#Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE)

[coochiequeens]

Another male suing a woman for speaking the truth

By Nuria Muíña García September 30, 2023

A Spanish writer is being sued after misgendering a “non-binary” male on social media. Lucía Etxebarria, a Premio Nadal award-winning novelist and women’s rights advocate, may have to pay 11,000 Euros (approx. $11,600 USD) to LGBT activist Marcos Ventura Armas if the suit is successful.

Etxebarria first came to the attention of Ventura after posting about him on X (formerly Twitter) in 2020. In the post, which is now the primary matter of complaint in the lawsuit, Etxebarria stated that she “saw a man” when looking at photos of Ventura, who had gained some notoriety on Spanish-language X for his claim to being “non-binary” despite looking overtly masculine.

After receiving backlash for posting some photos of Ventura, Etxebarria wrote:

“I have just been told that it is ‘disgusting’ for me to show these PUBLIC photos of a PUBLIC office holder in a PUBLIC organization, and say that I see a man here. I would love to hear back from you: How many of you see a woman here? It is important to me,” she wrote.

Notably, claiming to be non-binary and taking offense to women referring to him as “male,” Ventura was officially introduced with “he/him” pronouns just weeks after Etxebarria’s post while accepting his position as the “municipal secretary” of La Guancha.

The 500-page lawsuit filed against Etxebarria also highlights other tweets she’s made about Ventura over the years, including one from May of 2022 in which she referred to him as having a “beard, penis, and testicles.”

In a sarcastic thread Etxebarria posted to X, she said: “Marcos Ventura Armas, who belongs to the FELGTBI, wanted to denounce me when I mistakenly stated that he was a man. Because, of course, she is a young non-binary trans woman.”

Ventura is known for being an active “militant” for the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and, over the course of 10 years, has held various positions within the party and its branches.

He currently defines himself as a “political activist and for the rights of LGTBI people,” and has participated in working groups for the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Trans, Bisexuals and Intersexuals (FELGTBI). He has also held various positions in Gamá, a trans activist association based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

In the lawsuit, Ventura says that Etxebarria referring to him as a “trans woman” was a “false claim” due to his non-binary status, also highlighting her repeat “misgendering.”

Ventura, who was diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” in 2021, states that he rejects “he/him” pronouns, and says he feels “diminished” when he is treated as a male.

Describing himself as “a non-binary trans person who uses feminine pronouns and grammatical gender to refer to himself,” Ventura also accuses Etxebarria of having damaged his “professional prestige as an activist” by repeatedly referring to him as a “trans woman.”

Etxebarria is now being called to appear at a court in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, about 2,000 km from where she resides, to answer to the legal complaint. On September 29, Etxebarria launched a crowdfunding campaign to assist her with her immense legal costs, exceeding her goal in less than 24 hours after receiving a flood of international support.

Speaking to Reduxx, sources close to Etxebarria revealed that Ventura appears to have deliberately sought out a long-term, long-distance lawsuit with the intention of making the situation as expensive and difficult for Etxebarria as possible.

The sources also state that Ventura’s legal team appear to have combed through years of Etxebarria’s social media history, and have presented additional social media posts and videos from years ago in an effort to portray her as a bigot.

Ventura’s lawyer is known for taking on trans activist cases, and was previously involved in the Health Council case against psychologist Carola López Moya after she stated “trans women are male.” The Health Council sought to disqualify López from practicing for five years, and demanded a fine of 120,000 Euros (approx. $120,000 USD), but the case was ultimately dropped.

Reduxx approached López for comment on the lawsuit against Etxebarria, to which she stated that the author had her unequivocal support.

“We cannot let this doctrine cloud the reason of society,” López said. “We cannot renounce the truth to welcome lies under duress. All my support to Lucía Etxebarria.”

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"La vieille Espagne se transformer," Le Petit Journal. October 1, 1933. Page 4. --- Problèmes et conflits du travail. - Propriétés confisquées. - Salaires de misère. --- Voici le troisième et dernier article, d'une série consacrée à l'étude de la situation actuelle en Espagne. Au lendemain de sa révolution, ce pays se trouve en présence de difficultés communes au monde entier, et aussi de difficultés particulières. Nous avons traité des difficultés particulières, tout au moins des principales mouvement autonomiste catalan; question religieuse. Il est intéressant de voir maintenant comment la république s'efforce de résoudre des difficultés économiques créés par la crise.

UN DEMI-MILLION DE CHOMEURS L'Espagne compte environ 450,000 chômeurs, officiellement. Le chiffre réel est forcément plus élevé encore. Mais en outre, le niveau des salaires de ceux qui travaillent est un des plus bas du monde civilisé, de sorte que bien des ménages d'ouvriers vivent dans une situation proche de la misère.

L'homme que l'on a chargé d'améliorer cet état de choses est Don Francisco Largo Caballero, ministre du travail depuis la chute de la mo- narchie. Un homme grisonnant de 64 ans, qui a milité toute sa vie dans les unions ouvrières et aussi dans le parti socialiste. Anti-monarchiste notoire, il s'est aussi, sous l'ancien régime, livré à des manifestations qui lui valurent de brefs séjours en prison. Il y rencontra même Alcala Zamora, aujourd'hui président de la république.

