PP vs Vox: four clues to know who is serious in Spain about the fight against separatism

@ElentirENG ES 1·04·2024 · 7:04 0

In all countries, the fairest way to evaluate a politician or a party is not to take into account their intentions, but their actions.

The PP finally recognizes what Bildu is: now be coherent and support what Vox demanded
The bloodstained hands of Spanish socialism and the heads high of the Vox party people

This Wednesday, the Popular Party (PP) announced that it will present an amendment to the amnesty law with which it intends to "cripify declarations of independence and illegal referendums and consultations, promoting the dissolution of organizations and/or legal persons that commit any of these crimes". Many Spanish media highlighted yesterday on their front pages that the PP's proposal would involve outlawing separatist parties such as Junts per Catalunya and ERC, in case it organizes again - as they already announced - a separatist coup like the one that carried out in 2017 in Catalonia.

This initiative is very reminiscent of some proposals made by Vox. Logically, many people will wonder which of the two parties is sincere in making these proposals and takes the fight against separatism seriously, as it represents a threat to national unity. I propose five clues to clarify doubts.

1. Did that party implement those measures when it governed?

It is a question that we can only answer in the case of the PP, since Vox has not had the opportunity to govern Spain, so it has the benefit of the doubt in its favor. However, the PP has governed Spain for 15 years (with José María Aznar between 1996 and 2004, and with Mariano Rajoy between 2011 and 2018) and never promoted or supported these types of measures. In fact, it could have been done during Rajoy's mandate, who faced two illegal separatist consultations (2014 and 2017), and despite carrying out a reform of the Penal Code in 2015, he did not even contemplated these types of measures.

2. Has that party proposed the outlawing of separatist parties before?

This question is easy to answer, just review the newspaper archives. Vox already proposed it in 2019 in the Madrid Assembly and then the PP supported the proposal, but when Vox took that initiative to Congress in 2020 , the PP abstained. Less than two months ago, on November 21, 2023, the Senate voted on a Vox initiative that called for outlawing Junts and ERC and the PP voted against, together with the left and the separatists.

3. Has that party fought the separatist parties in court?

Once again, newspaper archives shed light on this matter. Vox began in 2017 the judicial process against the ringleaders of the separatist coup perpetrated that same year in Catalonia, a complaint that allowed those seditionists to be taken to prison. The PP, then in government, did not take any judicial action against the promoters of that coup and he even disassociated himself from his arrests, but two years later, when the rebels were put on trial, the PP took credit for the result of the judicial actions of Vox.

4. Has that party made agreements with separatist parties?

It is a question of pure coherence: it would not be credible for a party to claim that it intends to outlaw separatist parties and at the same time make a pact with them. That question is easy to answer. Vox has not reached any agreement with separatist parties. In fact, the relationship between Vox and these parties is one of pure hostility, as demonstrated by the harassment that separatism has been promoting against Vox for years.

On the contrary, the PP raised a possible pact with Junts after the last general elections. Likewise, in September The PP proposed to Junts and the PSC to agree on Barcelona's budgets. This, unfortunately, is nothing new: the PP had already agreed with the CiU separtists when they imposed linguistic fines on merchants for label in Spanish.

These are the facts. Now, on this basis, readers are free to decide who they prefer to trust. Of course, to those who decide to trust a party like the PP, which has a habit of not keeping its promises, I ask you at least to then don't come with tears.

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Photos: Vox Congreso / Partido Popular.