The conservative Central Government is doing all it can to make it illegal for people to demonstrate in front of its offices and the homes of their MP’s.
A fortnight or so ago, the Ministry of the Interior issued an order to all police forces to use the word ‘harassment,’ in their reports on such incidents, instead of ‘escrache‘ (protest). The police union (Sindicato Unificado de Policias) protested energetically against this ‘criminalization’ of the the right of members of the public protest peacefully.
The Government was even more annoyed when the Chairman of the Spanish Supreme Court, Gonzalo Moliner played down any criminal interpretation of protests outside the homes of conservative MP’s as long as they were peaceful, which they have been.
The Spokesman for the conservatives, Rafael Hernando, demanded that the Chairman of the Supreme court “reflected” on the harassment of politicians and to carry out an “expressed condemnation” of this practice, because according to his point of view “an escrache is harassment and harassment is an act of violence.”
However, the Chairman of the governing party affirmed that the protests carried out by citizens next to the homes of politicians were not violent and therefore constituted the use of the right to demonstrate, “as long as they are not violent.” The very next day he explained that he had in no way attempted to “justify the violence or intimidation that may accompany” this kind of demonstration.
In a later interview the party Spokesman for the lower house of parliament, El Congreso, Rafael Hernando considered that the Chairman of the Supreme Court should “clarify his surprising words,” as the mere fact that somebody goes to the home of a person to demand that they do something is by definition harassment and a violent act.
Editorial comment: The problem is that the conservatives hold and absolute majority, which means that any opposition made by other parties is nullified – they can push through what they want, when they want. However, an absolute majority in both Houses does not mean that popular opposition amongst members of the general public is nullified, too, which is what is irking the Government, so they want to make it illegal.
When a popular movement obtained 1.5m signatures (they only needed half a million) to force the government to accept a popular proposal for debate in the Lower House, the conservatives were visibly annoyed. The proposal was for the debt obligation of a mortgage owner to be cancelled upon having the property repossessed. The government were completely opposed to this option but could not block the issue being discussed in the House.
When the day came, the Government brushed aside the popular proposal and every other party in the House to push through their own reforms which solved absolutely nothing and did not contemplate the debt cancellation. The level of arrogance demonstrate by the Government and the conservative party is breathtaking.
The escarches (a term coined in Argentina) was a form of shaming the conservative MP’s into not opposing the popular proposal with their votes. To achieve this, hundreds of people gathered outside their homes and party offices, banging saucepans and blowing whistles, demanding that they listened to what the people were saying and voted accordingly.
Summing up, the conservatives completely dominate the parliament with their absolute majority so no effective opposition is possible to their measures. Now they seek to counter popular expression by making the most effective form illegal. However, the police unions and the Supreme Court are fighting it.
(News: Spain)