CODE DU TRAVAIL Caballero a fait voter 125 lois. constituant une sorte de code du Travail. Mais la clef de voûte de cet édifice est une loi règlant les rapports entre patrons et employes. Son but est de substituer aux contacts personnels des deux parties les contrats collectifs. Ces contrats ne sau- raient contenir de clauses inférieures aux minima fixés par les lois. Des jurys mixtes, composés de six patrons et six employés, sont constitués dans chaque région pour aplanir les conflits. Et des deux côtés l'on doit s'en remettre à ces jurys. Le gouvernement espagnol tend à prohiber le recours à la grève. En certaines régions, où la situation politique est la plus tendue, la grève est formellement interdite.

Signalons que la loi accorde aussi au personnel un droit de regard sur les comptes de l'entreprise et une participation aux bénéfices. Mais les ouvriers de leur côté sont soumis à certaines obligations de travail effi- cace, de fidélité à leur entreprise, et de discrétion quant aux secrets de celle-ci. Les adversaires les plus résolus de ces lois sont les communistes, ce qui est singulier et intéressant à noter.

Nous avons dit que les salaires sont faibles en Espagne. Il y a il est vrai certaine contre-partie dans le bon marché de la vie. Le salaire moyen d'un ouvrier agricole est de 70 cents à un dollar par jour. Celui d'un ouvrier d'industrie est d'environ $1.50. Les métiers exigeant des ouvriers qualifiés une certaine technique, comme par exemple l'imprimerie paient de $1.70 à $1.80. Les employés de commerce touchent des traitements analogues.'

PROBLEME AGRICOLE Le problème agricole est, lui aussi, très sérieux, et bien différent de celui qui se pose aux Etats-Unis ou au Canada par exemple. Les trois quarts des Espagnols vivent à la campagne. Et des millions d'entre eux sont comme des serfs attachés à la glèbe qu'ils ne possèdent pas. Là encore le chômage sé durement pour chaque poste duvrier agricole, il se présente ving, candidats.

La propriété est peu divisée en Espagne, et de grands propriétaires fonciers possèdent d'immenses étendues de terrain. C'est à cela surtout que s'est attaqué M. Marcelino Dominguo, ministre de l'Agriculture dans le cabinet présidé, et vigoureusement dirigé par M. Azana. On a créé un Institut de réformes agraires. Cet Institut a dressé v'inventaire des propriétés foncières, et l'on a confisqué nombre de res vistes domaines. L'Etat reste propriétaire de ces terres, et les loue à bon compte aux paysans. Quel sera le fruit de cette politique ? On le sauradans quelques années. Si les paysans sont satisfaits, la jeune république sera consolidée. Si au contraire l'ex- périence échoue, les masses paysannes apportant leur soutien aux éléments restés monarchistes, la face des choses pourra changer. Image caption: Voici, au-dessus d'un maigre fleuve, un pont en dos d'âne dans on paysage encerclé de montagnes. Le tout, inondé de soleil, constitue un aspect typique de la campagne espagnole. A gauche un marchand d'habits dans une rue du vieux Madrid.

[mesetacadre]

In April 15th, 1920, the National Committee of the Federation of Socialist Youths met in Madrid to, taking the initiative over the PSOE, take the decision of joining the Third International, founded by the Bolshevik party. After a convoluted process that lasted until the 14th of November of 1921, the Communist Party of Spain (Spanish Section of the Communist International) was born, pejoratively called "The party of the 100 children" by its opponents.

The Komintern's policy in its early days was one of the "only front", stating that capital could only be beat via the united effort of all communists in all spheres of life. Its motto became "Towards the Masses!". In Spain, this period was marked by Primo de Rivera's dictatorship between 1923 and 1930, during which almost every political group was banned. The social-democratic PSOE and UGT avoided this by remaining "neutral" towards the dictatorship. Some members of the PSOE even collaborated, like Largo Caballero, who became Rivera's Minister of State. The Communist Party maintained its sole struggle during this time, gaining popularity among the Spanish proletariat.

When the dictatorship ended and the Second Republic was proclaimed in April of 1932, in the midst of the effects of the 1929 capitalist crisis, the 1931 strike in Sevilla and 1932 general strike, the PCE had found itself unable to work outside the dynamics imposed by the dictatorship's repression, and only began to regain its force after the selection of José Diaz as general secretary in September of 1932. The party corrected some of the left-communist and sectarian mistakes that characterized the period of the dictatorship.

The PCE took on an even bigger role in the organization of our class after its crucial role in the October insurrection of 1934 in Asturias, during which the proletariat took power in the mining basin and most of Oviedo, via the Peasant and Worker Alliances, expressions of the aforementioned only front strategy decided by the Third International. The government of the Second Republic, carrying out the needs of a section of the Spanish bourgeoisie, brutally repressed the Asturian revolutionaries, with general Francisco Franco at the helm of the military's intervention. Among the victims was Aida Lafuente, a militant of the Communist Youth and an example of bravery.

This glimmer of worker power was contextualized in the Black Biennium (1933-1935), a period of the Republic when reactionaries accessed the government and expressed the most violent tendencies of the Spanish bourgeoisie against the more than 30,000 political prisoners they took, and against the rapidly developing workers' movement.

It was during this time in Spain and the whole world, when the Third International identified the generalized rise of fascism and reactionarism, and adopted in its 7th Congress, during the summer of 1935, the policy of the Popular Front, failing to link the anti-fascist struggle with the struggle for workers' power, instead advocating for alliances with "socialist" parties and other bourgeois-democratic parties, placing the fight for socialism-communism in the background.

