Open Letter to Misinformed Foreigners Concerning the Catalan Referendum

By Adrián Ansede Taboada

First of all, I must explain that the text you’re about to read originated as a Twitter thread which I began to publish during the night of October 1st and finished the next morning.

Catalonia: This Is What Some Spanish and International Media Almost Never Explain
The Excellent Message of H.M. the King of Spain on the Situation in Catalonia

As I was randomly checking my Facebook feed, I came across a picture of a close friend posing with the separatist Catalan flag. It came as a shock to me. A couple of minutes afterwards, another friend of mine posted a message in which he complained about the (allegedly) ongoing police brutality against “peaceful demonstrators” in Catalonia. I felt sincerely disappointed in him too. The most surprising aspect of this story is that not only are they foreigners, but they also are decent and honest people who have always put up a fight against socialism, political correctness, and the like. In other words, they have always opposed insanity. However, this time they were doing exactly the opposite, therefore proving their deep ignorance of both the current state of affairs in Spain and its roots. I felt personally betrayed by two good men. And that is the reason why I decided to write a long thread in English, to shed some light on this matter and to improve the understanding of those foreigners who either have merely been misinformed by the different fallacies and biases published by the media or are idealistic puppets who contribute to spread lies against the truth. This is personal, because it’s my country’s honour what is at stake right here, right now.

This was the original thread, which has been revised, edited and, in some aspects, expanded:

I'm deeply disappointed in my so-called libertarian friends who support the Catalan referendum on the basis that we must respect the people's right to secede and to decide in which political community they want to live. They also criticize the alleged display of police force. Theirs is a flawed view. Here's why.

First, they're utopians who suffer from wishful thinking, because they're unable to see reality as it is. Their ideology blinds their reasoning.

Second, they think the Catalan referendum is an example of the exercise of freedom and self-determination. Nothing could be further from the truth. Apparently, they haven't noticed the absolute lack of guarantees (kids voting, the same person voting several times, the ballot boxes already full at 8 AM, etc.).

Third, they also ignore the roots of our current issues, that's to say, they have no clue about the way in which our transition to democracy was arranged in the late 1970s. Of course, they haven't read the Constitution either. It's a flawed and incoherent document which allowed this to happen, to be quite honest. The 1978 Constitution organized the territory and the public administration in such a way that has allowed nationalists to control education, several media outlets and even their own police corps for decades, opening the doors to indoctrination and/or brainwashing at the expense of the taxpayer. Throughout the years, different candidates who wanted to hold the office of PM made more and more concessions just to get the nationalist support to become PM. Corruption proliferated at all levels. Crooked politicians benefited from the impunity that these rules of the game involved. And when the public opinion criticized that state of affairs, the nationalists came up with different excuses as a smoke screen to conceal their mistakes and corruption, accusing the central government of stealing from them and oppressing the Catalan people by taxing them too much, by imposing Spanish national symbols, and so on...

Fourth, a hypothetical Catalan independence has no historical grounding whatsoever. Catalonia was part of the Carolingian empire, then a fragmented series of counties, then part of the Crown of Aragon and, eventually, part of the Spanish Monarchy. But never independent. And no, History can't be ignored. There are certain things that we can't choose, because feeling doesn't equate with being. Feelings are subjective, and thus, irrelevant in the political arena. They can't go against the objective historical truth. You don't choose your identity and background because History defines who we are. And a nation isn’t born from a day to the next.

Fifth, nationalists aim to make everybody question their own History and identity (by unceasingly demanding a referendum to be held) in order to weaken Spain's unity. Divide et impera. They have also achieved this through an intense brainwashing campaign at the school level. They polarized society and divided entire families with their poisonous ideology. What’s more, they targeted children, innocent human beings who don’t understand what’s going on around them and why they must hate Spain.

Sixth, you can't expect the police, the judiciary and other public authorities to remain quiet and still while you commit a crime (treason, among others). If you respect the law, then you've got nothing to worry about. That's how society works, in case you haven't noticed yet. The Catalan referendum is illegal for a number of reasons, the most important one being that the matters at hand can't be legally decided on. First, you need to modify the Constitution (see article no. 168, the procedure for the complex reform). Then you need to modify a number of articles (like no. 2) and whole chapters (like the 8th). And all that just to allow the possibility of legally deciding on secession, which doesn't guarantee anything afterwards. If nationalists were confident that their project would have the support of the majority, then they wouldn't resort to illegal means to push their demands by forcefully imposing them on fellow citizens, whether they like it or not. As you can see, imposing your beliefs on others because you can't guarantee your victory is really libertarian... And no, police force isn't unjustified and isn't coercion. Cops enforce the law and only resort to force when people defy them and aren't willing to comply. Do yourselves a favor and watch some videos of last Sunday events. You'll see insults, threats, objects being thrown to cops, mozos (Catalan cops serving the regional government) protecting criminals, people pretending to be badly injured to blame the police, politicians turning a blind eye to such events...

