2 days ago, many Spanish people remembered really dark moments of their history. A General of the Spanish Army said: "I always highligheted that the members of the army must not enter in political debates, which obviously belong to the politicians. On the other hand, it's our obligation to alert about the serious consequencies that the approval of the new Estatut de Catalunya (major law of Catalunya) can have on the Army and its members. The most worrying questions are: idiom, the term of nation refering to Catalunya and justice. If these limits were overpassed, something that seems unlikely yet, the 8th article of the Constitution should be applied". He also said that a big part of the army shared his opinion.

The 8th articles of the Spanish constitution says that the Army has to defend the unity of Spain. But, this General forgets that this is not anything that the Army can choose, because they have to obey the civil institutions ALWAYS and they can not interpret an "attack" to the Constitution by themselves.

All this is going on because of the debate about the new major law of Catalunya, still in the Spanish parliament. This debate is raising the olders stereortypes and hatred in Spain, mostly promoted by the Spanish conservatives, the 2nd political party of Spain, the Partido Popular (now leaded by Rajoy, and party of Aznar, which was founded by Fraga, a minister of Franco).

The Spanish army doesn't have a very democratic background. They did a coup d'etat in 1936 that finished with a horrible Civil War and 40 years of dictatorship. In 1981, the Guardia Civil (police body of the army) entered in the Parliament with guns and kidnapped the governement and all the members of the congress, while the tanks went to the streets in Valencia and arround Madrid. Only the King Juan Carlos I could stop that coup d'etat.

The most worrying is that the General Mena said that a big part of the army shared his opinion. The general Mena has been automatically fired by the Spanish left government. But I think it's not enough, because this words make me think that this 'conspiracy' is bigger and they should know who is behind these anti-democratic ideas. An army cannot, and should not give opinions on the political issues.

I also think that the Parliament should investigate the Partido Popular and the official Catholic Church, that were very blurry about their opinions. The conservative party said that "in the frames of the polemic about the Estatut, it's impossible to avoid expressions of any kind". So they refuse to condemn, and moreover, they understand and somehow back the words of the General of the Army. Something far from strange in a party founded by a minister of Franco.

I would also like to know if the hierachy of the Church shares the opinion of their radio station, COPE, where they say that they understand the General Mena and, not only this, they defend the intervention of the army in case they think it's necessary to do it. Something unbelievable. They are saying that the Army should decide whether it's right or wrong what the Parliament decides.

IMO, the Spanish parliament should start an investigation to know who is behind all this. Memebers of the army, politicians of the right, members of the church and civil connections in general.

I'm not exagerating, the history of Spain in the last 2 centuries is worrying enough to pay attention to all these signals.

No pasaran!

You forgot to mention what "Catalunya" means.

Catalunya is one of the regions that make up the Spanish federation, the others being Andalucia, Basque, Castilla and Gallicia.

Yes, and what is it about Catalunya that the army chiefs are uneasy about?

The law being proposed will make Catalunya a semi autonomous republic. They'll have their flag, language, institutions, the whole hog legally.

That is like the first step to independence.

de ja vu

You are referring to 1936 I assume? O you are trying to relate it to Naija?

The growth and development of Barcelona as an alternative / rival to Madrid in 'everything' seems to indicate that this is a 'popular- people supported' cause.

The Catalans have paid their dues and deserve a right to determine the basis of their union with the greater spanish entity. In my Opinion, they will be better off as a sem-independent region.
Taking the wind out of the Basques separatists' sail may have been one of the motivations for the proposed law.

We hope the army would respect itself and stay in their 'barrack'.

Hoping Nigeria would learn some lessons from the spanish parliament.

The world is heading in the direction of larger entities. Catalunya et al breaking off from Spain will be a step in the wrong direction. Same way as Biafra or whatever bullshit banana republic comes up breaking off from Naija will be a gross mistake...

I see. Laarger entities larger problems. Any fuckin break up anywhere anytime is welcome as long as it's going to give the people involve the desired peace.

Remember, when entities are forced into a larger one; the larger entity immediately becomes explosive and can go off any time.

Whether you go for larger or smaller entities all depends on your setup.
Within the EU we have two movements, one that gives more say to the regions (e.g. Catalunya in Spain, Flanders in Belgium, Wales in the UK, ...) and another one that gives more power to the supra-national level (The EU in this case). nation states become less and less important.

I sincerely believe that a similar process for West-Africa could remove a lot of the problems that came with colonial legacy of all those unnatural boundaries. Nationalism (as in nation states) is only useful in a traditional industrialised society, globalisation makes it irrelevant.

@nferyn

U're so right about European regional policy as could be applied to Africa... but you must admit that this is an ongoing process. But I wonder might it be true that this policy could eventually become selfcontradictory as national aspirations overshadow regional?

To the larger question, it seems the Spanish Army, the Catholic church and their institutions have not much changed in the last 80 years. Because of the close relationship between the church and the army, facism is still a very real and present danger in Spain, and in essence the nature of the relationship is self-explanatory. I cannot believe that the Spanish army and the Church can justify this, especially when regionalism has been so well accomodated in Europe at large... Tony Blair gave Scotland and Wales regional pariament and this course of action was never an option for the British army. And its precisely this sort of interventionist chicanery that got Aznar's party booted out of Government in the first place.

Lastly can you imagine the implications of a coup in Spain on the global political scene... wouldn't this be a green light for the (not forgotten0 South American generals to strike... and oh Al Queda would so relish it... and what about Africa... (afterall if a prominent member state of the EU... then what authorty would the EU have to say anything if similar vents took place here). My God this is IRRESPONSIBLE !! But somehow, with what happened preceeding the last election, I trust the Spanish people to react appropriately!

@ Olorididan
I think democracy in Spain is firmly established now. The population would never accept any coup attempts and within the army, they would never find enough support for any such an attempt. Aznar sort of tried to turn back time, but it backfired. You cannot govern for too long without the consent of the population. He was riding on the economic accomplishments, but that does not give you eternal credit.

I am personally much more affraid of the situation in Italy, although it seems that Berlusconi, in all his hubris, went too far and that the bill will come next elections.

yemstrad:

I see. Laarger entities larger problems. Any fuckin break up anywhere anytime is welcome as long as it's going to give the people involve the desired peace.

Remember, when entities are forced into a larger one; the larger entity immediately becomes explosive and can go off any time.

The US is a large entity, so is Canada, and China. Forget the Soviet Union, do you know that Russia is multi-cultural?

How many of u nigerians are in spain? I agree that Spain's democracy is solid and my view is that it is the opposition party(Partido Popular) that is just using it to destabilize the Socialist party(PSOE)and consequently gaining posible votes for the next election. Catalunya will surely have their Statute(Estatut) passed into law in the next possible weeks and other regions in Spain will then follow the same methodology to ask for the same. Catalunya has always been a pace setter in Spain's regional development(in my humble opinion).