Half a year after this decision, the Popular Front alliance won the elections in the 16th of February, 1936. Shortly after, and only a year after the 7th Congress, sections of the Spanish and international bourgeoisie countered this victory with a failed coup d'etat by fascist generals in the 18th of July, 1936. They had the backing of the nazi-fascist powers in Europe and the complicity of the "democratic" capitalist powers, who were anxious about the strengthening proletariat in Spain. Curiously, the plane that carried Franco from his exile in the African colonies to Tetuán in north Africa, the Dragon Rapide, originally took off from London.

The biggest supporter of the Spanish Republic was the USSR, that, through the enormous effort of the Third International and the Communist Parties in 52 countries, against the banning of volunteering by many of those 52 countries, organized the enlistment, falsification of documents, logistics, arrival and other matters for the arrival of around 35,000 workers, peasants and intellectuals from all over the world. Under the single banner of the International Brigades, and for the first time materializing the historic slogan Workers of the World, Unite!, the Volunteers of Liberty, as they also came to be known, gave their mind and their body to the cause of the Spanish people, armed with the teachings of marxism-leninism. They knew that it was no longer a fight for only the Spanish. As J. V. Stalin put it in October of 1936:

The workers of the Soviet Union are merely carrying out their duty in giving help within their power to the revolutionary masses of Spain. They are aware that the liberation of Spain from the yoke of fascist reactionaries is not a private affair of the Spanish people but the common cause of the whole of advanced and progressive mankind.

In July of 1936 there already were Brigadiers present in Spain, for the occasion of the Popular Olympics (in boycott of the Berlin Olympics) organized by the Red Sport International and the Socialist Worker Sport International in Barcelona, they were among the first to take up arms against the coup d'etat. The Executive Committee's Secretariat of the Third International formalized in the 18th and 19th of September the creation of the International Brigades, which began to arrive in Spain the 14th of October of 1936. Despite the propaganda levied by fascists and bourgeois historiography, the importance of the International Brigades is undeniable today.

After the integration of the Brigades into the Popular Militias in the 22nd of October, the Brigadiers began their training in Albacete and saw action for the first time the 8th of November in Madrid, with the 11th and 12th Brigade. Militarily, the Brigades were present and indispensable in every major battle of the war, but they also played a moral role. After every capitalist power had abandoned the Spanish people to their fate with the policy of non-intervention, the compact and disciplined columns that marched through the streets of Madrid singing songs like The Internationale, Young Guard, or The Marseillaise, made up of workers who barely knew the language but were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, decidedly improved the morale of every militia and civilian in Madrid and in Spain.

But even greater than the support of the Brigades were the more than 300,000 strong military detachments sent by Germany and Italy, with the implicit approval of capitalist democracies, including the Popular Front in France, whose efforts of non-intervention focused exclusively on the republic. And it was the strategy of the popular front that forced the PCE to sideline the revolutionary potential of the hundreds of thousands of militants, instead preserving the legitimacy of the bourgeois republic.

By 1938, the republic was on its last legs and, wishing to evidence the foreign involvement on the fascist side, declared to the League of Nations in the 21st of September that they would disband all volunteers enlisted after the 18th of July, 1936. The 16th of October, 2 years and 2 days after the arrival of the Brigades, the League of Nations' International Committee arrived in Spain to verify the disbandment and departure of the Brigadiers. No such inspection was ever made on the fascist side.

According to the International Committee's report published on the 18th of January, 1939, there were a total of 12,673 Brigadiers in Spain, less than half of the total number of volunteers at around 35,000. They began to depart Spain on the 2nd of November, 1938, through the French border. During the process of departures, some Brigadiers were murdered in Spain, others died protecting the fleeing republicans and hundreds of thousands of refugees at the crossing in France. This was when Mexico, and especially the Communist Party of Mexico which pressured the government, took on around 1,600 brigadiers, mainly Germans, Poles, Italians, Austrians, Czechoslovaks and Yugoslavians, who could not safely return to their homes due to the advance of fascism within their countries. The debt owed by the workers of the world, especially the Spanish, to the Communist Party of Mexico is immeasurable, along with every other Communist Party that helped and the Third International.

The dissolution of the International Brigades did not achieve the result desired by the Republic. Instead, their retreat towards the end of the Battle of the Ebro only accelerated the morale defeat of the republican militias. Most of the brigadiers who survived the war but could not be repatriated in time did not have a pleasant fate. Most of those ended up in the French concentration camps of Gurs, Argèles-sur-Mer, Saint-Cyprien and Barcarès, Septfonds, Riversaltes, or Vernet d'Ariège.

Their fight was not in vein. The experience gained by the few who survived at a high cost proved essential in the development of their own parties, and soon enough, anti-fascist resistance. Everywhere that people took up arms against the fascist occupation, whether inside or outside the concentration camps, ex-Brigadiers were present, continuing the fight they started in the 18th of July, 1936, well after the war that had began that day was history.

Back in Spain, while the moribund republic thrashed for the last few times, the bourgeois republican government, headed by the social-democrat Juan Negrín, began to isolate the PCE with the support of the trotskyists and anarchists. It came to a close after the coup d'etat by the republican general Casado, during and after which the communist militancy was oppressed, and the fascist fifth column that had remained in Madrid opened its gates to the fascist military. This is how the fascist dictatorship began in Spain, with a betrayal by the Popular Front's social-democrats and by the democratic-bourgeois powers of the world. They couldn't help but mirror the collaborationism happening on the world stage; the UK was actively looking for an alliance with Germany, and every other capitalist country was making business with the looted property. All for one purpose that united them; the destruction of workers' power in the form of the marxist-leninist parties that around the world were beginning to challenge the capitalists, with the Third International at the helm.

