right-wing parties in Spain and Mr Oliva cannot stomach is another four years of progressive policies enhancing equality rights, environmental protection, and workers' rights and living standards.

Jaime Netto is a former trades unionist and GSD MP who served as a Government minister in four administrations.