The Spanish Government is losing it.
A politic situation that could be tackled easily long ago like the scottish referendum, is becoming a legal problem mixt with repression. For me it is clear why they did not want to tackle that problem before. Pride + Corruption
Pride: Spanish character is the same of the "conquistador", the one that impose historically their culture and their government to their colonies. They have an imperialistic view and anything in Spain that is does not come from the castillian culture, is of the minor level/interest. First Spanish (castillian) then the rest. There is no respect for anything else (like in UK and France with other cultures)
Corruption: For the Spanish government (and for the former catalan) that conflict had been perfect to hide all the corruption cases. PP, the party that is in the government is officially the party in Europe with more people from their party involved in judiciary cases of corruption. So as long everybody spoke about the despicable independentist catalans, the least you spoke about the corruption cases
Meanwhile, most of you don't know that Spain aproved a gag law. Lately some people had been sentenced to jail to make a bad taste joke in twitter about how aa guy got killed in the 70's that was Franco's right hand. The equivalent as someone in Germany would make a joke with Goebbels.Or for feck sake, all the parodies videos in internet with Hiltler in "the downfall"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...tweeting-jokes-about-franco-era-assassination
Even the daughter of the fascist guy said he didn't want her to go to jail. The police are going home to detain some people that insults some of the PP government member for Hate crimes, and under the terrorism law but when is about the left party Podemos, nothing happens (and of course not about menacing the catalan president)
more than 10 musicians had been jailed to insult the king, saying some truth and very unfortunate and disgusting lyrics too....but going to jail? One collection of the most important Public gallery art in Madrid was removed because was showing (in the artist opinion) pictures of political prisioners (not only catalan prisioners)
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...nyc-josep-miquel-arenas-beltran-a8226421.html
https://www.thelocal.es/20180221/ce...hoto-exhibition-of-spains-political-prisoners
And on and on and on. Spanish government is showing that the fascism never left. Is far from being a dictatorship, but we are closer to the Erdogan's Turkey than any european State.
IN the catalan case, they speak about legality (dicatatorships have legality too) and that the law should be change if we would like to organize a legal referendum. TO change the law it only needs political will. And the spanish government has no poltical will to listen millions of catalans. There are millions that want the independence and even more that wants a referendm (83% of catalan population and 56% of Spanish population). Spanish government had the political will to change the law in 24 hours to allow catalan companies to change territory to just harm the catalan economy. I mean, to harm one of your territories and cause inestability! how fecked up is that. How you pretend to change people's minds.
With the catalan politicians situation they are perverting the terminology and the meaning of the words to put it by force in the definition of the rebellion. It has to be violent and the catalan politicians had like a mantra be peaceful all the time. It is complicated to explain in english because if it is complicated to speak in spanish the perversion of the language, imagine translating it.
The truth is that internationally, Belgium said that they would not extradite any catalan politicians because it does not make any sense. The same switzerland. Now it is the turn of UK and Germany that the law is way more similar than the Spanish constitution (as the later took the German as sort of template in some aspects), so it seems the catalan president will be extradite. but if not, it would show that Spain it would be practically alone in incarcerating people for their ideas.
After the last elections, we could not invest Puigdemont as president, because they would not allow it (though spanish law says they should allow it), after Puigdemont they asked to invest president, one of the politicians that are in prision, but the judge prevaricated and did not allow it against the spanish law that should allow the person to get out of the prision for the day that is declared president. When a third guy was about to be invested president, they asked him and 4 more to go to court next day and they put them in jail. Basically, catalans voted and from Madrid don't allow anyone that is not from their taste to be president. That is their democracy
They don't want o lose the grip, they are humilating the entire catalan society, no prisioners, we are not castillians, they treat us like a colony. Another petty example...all the state student grants had been paid but in catalonia for a "bureaucratic mistake" they will end paying, but it will cause delays and pain to hundreds of thousands and that with many things and had being doing the same with investments in the territory and others for years, is not something new. But the majority of spanish people don't know because the media is a 1 block with the spanish central power. the division of powers does not exist and the media, as an spanish author (not friend of catalans precisely) said 100 years ago:"We deserve to lose Catalonia. That filthy Madrilenian press is doing the same job as in Cuba. He does not know. It is the barbarian mentality of Castile, his big balls brains (they have testicles instead of brains in the head). " or like George Orwell said: " Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie..."
The UN issued a warning saying that they have to respect the politic rights of the prisoners (being able to be invested catalan president as the spanish law says). Basically the judge is prevaricating. Spanish can ignore this warning of course
The European court had overturn a sentence where some people burned the king pictures. A caseof 2007, little by little will appear more and more like that. Of couse, Spanish can ignore that. But it says a lot a out the freedom of speech that it exist in Spain.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/world/europe/echr-spain-free-speech.html?smid=tw-share
International Amnesty said that one of the catalan politicians should be released immediately (the others are in the exact situation, but he was the one that tried to be invested president)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...elease-of-jordi-sanchez-jailed-catalan-leader
UN independent Alfred-Maurice De Zayas says is outreageous to have political prisioners in Spain:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22295
Spain Can Ignore all that, but it shows the true nature of what they are doing to the country, not only catalonia
They think that imprisoning the leaders and left others in exile will extinct the 2 million people (and growing) will of independence. Repression is the expression of a weak democracy and weak government. It will not happen soon, but this government and this tendency to the fascism state has to crumble eventually
Catalan independentism was born for culture reasons and cultural surviving, we were a minority. Then lots more it was for economical reasons, some true some egoistical brexit style. But the latest and that impregnated the 2 former, is that we saw that we can't live in this kind of country, with a subjacent fascism. That the nazi salute and the fascist songs are sang freely on the streets while the ones that criticize the government and the king are imprisoned. WHen the royal family and the politicians are the most corrupt in europe and nothing happen to them. When the main companies in Spain are ruled by the families that ruled with Franco. Where the judiciary, military and police structure and system still the same back then. When last week the 3 main parties refused to pass a law that lift the veto to condemn the fascist members. 0 condemned from that regime
The rest of Spain think that is a battle against catalonia, but they don't realize that we are the only ones that we go to the streets to fight not only for catalonia but to overthrown the old regim still. And if we don't succeed they will be fecked as well.
Foreigners see spain as the party, good weather, food and nice people. And it is. But in terms of politics is a facade that hides a very problematic state. And Catalonia, as always historically, always is there spearheading changes, for good or bad reasons, because we are the pulse of that country always. And if something is rotten, we smell it first
PS: Sorry for the last cocky statement, but seeing like the rest of spain don't do anything, don't go to the streets to protest for the most fundamental rights of freedom of speech (not about catalans, but about singers and normal people that are incarcerated), that they are fecked in their arses with the pensions, working rights and the political corruption and they keep voting the same, is despairing. Spain is full of "paletos" (recknecks), catalonia too. But at least some of the polticians paid a political price and we fight for what we want to change