These are the lessons that Spain and the world learnt during and after its fierce resistance against fascism. No popular front with bourgeois-democrats is sustainable, and their class character will always prevail above the superficial differences with fascism. The only viable tool is the organization of the social majority within the Communist Party, with proletarian internationalism and an altruist disposition as principles. No matter how much social-democracy may fear fascist privatization, and no matter how much they disrespect bourgeois democracy, the class interests that guide them will always prevail when faced with a capable mass of organized workers.

The progressive Popular Front in France, the "appeasing" government in the UK, and the nominally anti-violence liberal democracies, did not ever attempt to do anything else than giving carte blanche to the fascists and hindering their rivals. The betrayal of Spain, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland were all made with the same reasoning: the alliance with fascism to destroy communism. There are no reasons that make the opposite possible today. When reactionarism picks up traction in lockstep with the deepening capitalist crises, all of these bourgeois-democrats some "leftists" like to place their hope in will not vary substantially from the script they followed 85 years ago.

Quedad, que así lo quieren los árboles, los llanos, las mínimas partículas de la luz que reanima un solo sentimiento que el mar sacude. ¡Hermanos! Madrid con vuestro nombre se agranda e ilumina

Rafael Alberti, A las Brigadas Internacionales

[cavalierzee]

Arrest Netanyahu For War Crimes

Belarra said. “Using Hamas as an excuse to murder thousands of Palestinian civilians, including children, is unspeakable hypocrisy on the part of both Israel and the countries that justify it.”

Belarra went on to urge the Spanish government to launch “a petition to the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court to investigate the war crimes committed in Palestine by Netanyahu,” as well as “those perpetuated by Hamas in Israel and occupied territories against the civilian population.”

We ask our partner, the PSOE socialist party, to work together to present on behalf of the government of Spain a petition to the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court to investigate the war crimes committed in Palestine by Netanyahu, as was done recently in the case of the Spanish aid worker murdered in the Ukrainian war, as well as those perpetrated by Hamas in Israel and occupied territories against the civilian population,’ said Belarra, who also called for immediate efforts to protect civilians and negotiate an end to the violence?

‘The United States and the European Union are not looking the other way or acting in a neutral manner, they are encouraging the state of Israel in its policy of apartheid and occupation that seriously violates human rights,’ she said. ‘Using Hamas as an excuse to murder thousands of Palestinian civilians, including children, is unspeakable hypocrisy on the part of both Israel and the countries that justify it.’

“Old people, children, pregnant women, people with disabilities are just being deprived of their basic human dignity, and this is a total disgrace,” Lazzarini said. “The siege

[head-post]

EP elections 2024: triumph of right-wing opposition, collapse of Greens, demand for change of course

Right-wing parties have made significant gains in the European Parliament elections. According to the first results provided by the EU, far-right parties will dominate the transnational parliament, while the Greens were the hardest hit.

French President Emmanuel Macron suffered a crushing defeat in exit polls, while Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party won a convincing victory that underlines her credibility as a candidate for the French presidency in 2027.

According to the first exit polls, the National Rally party won about 32 per cent of the vote, 10 points more than in the last EU elections in 2019, and about 17 points ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s party.

In Germany, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party came second behind the opposition Conservatives with 16.5 per cent of the vote, up from 11 per cent in 2019, according to exit polls released by public broadcaster ARD. The Greens lost the most in Germany on Sunday, dropping 8.6 percentage points to 11.9 per cent. Voters penalised them for the cost of policies to cut CO2 emissions – in line with expectations for environmental parties across Europe.

In the Netherlands, where voting took place on Thursday, polls showed that nationalist Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration party would win seven of the 29 seats in the EU assembly, just one less than the alliance of the Social Democrats and Greens.

Meanwhile in Austria, the right-wing Freedom Party is the likely winner of the vote, according to a poll conducted over the past week and released after polls closed on Sunday night.

After the polls closed in Greece, the first exit polls show the ruling New Democracy party in first place with between 28 and 32 per cent. The Greek Solution party is gaining between 7.6 and 10 per cent, while the ultra-conservative Niki is on top with between 2.9 and 4.9 per cent.

Spanish exit polls show Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) vying for the top spot with the conservative Popular Party (PP).

According to a poll by Danish national TV channel DR, SF, the Socialist People’s Party, which in English is called the Green Left, will get the most votes – 18.4 per cent – and three of the 15 Danish seats in the European Parliament.

Pro-European coalition is still in place

On the other hand, the new balance in the EU parliament shows that a stable pro-European coalition is a realistic scenario, despite the rise of the far-right across Europe.

The centre-right EPP, the EU Socialists and the liberal Renewal could form a majority of 403 seats.

The election result raises the possibility that the EPP candidate Ursula von der Leyen will be re-elected as head of the EU Commission. Christopher Glück, managing director at the political analysis firm Forefront Advisers, told Euractiv:

“The majority of the centrist three looks pretty solid […] probably ahead of 410 seats.”

