Barcelona,
8 February 2017
Today,
there is a Member of Parliament who is not able to attend this
plenary session, and itis not due to an illness nor has she taken
leave. In these moments, our companion, Irene Rigau,
is being tried together with our former colleagues who held the
highest positions of governmental responsibility in our country:
President Artur Mas and Vice President Joana Ortega.
They are being tried, accused of the crime of being faithful to the
instructions of this Parliament,
which was also faithful to the instructions given by the citizens.
Therefore
this Parliament, in its first plenary session called and held since
the trial of November 9th of 2014, cannot proceed as though
nothing has happened. It cannot look the other way or remain
indifferent about the fact that, at this moment, there are political
leaders being
prosecuted for allowing 2.3 million citizens to take part in that
event, and who conveyed
a loud and clear message of wanting to solve a political problem by
voting, through the
ballot.
I
have requested the floor so that this exceptional situation is put on
record in the Chamber that
represents the people of Catalonia, and also to convey some
considerations that go beyond
this moment in time as I express the growing concerns that are at the
centre of Catalan
society as a whole. An immense majority of Catalan society, whatever
their thoughts are
on what the relationship between Catalonia and Spain should be like,
has visibly shown an
exemplary democratic attitude. We have also made evident our will to
protect fundamental
rights and we have done so on every occasion, like no one other: In
the rejection
of terrorism, opposing the war in Iraq, rebelling against the
government’s lies about the
11-M attacks, and, in these last five years, in a manner that has no
precedent in Europe, in
the demand for the right to vote.
This
recentralising drift, accelerated and worsened by the ruling against
the Statute of Catalonia,
and the previous campaign eleven years ago that collected signatures
against it, confirm
the structural problem deteriorating Spain’s democracy. A democracy
that sends to the
courtroom the people responsible for such an edifying and healthy
event like the 9-N, a day
which created such deep and noble sense of citizenship, is a
democracy that has fallen ill.
And
this goes far back.
It
did not come out unscathed during the transition and now it is losing
credibility at the hands of
forces that we know have always been there, despite that for many
years we thought they had
left or had been reconverted. Today, Spain’s democracy has allowed
itself a political trial against
the former president of Catalonia and two members of his government
without blushing
or asking itself what the global public opinion is asking. Yesterday,
an article of a leading
media outlet assured that the trial “is not something one would
expect to see in Europe”.
A few hours later, the influential Internacional Liberal expressed,
yesterday afternoon,
in very blunt terms: this trial is a “farce” and a “spectacle”.
MEPs from different countries have also expressed enormous concern
about the path the Spanish state is following.
Yet,
as you can see, the Spanish political system is not in distress.
There is nothing that worries it. It has the main opposing party
completely submitted to the governing party. It has another party
that already acts at its behest, yesterday liberal, today social
democrat, and tomorrow, whatever is necessary to guarantee the
placidity of the government. It has the support of the media, public
and private, who, if necessary, take care of wedging its position
with a wall of disinformation and, at times, actual manipulations and
lies to make it difficult for Spanish society to contrast the
propaganda they are being served.
President
Mas, Vice President Ortega and Minister Rigau are guilty of having
trusted in Parliament, and believing in the idea that in democracy
the first thing is to serve and listen to the citizens that make it
possible. Without them, there may be government, there may be
legality, there may be tribunals, but there is no democracy or
liberty. A democracy that doesn’t care what its citizens think or
want is incomplete, it is lacking, it is confined to limits that are
out of the people’s hands. Looking back at the events prior to
November 9th one can see that for many years now there has been a
majority in the polls and in Parliament that wants to decide its own
future. It also confirms that there is an appeal for dialogue in
order to resolve this conflict permanently as well as a willingness
to reach agreement.
To
all of this, there is neither dialogue, nor proposals. Instead,
trials and threats. And a democracy of a variable intensity,
regulated at the convenience of the ruling majority.
Consequently,
the State can cynically disobey court rulings, including the
Constitutional Court’s, without even the slightest of injunctions.
It violates up to 34 rulings, some very sensitive such the ones
relating to school grants or the 0.7% in personal income tax ruling,
yet nothing happens: When the State breaches these rulings, it seems
the rule of law is strengthened.
In
2016, the European Parliament issued a report that denounces Spain as
the third Member State with the most open cases of European Law
infringements. But nothing happens.
The
citizens of Catalonia that exhibit their support for the former
president are considered coercers of justice and seem to have fewer
rights than a former talk-show guest and former senior official of
the State who recommends a good execution by firing squad for
President Mas, or than a newspaper director, who first accuses and
then sets a verdict the courts should give despite the trial not
being over. Needless to say, recommending execution by firing squad
for the President of Catalonia isn’t even condemned, and putting
pressure on the courts with a front page of a newspaper is seen with
absolute normality.
The
normality of impunity. Because in Spain the President of the Catalan
Government can go on trial for providing the ballots boxes, but the
minister responsible for the Yak-42 is relocated to State Council.
Because one can alter election results with false reports produced
and paid for with reserve funds to destroy the reputation of
President Mas or Mayor Trias, and yet no one gets even a miserable
fine. How is it that a conspiracy from the Minister of Interior
and the existence of political police are revealed but everything
gets dismissed in court? How come there are heads of police with
foreign bank accounts to their name with assets and money that you
would need thirty lifetimes of police wages to justify them, and yet
no prosecutor or police unit bursts into anyone’s house with the
media warned of it beforehand?
How
can you fall into indecency by associating the conference in Brussels
with the death of a child while the same party prevents anyone from
knowing exactly what personal expenses have been paid for with the
former Head of State’s reserve fund? This is money that comes from
the pockets of modest families, the unemployed, the self-employed,
business owners, civil servants… Public funds that we don’t even
know if they have been used properly, or how much has been used on
suspicious expenses that have nothing to do with “what the people
concerned about” or “the people’s issues”.
How
is it that you can sponsor the Francisco Franco Foundation and pay
tribute to the Blue Divison, while you accuse the President of the
Catalan Government of being a Nazi for providing the ballots?
Why
can you console and accompany a convict of State terrorism, but will
not tolerate the accompaniment of those accused of allowing a pacific
and exemplary participative process?
They
say all of this is legal. And because it is legal it is democratic.
However, the 9-N, because they believe it wasn’t legal, then it is
not democratic? With these standards, being a conscientious objector
would be antidemocratic, so would defending the rights of homosexuals
to adopt, and to oppose the, perfectly legal, evictions of families
with children but no means would be considered an inadmissible act to
pressure the courts.
It
is for this reason that Spain’s democracy has fallen ill. Maybe
they think they will cure it through threats and intransigencies. I
think this makes it worse.
This
trial will be judged by history, just as the ruling against the
Statute was and just as this obtuse rejection to discuss about what
is happening between Catalonia and Spain will be, because things are
happening. To not want to talk about it is a mistake and an
irresponsible decision, because it is this that we need to talk
about. Dialogue requires willingness. If one can be an interlocutor
between Donald Trump and everything Latin America, North Africa and
the Middle East represents, one should be even more capable of be an
active interlocutor with Catalonia.
Members
of Parliament, let us talk. Now that that we can and want to. Will
you?
Carles
Puigdemont Casamajó
President
of the Government of Catalonia
