A FEARFUL REGIME
As the saying goes “he who has nothing to hide, has nothing to fear”. The facts show that the Spanish regime is terrified of dissent, so it must have a lot to hide. Some examples follow.
Pablo Hásel, a Catalan rap singer, was sent to prison over the lyrics of his songs, convicted for “offences to the crown” and “glorification of terrorism”. He stands to stay in prison for six years! For singing! One of the judges who convicted Hásel stood as a candidate for the fascist party Falange Española in the first Spanish constitutional elections.
Indeed, the concept “terrorism” has been incredibly lightly used by Spanish judges to justify all types of abuses. In 2019, nine young men and women were brutally detained after being accused of “preparing terrorist attacks”. These are civil pro-independence supporters with no prior criminal record, who could face up to 15 years’ jail time without having committed a single violent act in their lives. Their arrest was ordered by Supreme Court judge Manuel García-Castellón, who is known for having released more than 275 officials belonging to the conservative PP party who had been accused of high-level corruption. This judge, who at 71 is well over the legal retirement age, is also prosecuting former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont for terrorism. The judge accuses him of organising some popular protests, thus inconceivably equating legitimate and peaceful demonstrations with violent activities such as bombing or shooting people with the aim of killing them.
The panic to change also reaches the very organisation in charge of supervising the independence of judges and naming high-court judges, the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), whose mandate expired over five years ago and now resists its legally required renewal.
Contradicting its very mission, the CGPJ has no qualms about interfering with politics. Recently, these judges openly and fiercely criticised the socialist government’s intention to approve an amnesty law, before it even was debated in parliament, definitively drafted and passed.
Another of many examples of the lack of separation of powers is that not long ago the Spanish public prosecutor lodged a complaint against the President of the Parliament of Catalonia for having authorised a parliamentary debate on the right to self-determination and the question of monarchy.
The Spanish monarchy, appointed by fascist dictator Francisco Franco, is totally free from any sort of criminal prosecution, and is understandably fearful at the slightest hint of change. Recently King Felipe VI visited Catalonia. Totally peaceful demonstrators were not allowed within 200 metres of him, God forbid he might even see them. I envy republics, or even not-so-terrified monarchies such as in the UK, where protesters can get relatively near to their king. A protester was even able to throw some eggs at Charles III recently and received only a light punishment.
The Spanish regime is terrified enough to install the spy program Pegasus on the mobile phones of Catalan politicians, civil activists and even lawyers, thus enabling it to monitor all of their conversations and denying them of basic human rights when it comes to privacy. It has even used a wiretap on the telephones of a journalist, Albano Dante and his wife, based on accusations of “terrorism” for his opinions on social networks. And it is also scared enough of the truth to block a parliamentary investigation of the jihadist attack that took place on Barcelona’s Ramblas in 2017, organised by a confidante of the Spanish National Intelligence Center (CNI), thus preventing relatives of the numerous victims to ever known who was really behind those acts.
In short, an endless list of facts that reveals a fearful regime. The kind of fear that characterises a group of corrupt individuals and a head of state who was never elected, but handpicked by a fascist dictator, meaning he lacks true democratic legitimacy.