This year’s European Parliament elections are the first since Britain left the EU. In total, more than 360 million Europeans could vote in the election of 720 MEPs. This year’s vote was closely watched around the world. It is predicted that a strong electoral performance by the far-right could reshape alliances in parliament and dramatically change the future of the entire European Union.

Read more HERE

[mariacallous]

Last week, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez decided to serve out the remainder of his third term after briefly threatening to resign following allegations of corruption against his wife, Begoña Gómez. Though Spain’s national prosecutor’s office has already recommended that the case be dismissed due to a lack of evidence, Sánchez and many members of his leftist coalition suspect that the legal action against Gómez—brought by the anti-corruption organization Manos Limpias (Clean Hands)—is politically motivated.

Though Manos Limpias claims to be politically neutral, its most famous cases have focused on Catalan separatism and targeted prominent left-wing causes, such as the one that it brought against judge Baltasar Garzón for investigating human rights violations that occurred during the Spanish Civil War and the ensuing nearly 40-year dictatorship.

Ultimately, though, it is not Manos Limpias that decides whether to pursue the case against Gómez or anyone else it targets. The more important question is whether the judge in the Gómez case is politically motivated, having launched a preliminary investigation into her business activities on the basis of such weak evidence.

Sánchez is therefore justified in suspecting that the case against his wife could be politically charged—and possibly a reaction to the controversial amnesty deal that he recently made with Catalan secessionists.

Last fall, Sánchez secured parliamentary approval for an amnesty deal that potentially benefits hundreds of Catalan separatists. The complex and divisive process that resulted in the deal began with an inconclusive general election last summer, when the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), Sánchez’s party, had to scrape together an agreement with two pro-independence Catalan groups in order to form a coalition government.

The secessionist groups, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Junts per Catalunya, were quick to name a high price for propping Sánchez up. They demanded amnesty for all those prosecuted or awaiting prosecution for their roles in staging the 2017 independence referendum, which was declared illegal in advance by Spain’s Constitutional Court.

Though the turnout was low at 43 percent, 92 percent of Catalans voted to split from Spain, prompting Catalonia’s then-president, Carles Puigdemont, to make a unilateral declaration of independence in an address to the regional parliament. The federal government, then led by conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, responded by suspending the region’s powers of autonomy and, on the day of the vote itself, sending in police to seize ballot boxes and barricade polling stations.

Puigdemont has since been in self-imposed exile in Belgium and would be the highest-profile beneficiary of the amnesty deal, which was approved by a narrow vote in Spain’s lower house of parliament in March. The bill has been filibustered by Spain’s conservative-dominated upper house since then, but when it returns to the lower house on May 14, it will almost certainly be approved by a second vote and become law. (Even if Spain’s Senate vetoes legislation, it can still be passed by an absolute majority the second time around.)

Despite being backed by a majority of Catalans, the amnesty bill is hugely unpopular throughout the rest of Spain. A poll conducted last fall found that 70 percent of Spaniards surveyed were opposed to it becoming law, including 59 percent who voted for the PSOE in June 2023. Protests, some violent, erupted across the country in opposition to the deal, which conservative leader Alberto Feijóo has described  as “the greatest affront to dignity, equality and the separation of powers seen in a western democracy.” A group of magistrates from the Spanish judiciary regard the pact as effectively meaning “the abolition of the rule of law in Spain.” It is scant consolation for the deal’s many critics that national and regional judges would have the power to review pleas on a case-by-case basis.

Brussels has also expressed concern—in November 2023, months before the proposed amnesty bill was approved by the lower house, the European Union’s justice chief requested details from the Spanish government regarding the bill’s potential scope and force. The EU also ruled last summer that Puigdemont, who currently serves as a member of the European Parliament, should lose his parliamentary immunity—a move that, barring the amnesty deal, would have allowed for his extradition to and prosecution in Spain.

Over the past five years, Sánchez has completely reversed course over Catalan independence. In 2019, when Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced nine leading separatists to prison for up to 13 years for orchestrating the 2017 vote, he described the sentences as the result of an “exemplary legal process.” Two years later, when he was more reliant on Catalan separatists’ support in parliament, he pardoned the same secessionists and insisted that they would not be asked to renounce their political cause in exchange for freedom.

Given the PSOE leader’s increased dependency on Catalan support over that period as well as his initial promise to comply with the Supreme Court’s sentences, it is hard to believe that his flip-flopping was motivated by anything other than expediency.

Still, Sánchez could just about get away with granting the pardons and maintaining the government’s official unionist line: Releasing prisoners only indicated that he believed their punishment was excessive, not that there had been no offense in the first place.

In contrast, “amnesty” is derived from the Greek word amnesia (which means the act of forgetting), and it effectively implies that no crime was committed in the first place and that the 2017 Catalan independence referendum was legal. Plus, since the amnesty deal was named by Catalan separatists as the price of their support for Sánchez during his third term, it comes with zero conditions attached for them. Secessionists are pulling the strings that control Sánchez, rather than the other way around.

For this reason, the Spanish prime minister is mistaken if he thinks that the amnesty bill will guarantee Junts’ and ERC’s votes for the remainder of his third term, or ease relations between unionists and secessionists. Whereas Sánchez hailed their deal as a “brave and necessary step towards reunion,” separatists, including the Catalan President Pere Aragonès, will likely use it as a political tool to renew the battle for an independent Catalonia.

