Has he gone mad? After naming King Juan Carlos as a political player surely Thomas is not going to include the Catholic Church into the political debate. Well, unfortunately the answer is no to the first one and yes to the second. This morning I read in the newspaper that the Conferencia Episcopal Española (CEE) – which represents the Church – has urged the people of Spain to vote for the party which fights against gay-marriage, negotiating with terrorists and the Memory Law I mentioned in my last article on politics. In other words, kick out Prime Minister Rodrigo Zapatero and bring back the good old boys who reigned over Spain for 40 years (and a rather shorter spell of 8 years later on).To make sure the Church was not breeching the long standing Montesquieu ideology Auxiliary Bishop Juan Antonio Martínez Camino wanted to make clear, however, that the Church was not backing any political party. In stead of explicitly breaching the Trias Politicas he pointed to a list of 10 points which worry the Church. Conveniently, all 10 points are in favour of the PP and not one supports the political plans set out by the governing socialist party the PSOE.
Using terrorism
At a press conference Mr. Martínez Camino urged Catholics - and all Spanish citizens who want to act responsibly - to vote those parties who do not explicitly nor implicitly recognize terrorist organizations as political entities. Of course the Bishop did not mention ETA as this would be political foul play, but he was blatantly referring to PSOE’s efforts to end ETA’s bloody hold on Spain.
In a farcical attempt to attract voters to the political right the Bishop went on attacking the rights of the nationalists (who want more autonomy for Spain’s provinces, such as Galicia, Catalonia and Basque Country) who were according to the Church seeking to modify the unity of Spain and reminding everybody of the dangers of the new Memory Law, seeing it as a great risk for the stability in Spain. Further more traditional points concerning euthanasia, abortion and gay marriage I leave unspoken. Better that way.
The sad thing is that the Church still wields considerable power over Spain’s citizens. This was once again confirmed when the Church and its supporters took to the street in their thousands (Plaza Colon, where else?) demonstrating against PSOE politics on the National Day of the Family. During all the key speeches government policies where attacked. Something which – I am told – was not done during Aznar’s period in office.
Hypocrisy
In its defence the PSOE hurried out a statement claiming it immoral that the Church – following the PP – uses terrorism for political gain. They pointed out that every legislation up to date has held talks with ETA in an attempt to broker a peace deal. Adolfo Suárez, Felipe González and José María Aznar all approached ETA for talks, the latter even using a Bishop (Bishop Juan María Uriarte) as intermediate. Hypocrisy at its worst.
So there it is. The Church is entering the political campaign supporting the right-wing opposition. Sad, but true, that they felt this was necessary although I feel the impact will not be very big. Those for who the message was intended – hard line Catholics – have probably already made up their minds.
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1 comment:
My good Thomas...
This is the real condition of the Spanish politic life... Sad but true.
These statements that happen so often, are something that goes directly against democracy. This is why I always say democracy in Spain is only seen as an administrative procedure (vote every fourth year). But still there is a lot to do: We have to learn how to behave democratically in our daily life.
Firstly, Spain is a secular country. The law comes from the Parliament which comes from the votes of the people. The Church is not included in this procedure, so has nothing to say about anything of that at all. Nothing. The fact they're actually telling people who, as Catholics and righteous men (haha), they shouldn't vote for (and therefore who they should do vote for), should be something criminal.
Every single Democratic Spanish Primer Minister has contacted with ETA, even Franco (my opinion: well done). This is something they've actually criticized. Why do they keep supporting PP if they also tried to negotiate peace with the terrorists when they were in the power?? They just don't care. When the left is in the power the Catholic Church has less power. And they only want to be closer from the power, so they want the right to win. That's already incredible, but still worse they dare to express their opinion about laws or political initiatives.
They actually behave as a political party with its own political program. With a certain ideology, involving its own friends (PP) and enemies (PSOE). The thing is that they just don't present candidates to the elections. But they really act as a political party.
Just one last fact: The very first demonstration officially supported by the Church in Spanish History was a couple of years ago to shout against the gay marriages in Spain, so to forbid civil rights. They never raised their voices against Franco, the death penalties occurred then, the lack of democracy and liberty... or against the war in Iraq, for instance. Quite illustrative, right?
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