Catalan Diary 4 December 2017

04 12 17

Catalan Diary

4 December 2017

From anti-fascists in Barcelona

Spain’s Minister of the Interior, Juan Ignacio Zoido, went to the Congress of Deputies on 29 November to answer questions from opposition parties about the escalation of fascist violence in Spain in recent months.

Zoido said that these attacks were “specific events” and that in Spain, just as in Germany, “fascism had been ended”.

The minister also claimed that more extreme left-wing groups had been noted than far right groups, and that there was a policy “zero tolerance” against hate crimes and violent groups.

Zoido totally ignored the more than 120 fascist attacks registered by Catalan journalists like Jordi Borràs since the days before the referendum in Catalunya.

The claim that Spain had buried fascism ignited tremendous outrage among relatives and victims of the Franco regime who, even today, are still searching for the “disappeared” during the dictatorship and whose executioners were never tried.

Nor are the victims of torture and police violence during the so-called “Transition years” at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the1980s – who have denounced police officers and political leaders who have not yet been tried – ever been listened to.

On 20 November, the anniversary of the death of fascist dictator Franco, fascists demonstrated in several Spanish cities to commemorate him.

One of these homages, authorised by the government took place in Lucena (Córdoba, Andalusia), next to a mass grave where more than 120 victims of the fascists still lie.

The event was organized by the fascist Fuerza Nueva which later called a “Holy Mass in the Hermitage of Our Lady of the Aurora”.

Other Catholic churches in Valencia, Madrid and other cities, also staged masses in memory of the murderous dictator.

In reference to the fascist attacks in València on 9 October, where several people and some journalists were injured, the Minister of the Interior classified the events as “confrontation”.

Zoido argued that the police, who did not arrest anyone and allowed hundreds of fascists to threaten and attack the demonstrators, “acted at all times under the principles of congruence, timeliness and proportionality.”

Before this answer, the Valencian deputy of United Left (IU) Ricardo Sixto demanded the resignation of the delegate of the Valencian government, Juan Carlos Moragues.

Nazi Police in Madrid

Office Julián Leal went on 2 November to the Atocha station in Madrid to insult members of the Catalan Government arriving from Barcelona to testify to the Supreme Court.

When Leal’s participation in the protest – organised by the nazis of Hogar Social Madrid –  was revealed, he quit as spokesman of the majority union of the municipal police but decided to continue as a representative of the Personnel Board of the Madrid Police.

Leal is also one of the participants in the WhatsApp chat in which has threatened Manuela Carmena, mayor of Madrid, and other political leaders of the left and journalists, which has exalted fascism and on many racist comments were made. The matter is now being investigated by a judge in Madrid after a member of the police reported several of his colleagues for making threats.

Election campaign

This week sees the start the campaign for the elections on 21 December. The pro-Catalan independence parties have complained that they are locked into an unfavourable situation because their leaders are in jail for having organised the referendum.

Although several of the political prisoners have been released today after paying bail and are awaiting trial, the magistrate of the Supreme Court Pablo Llarena has issued a writ under which the former Catalan president Oriol Junqueras, the former Interior Minister Joaquim Forn and the independence leaders Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart will continue to be held in prison, considered as a serious risk to the country.

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