Blocking their path, however, is the Spanish Constitution, which is fundamentally committed to the “indissoluble unity” of the country. This was the basis for the Constitutional Court’s ruling that the 2017 referendum was illegal, and why any attempt at a repeat—perhaps modeled on the vote that took place in Scotland in 2014­—would run into difficulties. Unless the relevant sections of the constitution are altered in advance by parliamentary approval, the referendum would still be illegal. Thus, by attempting to grant the amnesties at the same time as insisting that there is no possibility of a state-approved referendum, Sánchez has ensnared himself in a Catch-22.

If Sánchez were to permit a referendum on Catalan secession, it would be the biggest risk taken by a Spanish premier in the country’s post-Franco democratic era.

Yet there are strong indications that now is the perfect time to do so, as far as unionists are concerned. A poll published in November 2023 showed that support within Catalonia for independence has dropped to just 31 percent, its lowest point in more than a decade (even as 60 percent of Catalans back the amnesty deal). It also looks as if Aragonès’s pro-independence minority coalition, long debilitated by fratricidal tensions, is finally on its way out.

One day before Spain’s lower house approved the amnesty, Aragonès announced an early regional election in Catalonia for May 12, prompted by his government’s inability to pass this year’s budget. (The next vote was not due to be held until early 2025.) Polls indicate that the PSOE will come first, and that support for two of the three main pro-independence forces—including Aragonès’s party, the ERC, and the more hard-line Popular Unity Candidacy—will drop significantly, making it uncertain whether the secessionists will be able to form a regional coalition by themselves.

But their failure to do so wouldn’t necessarily take the pressure off Sánchez in the national parliament: Boosted by the amnesty deal, secessionists are likely to keep requesting a legal referendum on independence.

Shortly after Aragonès announced the early elections, Sánchez canceled Spain’s 2024 budget, opting instead to roll over the 2023 budget on the basis that the ERC and Junts will be too distracted by campaigning to steer this year’s spending plan through parliament. It’s a move that highlights the logistical difficulties that will mark the rest of his third term: Even if the amnesty deal becomes law, Sánchez will still have to win the support of the ERC and Junts on a case-by-case basis. That, in turn, will result in increased hostility from the right regarding collaboration with secessionists—and potentially also from the factions of the prime minister’s own party that opposed the amnesty deal in the first place.

Theoretically, there is one way out of this impasse for Sánchez: backing another independence referendum in Catalonia, much like Westminster backed the Scottish vote in 2014, on the reasonable expectation that it would fail. If it did, he could then claim to have met all the separatists’ demands at the same time as having strengthened the union.

But the constitutional and legal difficulties render this course of action virtually impossible. Instead, Sánchez will spend his third term at the mercy of emboldened separatists, locked into a stance on Catalan secession that is no longer credible.

[warningsine]

The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) suffered a dramatic electoral reverse in local and regional elections held on Sunday, triggering an equally dramatic response from Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The leader of the PSOE, who heads a leftist coalition government, has decided to bring forward the general elections slated for December to July 23, in order to minimize the risk of further wear and tear on his administration over the coming months after the country’s right wing was emboldened by its resounding successes on Sunday, and to try and prevent the right-wing Popular’s Party (PP) and the far-right Vox grouping from scoring a clean sweep during the ballot to elect a new government.

“I personally assume responsibility for the results and I feel it is necessary to give a response. Many prime ministers who have governed impeccably have ceased to be so. A clarification from the Spanish people as to who should lead this phase is needed. The best thing is for Spaniards to have their say to define the political course of the country,” Sánchez said during a brief appearance. An emergency Cabinet meeting is expected to legally ratify the prime minister’s decision to dissolve parliament and call an early general election on Monday afternoon.

Throughout his career, Sánchez has become accustomed to taking risky decisions, and now he has opted for the most perilous of them all, but also one no one anticipated on election night. The prime minister has now placed the onus back on voters, particularly the progressives, to decide almost immediately if they want to consolidate the result of the local and regional elections at the national level, or to mobilize to prevent a victory for the right.

Sunday’s elections saw Spain take a major swing to the right and made the leading opposition PP the main political force in the country. “This is unexpected,” said Ignacio Jurado, a political scientist at Madrid’s Carlos III University. “Sánchez is trying to short circuit the PP’s rise as soon as possible.”

In the municipal vote, the PP won 31.5% of votes compared with 28.2% for the PSOE, a 1.2 percentage point decrease for the Socialists over 2019, but almost a nine-point increase for the PP, which benefited from the collapse of the centrist Ciudadanos (Citizens) party.

The PP won in seven of the 12 regions contested and dominated in several regions previously won by the PSOE, including Valencia, Aragón and La Rioja. It remains to be seen whether the PP will have to rely on support from Vox to form regional governments.

In 2019 — also against the odds and at a time when he had been governing for just a few months after the successful no-confidence motion passed against PP then prime minister Mariano Rajoy in July 2018 — Sánchez also undertook a risky electoral advance, which consolidated the PSOE in power with a gain of 38 seats in parliament. At that time, the Spanish left mobilized en masse in the face of the threat posed by Vox, which had made a political splash by winning 12 seats and a place on the regional government of Andalucía in December 2018.

Four years later, Vox is no longer a hypothesis but a growing reality, according to Sunday’s results. The PP has also bounced back since 2019, when the party obtained its worst-ever results in both the general and regional elections. Now, the prospect of the PP governing in coalition with Vox is not something abstract, but almost a certainty. That is why Sánchez has decided to go all-in and play his hand now, to try and conjure a repeat of that extraordinary Socialist-leftist mobilization of 2019. The results of Sunday’s elections show the huge task facing Sánchez’s government and Spain’s left, which appears now to need a miracle to halt the conservative wave that has already swept through several European countries and has now arrived on the shores of Spanish politics.

