Savater warns of democratic regression in Spain

For the writer and philosopher Fernando Savater, Spain is suffering a political regression at the hands of the current incumbent president, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, whom he points out is responsible for the democratic regression due to his autocratic vision of things.

In an exclusive interview for Atalayar, the political activist denounced the fact that Sánchez is at the mercy of Catalan and Basque separatism and that his attitude has helped to fuel identity problems in Spain.

"Spain is experiencing a democratic regression and, of course, it is unfortunately broken in the sense that there is a very radical confrontation, not between the left and the right, as some would have us believe, but between those who tolerate Sánchez and allow him to do anything, even go beyond the Constitution", said the Basque writer.

Savater believes that Sánchez's arrival at the Moncloa represents a democratic step backwards and the exercise of an autocratic vision of politics that has placed Spain at the mercy of nationalism and separatism while the country's real problems are not being solved.

"Of course, Spain is broken in the sense that there is a very radical confrontation, not between the left and the right, as some would have us believe, but between those who tolerate anything Sánchez does because he always has the acronym of the left and of being a socialist, and then there are people in Spain who prefer socialism to the Constitution and, in my view, I prefer the Constitution to socialism and any other political formula," he remarked thoughtfully.

Savater was one of the founders of the Unión Progreso y Democracia party, which has been in decline since 2016, and now the idea of the Third Spain has emerged with the intention of turning it into a future political party.

"At the moment we only have a manifesto written by Gabriel Tortella and it has been signed by me and other people, perhaps in time this Third Spain Party will emerge as another political alternative in Spain", he points out.

The Basque writer denies that the idea of the Third Spain Party is to occupy the place left by Ciudadanos and insists that for the moment what exists is a manuscript written by the economist and professor Gabriel Tortella.  "I thought it was fantastic and I have subscribed to it".

There is an empty space for the voters, there is an opportunity here...

I think so, maybe in time (another political party) will emerge, although it is worth reflecting that in Spain, unfortunately, centrist or centre-left proposals that have offered a progressive mentality, but supported by the unity of Spain, in the end are not succeeding, people are preferring extremism and even such abominable characters as Sánchez and his gang.

Part of the text of Third Spain disseminated in various media points out that "Spain is on the verge of implosion, to which we are being led by a right wing as indecisive about its principles as it is incapable of enthusing its voters and a left wing that, lacking ideas to face the problems of the present, has thrown its secular ideology overboard, betting on the paths of populism, personalism, opportunism and demagogy".

And he continues: "While the two major parties (Popular and Socialist) are responsible for the present situation, the greatest responsibility lies with this government, a minority but hypertrophied, which has given an unprecedented recital of falsehoods, contradictions, incompetence - except in propaganda - and the cult of personality of its secretary general over the last five years. This recital of incongruity, obscurantism, secrecy is the façade of a corrupt partisanship that includes the assault on institutions and the open rejection of the principle of the division of powers. In other words, contempt for the letter - let alone the spirit - of the law and democratic practice".

Savater sees the current PSOE as a populist party in power that increasingly resembles many Latin American countries in both its discourse and its political measures.

"I always thought that what I saw from afar happening in Latin America, for example in Venezuela, would not end up happening in Spain, and in the end these populisms have crossed the Atlantic", he comments ironically.

What damage is Sánchez's populism doing to Spain?

Yes, they have crossed the Atlantic. We have a country that has passed crazy laws such as the "only yes is yes" law... instead of prosecuting rapists, they are letting them go free in the street; and the most serious problem is that in order to stay in the Moncloa, Sánchez is talking and acting just like the separatists. What he is trying to do is to pardon the Catalan coup perpetrators of the independence referendum of October 2017, which is very serious, and he will do so in exchange for being voted in to be president for another four years.

What is happening in Spain, Savater insists, is that the current acting president is willing to hand over the country, the institutions, the laws and the Constitution to the separatists in order to stay longer in the Moncloa and it will be a blackmail that will haunt him for as long as he remains in government.  

Is there a way to stop this?

The problem is that Sánchez lost the elections, but he did not lose them in a resounding way and there in the end we lost the chance to get rid of Sánchez, legally and democratically, in the last elections on 23 July. Although Feijóo won the elections, he did not have enough advantage to govern, as we have seen with the investiture. That is why Sánchez will be able to do well if he manages to get all the nationalist and pro-independence parties with which he is in dialogue to vote for him in the investiture.

Savater reflects that if Spaniards had really voted against Sánchez to punish what he has been doing for the last four years, a peaceful and democratic change could have been achieved in the country; but this was not the case and the opportunity, he adds, was lost.

Looking to the future, to the extent that neither the PSOE nor the PP achieve absolute majorities to govern, they will always be at the mercy of these Frankenstein pacts, or in the hands of the nationalists and pro-independence supporters, and the other in the hands of VOX. What do you think?

I hope not because these nationalist and pro-independence groups already have a lot of power... so more power would be dangerous; the Catalan separatists have practically achieved many things, well, we see it with the Parliament speaking in co-official languages while having a common language as Spanish in the constitution... I say more serious than that.

They have managed to make the use of co-official languages effective in Congress and they have even tried to get them used in the European Parliament and in European institutions.

We all know that the defence of these co-official languages is not a cultural defence, nor a philological defence of the languages; it is simply taking these languages as a guarantee of an identity different from the Spanish one. These languages are defended so that there is no predominance of the Spanish language and, therefore, no predominance of the Spanish nation in Spain.

In the view of the San Sebastián-born philosopher, the aim is simply to turn the country into a cluster of different identities and gradually break it up: "And the way is to attack the things that unite it, that bind it together, such as, for example, the Spanish language; another example, the monarchy and, I insist, everything that unites the country is attacked by the nationalists and separatists, but also by an irresponsible left that supports them".

It cannot be hidden that a discourse of hatred against Spain is predominant, there is that "Spain robs us...". 

Of course, more than the defence of regional languages, it is a hatred of Spanish, it cannot be understood in any other way and, of course, it was not practised in Parliament before because Parliament belongs to Spain, not to the regions, it is not an international forum like the UN; it is a Parliament of a nation and of a country which is Spain and therefore has a language which is the language constitutionally assumed as a common language, and that is Spanish.

Savater then points out that forgetting this is as much as "forgetting the Spain in which one lives".  With the acceptance of the use of co-official languages in Parliament, the use of the pinganillos will mean paying from the public purse an absurd expense that could well be used for more useful things.

From the consequences of these transformations, it cannot be ruled out that at some point in time we will end up with a model that will give rise to a Federal Republic of Spain. Are we on the way to that in a few decades?

Yes, of course, we are at risk of fragmentation, but not in decades, I see it happening sooner. I believe that, if Sánchez is not stopped before then and if he cannot be prevented from carrying out his duties, we will probably have this scenario much sooner than we think.