THE SPANISH QUAGMIRE

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With only two votes to go, the PSOE-Spanish SocialistWorkers' Party finally managed to be confirmed in the Spanish government. Therehave been nine months of waiting since the April elections of last year, won bythe party, but without being able to obtain a majority in parliament toguarantee his inauguration, which ended up on the last January 8th of thisyear. The uncomfortable impasse was only resolved after obtaining thesupport of Unidas Pode , a left-wing coalition formed by Pode , Izquierda Unida and ecologist Equo.. PedroSanchez, leader of the PSOE, is now officially the Spanish Prime Minister. “Itwas fast, simple and painless. The pain will come later ”, King Philip VIwas allowed to take it with a touch of humor soon after the formalities of theinauguration. The pain to which the king referred were the problems to befaced, including the territorial crisis represented by the demands of thevarious independence movements in the Spanish provinces.

Catalonia and its future
Negotiations with the Generalitat , Catalonia's self-government, have already begun. ThePresident of the Generalitat, Quim Torres, will be the representative of the variousCatalan independence parties, the Catalan National Assembly and the ÒmniumCultural, the latter an organization that “works to promote the Catalanlanguage and culture, education, social cohesion and the defense of nationalrights Catalonia ”, as its manifesto says.

In addition to the Catalan revolt, the newgovernment will also have to take care of other movements in the BasqueCountry, Galicia, Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Canary Islands, Cantabria andLeon, all with organized political parties claiming independence. Whippedby the right, the government of Pedro Sanchez needs the support of 176 deputies,among the 350 that make up the current parliament, called 13 the CortesGenerales of the Kingdom of Spain. Sanchez promised reforms ineconomic, judicial, social and environmental matters.

Your first step will be to pass the budget law,but it is good to remember that the socialist government failed to pass it in2019, which led to its dissolution and the call for new elections. Thiscan happen again.

The government's future depends a lot onnegotiations with Catalonia, the fiercest and most organized of the provincesthat are currently fighting for independence. Gabriel Rufián, spokesmanfor the Republican Left of Catalonia (in Catalan : Esquerra Republicana deCatalunya, ERC), has already announced that the government's stability willdepend on the negotiating table on the future of its independence. ERC hasa tradition of struggle. It was founded in 1931, before the Civil War andwent through the years of Franco's dictatorship in hiding without giving upfighting for its goals. It is also present in the Valencian Community, theBalearic Islands and the French territory of Roussillon, one of the historiccantons of the ancient Principality of Catalonia.

The first requirement of the Esquerra, already announced, will be the authorization to hold areferendum on self-determination, which will need a reform of the Constitution. Thegovernment does not currently have the necessary votes to obtain it.

Unrest in the streets
But it is not only Catalonia in the headaches foreseen byKing Philip VI, as the reforms of social security and labor laws are on theagenda, something that has already provoked in France a general strike thatstill endures and violent street unrest. These reforms will represent aloss of rights for workers, as happened in Brazil. The Spanish people,however, have a tradition of street movements and unrest should occur. Amongthe neoliberal reforms that are in vogue, these two are the ones that havebecome the largest hornet's nest of countries that wish to adopt them.

Other reforms are part of the governmentprogram, such as the abolition of the citizen security law, accused of being aremnant of the Franco dictatorship, and a regulation of euthanasia, the rightto a dignified death. Along with a reform of the Universal Justice Law,these measures must be approved, despite the opposing position of fascist Voxand other parties on the right.

The Basques
The other independence movement thatmeans a headache for the government, aggravating Spain's territorial crisis, isthat of the Basque Country.

The Basques are one of the oldest peoples inEurope, where their presence was registered before 2,500 BC They resisted thesiege and invasions of Romans, Visigoths, Franks, Normans and Moors. Itslanguage is not related to any other known linguistic branch and is the oldestamong all those spoken on the continent. It does not have the same root asany other existing linguistic branch. Euskera, or Euskara, is the onlypre-Indo-European language spoken in Western Europe and is certainly the oldestlanguage on the continent.

The world knows what was the radical armedstruggle of ETA and the Basque National Liberation Movement, which lasted from1959 to 2011. Its activities were mainly in Spain but there were also actionsin French Basque territory. It was the longest conflict in Western Europe,it lasted more than 50 years and counted more than a thousand deaths amongpolice, politicians and ETA members themselves. In 2011 a definitiveceasefire was announced, the weapons were stacked, but the struggle forindependence continues, say Basque leaders who do not intend to alleviate theheadaches of the Pedro Sanchez government.

The willingness to fight is perhaps representedin the statement by Basque deputy Oskar Matute: “Nuestros sueños no caben envuestras leyes. We are here to demonstrate them with a presence that neverwon us or domesticated us. We are never wrong about adversary ni abouttrenches ».

The far right deputies stood up and turned theirbacks on him as he spoke.

LINK: https://www.cartamaior.com.br/?/Editoria/Politica/O-novo-velho-continente-e-suas-contradicoes-O-atoleiro-espanhol/4/46250