[ifreakingloveroyals]

Through the Years → Felipe VI of Spain (1,865/∞)

2 February 2016 | Spain's King Felipe VI poses with Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sanchez at the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid. Spain's King Felipe VI began today a a second session of meetings with party leaders in a bid to break a political impasse over the formation of a new government following an inconclusive election on December 2015. (Photo credit Chema Moya/AFP via Getty Images)

[congress-of-deputies]

Protestors on the Streets upon Introduction of Controversial Bill

Madrid, Spain, October 14, 2023 – Just yesterday, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) had reached a historic agreement with Catalan pro-independence parties, one that is sending shockwaves throughout Spain. The deal centres on a controversial proposal for an amnesty bill aimed at addressing the aftermath of the 2017 Catalan independence referendum. This bill seeks to pardon those involved in the push for independence, including political leaders, activists, and others facing legal consequences for their roles in the referendum and subsequent events.

However, the proposal has been met with fierce opposition. In the span of a single night, thousands of people gathered in Madrid to protest the bill. Rumors have emerged suggesting that these protests were orchestrated by right-wing parties, particularly the PP and Vox, although the source of these claims—a gossip magazine called Chatterbox Catalunya—has yet to be verified as a credible news outlet.

One activist voiced her outrage, saying, “Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his party have betrayed Spain. They have betrayed our unity. They have betrayed us, for the political support of Catalan parties. They have betrayed us for prisoners! Mama mia!”

With emotions running high, all eyes are now on the Congress of Deputies to see how this contentious issue will be resolved.

[noisynutcrusade]

A Pedro Sánchez dummy was beaten up at New Year. Spain’s Socialists are livid – POLITICO

Spain’s ruling Socialist Party (PSOE) has filed a complaint after an effigy of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was battered during a New Year’s Eve demonstration in Madrid. The Socialists asked the prosecutor’s office to identify the perpetrators, saying the doll’s “lynching” could constitute “incitement to hatred” against Sánchez, Spanish media reported Friday. Sánchez has faced months of outrage…

[swldx]

BBC 0524 17 Nov 2023

6195Khz 0457 17 NOV 2023 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from SANTA MARIA DI GALERIA. SINPO = 55334. S/on with Arabic(?) in progress. Then English ID@0459z pips and newsday preview. @0501z World News anchored by Neil Nunes. Israeli forces searched a hospital Wednesday where they claim Hamas militants operate. Mohammed Zaqout, the director of hospitals in Gaza, said Israeli tanks were inside the medical compound and that soldiers had entered buildings, including the emergency and surgery departments, which house intensive care units. Nearly 20,000 men have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the war to avoid being drafted, the BBC has discovered. Sean Combs, a hip-hop icon and the founder of Bad Boy Records, has been accused of rape and abuse in a major lawsuit filed by the singer Cassie that alleges he used his powerful network to keep her trapped in a violent relationship with him. Argentines head to the polls Sunday in a down-to-the-wire race between two wildly different presidential candidates, with many frozen by indecision over which choice will rescue them from triple-digit inflation. Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Friday he will meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the sidelines of the APEC Summit in San Francisco to discuss tensions and formulate ways forward in the South China Sea. Spanish lawmakers began debating a new term on Wednesday for acting premier Pedro Sanchez, whose offer of an amnesty to Catalan separatists in return for support has roused protests. Several thousand protesters, many draped in Spanish flags, rallied outside the headquarters of Sanchez's Socialist Party (PSOE) in Madrid, chanting "No to the coup!" and burning Catalan flags. TikTok will prohibit content that promotes Osama bin Laden’s 2002 letter detailing the former al-Qaeda leader’s justifications for attacks against Americans, the short-form video app said. An executive at one of generative AI’s leading UK companies has quit over the startup’s controversial use of copyrighted content. Ed Newton-Rex had been VP of audio at Stability AI, which produces the popular image-generator Stability Diffusion, but resigned due to the firm’s treatment of creators. @0506z "Newsday" begins. MLA 30 amplified loop (powered w/8 AA rechargeable batteries ~10.8vdc), Etón e1XM. 250kW, beamAz 195°, bearing 49°. Received at Plymouth, United States, 7877KM from transmitter at Santa Maria di Galeria. Local time: 2257.

[oceansoulmatesblog]

Inconclusive vote prompts political uncertainty in Spain

AFP, Monday 24 Jul 2023 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his right-wing rival will each begin negotiations Monday to try to head off a fresh vote after an inconclusive snap election resulted in a hung parliament. Spanish Prime Minister and Socialist Party (PSOE) candidate for re-election Pedro Sanchez (2R) waves to supporters after Spain s general election at the Spanish Socialist Party…

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"New Premier of Spain," Kingston Whig-Standard. June 14, 1933. Page 1. ---- INDALECIO PRIETO Spain's new premier, who has held several cabinet posts under the republic, is popular with the majority of the populace because he spurned the offer of numerous official positions under the monarchy. Senor Prieto is a Socialist.