Now, let’s continue this thread by elaborating on some of this stuff.

The Catalan referendum results were the following (according to the Catalan regional government): Yes = 90.09%; No = 7.87%; Blank = 2.03%; Void = 0.89%

Notice something wrong? Yes, those figures add up to 100.88%. So, as democratic and clean as a North Korean or Venezuelan election. This is not a surprise, though, given the fact that the ballot boxes were already full before the polling stations opened their doors. There was also a village where 1,002 people voted... out of 470 inhabitants, according to the 2016 census. And so on...

Then there's the issue with the Catalan nationalists' totalitarianism. They keep repeating this “we want to vote and they don’t allow us” nonsense. Imagine for a moment that we were legally allowed to decide on secession. I'm Spanish too. I'd want the right to have a say in that matter, but they promote a process where only they can define who’s allowed to vote. Both the left and Catalan nationalists advocate respecting freedom and democracy, but only when it suits them, in a tailor-made fashion. They claim the exclusive right to decide on everybody else's life, no matter what. In the case of the referendum, Spaniards are ruled out.

Then we can talk more about the police actions. I think they're completely justified. You're protesting on the streets, breaking the law. You've been already warned several times, and still you decide not to comply and, as a consequence, you get hit. What on earth did you expect to happen? Many of the pictures posted online that show injured people are either fabricated fakes or are “re-used” old pictures from other demonstrations (which took place for completely different reasons).

The figures of wounded people that the Catalan authorities handed out are quite difficult to believe, since they raised from 38 to more than 460 people... in one hour. At the end of the day they were almost 800 injured, but only 2 remain in hospital, one of them an old man who suffered a heart attack. Notice that the Catalan regional government is the one who controls the public healthcare system in Catalonia, so... you do the math.

Another thing worth mentioning is that people are deeply childish and naïve nowadays. They're unable to assume that their actions have consequences. Grow up and come to grips with that, especially when it comes to respect the law. Otherwise, go home with mummy and daddy. The police should have arrested the nationalist leaders and politicians for treason. I agree to that; their force could've been better used and directed. But they followed orders from the State's prosecutors and attorneys, and nobody dared to give the proper order. Apart from that, both the Police and the Civil Guard did an amazing job last Sunday. The government's actions, on the other hand, were non-existent. They could've prevented this months before. And it's not over yet. The Catalan government is about to declare unilateral independence.

Still, nobody has been arrested yet. Puigdemont, Junqueras, Gabriel, Forcadell, Colau, Romeva, Rufián... All the leaders of this coup and their apologists are walking free as of today. They benefit from an unjustified impunity. This must end right now.

We also need to address the roots of this problem. This morning almost everybody (insane politicians, of course) advocate reforming the Constitution to turn Spain into a federal system which pleases the nationalists. This is a temporary concession which would only embolden them. That is what we tried to manage during the last 40 years: 17 different governments and parliaments, 17 educational and healthcare systems, 17 tiny countries competing for resources and subsidies at the expense of the rest. In other words, absolute lack of solidarity and union.

Last, but not least, what annoys me the most is all this "feelings" and "democratic rights" crap. In short, the post-truth strikes again. People are unable to assume that they don't live in a vacuum, but in a society governed by laws and inhabited by other human beings. You can't ignore those laws whenever it suits you. You can't justify your behavior on the basis that the law "violates your democratic rights" and that you deem it "offensive". Be an adult, for God's sake!

To sum up, I hope you'll eventually wake up and see that those who enforce the law, embrace the Constitution (despite its flaws), and protect law-abiding citizens with all means have nothing to apologize for. Law must be applied to prevent it from becoming an exception. On the other side, those who defy the authorities, encourage others to break the law, break it themselves and coerce fellow citizens into supporting their totalitarian projects must be put under arrest, brought to trial for treason, and jailed for life. LONG LIVE SPAIN!