[skillstopallmedia]

Our questions, our answers | Pedro's bet

Shaken by his party’s score in the regional elections, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has just called early legislative elections for the month of July. Will his audacity pay off? Shaken? You start strong. Is it at this point? We can say it. The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) has just bitten the dust in the regional and municipal elections. The formation controlled 10 autonomous…

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

here's some data about the 1986 elections which seems so wild from our modern perspective lol.

first of all, felipe gonzález won for a second term (PSOE) with over half of the seats (mayoría absoluta). also UCD had disappeared and the second most voted party was fraga's CP, the predecessor of the modern PP.

here's how the distribution of the seats was after the elections (the communists are IU btw, they got 7 seats!)

btw IU at that time was a coalition that included both the PCE (Spanish Communist Party) and the PC (Carlist Party). so yeah. it was a time indeed.

and here's the electoral map, with seats per province

just so everyone understands, here are all the parties and what each were about (+ their leaders at that time)

PSOE: Partido Socialista Obrero Español [Spanish Worker's Socialist Party], the traditional left-wing party. Their leader was current and incumbent president, Felipe González.

CP: Coalición Popular [Popular Coalition], a coalition of different centre and right wing parties (Alianza Popular, Partido Demócrata Popular, Partido Liberal, Unión del Pueblo Navarro, Centristas de Galicia). Their leader was minister of Franco Manuel Fraga.

CDS: Centro Democrático y Social [Democratic and Social Centre], a centrist party. Their leader was the ex-president of Spain, Adolfo Suárez.

CiU: Convergència i Unió [Convergence and Unity], a centre-right Catalan nationalist party. Their leader was one of the fathers of the Spanish Constitution, Miquel Roca.

IU: Izquierda Unida [United Left], a coalition of various communist and left-wing parties (Partido Comunista de España, Partido de Acción Socialista, Partido Comunista de los Pueblos de España, Partido Humanista, Partido Carlista, Federación Progresista, and Izquierda Republicana). Their leader was miner-turned politician secretary of the communist party at one point Gerardo Iglesias.

PNV: Partido Nacionalista Vasco [National Basque Party], a centre-right Basque nationalist party. Their leader was venezuelan-spanish Iñaki Anasagasti.

HB: Herri Batasuna [Popular Union], a far-left abertzale Basque nationalist party. Their leader was Jon Idigoras.

EE: Euskadiko Ezkerra [Basque Left], a far-left Basque party. Their leader was Juan María Bandrés.

CG: Coalición Galega [Galician Coalition], a centrist Galician coalition. Their leader was Senén Bernárdez.

PAR: Partido Aragonés [Aragonese Party], a centre-right nationalist (or regionalist. unclear) Aragonese party. Their leader was Hipólito Gómez de las Roces.

AIC: Agrupaciones Independientes de Canarias [Canarian Independent Groups], a centre-right nationalist Canarian coalition. Their leader was Manuel Hermoso.

UV: Unión Valenciana [Valencian Union], a blaverist centre-right Valencian party. Their leader was Miguel Ramón Izquierdo.

I also feel I have to at least name other parties that didn't get seats but were also voted, like UMC [Table for the Unity of Communists], PRD [Reformist Democratic Party] WHOSE LEADER WAS REAL MADRID PRESIDENT AND THE CLOSEST THING WE HAVE TO A MAFIA BOSS FLORENTINO PÉREZ; PA (Andalusian Party), ERC (Catalan Republican Left), this party has 7 seats right now in congress btw; PCC (Party of the Catalan Communists), and UCD (Union of Democratic Centre), the party that Adolfo Suárez was part of and the ruling party from 1977 to 1972. They got 0 seats here.

SCREAMING (THAT WOMAN IS MY GREAT GRANDMOTHER, PEDRO ANTONIO IS MY GRANDPA)

Rafaela Parra Montesinos es la madre de mi yerno Pedro Antonio. Es una mujer muy creyente en las cosas de la Iglesia, pues todos los días se levanta temprano y se va a misa, y el año pasado o sea en 1986 al poco tiempo de celebrarse las Elecciones Generales, fue a Madrid a ver a su hijo y familia, y les dijo que había votado a los comunistas porque le dijeron que Jesucristo fue el 1er comunista que hubo. ¡Increíble!

here's in english:

Rafaela Parra Montesinos is the mother of my son-in-law Pedro Antonio. She is a very religious woman; every day she wakes up early and attends mass. Last year, that is 1986, a few days after the General Elections were held, she went to Madrid to visit her son and their family, and told them that she had voted for the communists because they told her Jesus Christ was the first communist. Incredible!

[head-post]

Sánchez will not complete his term as Spain’s PM, says Podemos secretary general

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez would not make it to the end of his term expiring in 2027, warned Podemos party general secretary Ione Belarra, according to Euractiv.

One of the biggest challenges Sánchez currently faces is the approval of the 2025 budget, twice rejected by former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont’s JxCat party. The government’s precarious stability means that Sánchez needs the support of every party in parliament.

If the prime minister wants Podemos’ support, the Spanish Socialist party (PSOE) will have to honour promises including the approval of a permanent tax on the country’s big energy companies. However, Podemos, which has two MEPs in Strasbourg, has warned that “new agreements” with the PSOE are “unfeasible” at the moment.

Other issues between Podemos and Sánchez are the demand for a 40% cut in rental prices and a ban on the purchase of residential buildings for commercial purposes.

The next general election in Spain, which will determine the Cortes Generales (parliament), is due to take place no later than 22 August 2027.

Read more HERE