Is Spain a democracy?

I never thought I would have to write anything to answer this question. However, after a long time quiet on this blog, once again because of regrettable absolute lack of time to write, I have found myself today having to drop everything I was doing to write this article, with the aim to set the record straight on a few things which I think most people are missing when evaluating or commenting on the situation in Catalonia today, 1^st of October.

Firstly, let me start by declaring that I deem the situation as extremely sad and regrettable. Let me also say that, as a Spanish citizen, I fully support a democratic process which allows Catalonia to vote on its independence. This article is not about the Catalonian independence process, but ONLY about 1st October. Let me also say that I know full well that, by writing on this issue, I will make many enemies and no friends.

However, I feel compelled to do it, after reading my twitter feed and seeing the reaction of people I normally regard as clear progressive thinkers when confronted with images from Catalonia. Vince Cable, the LibDem leader, calling police behaviour unacceptable and asking for the Spanish ambassador to be summoned by the Foreign Secretary to explain. J.K. Rowling calling police actions repugnant and unjustifiable, and people like Peter Frankopan, a historian I admire, and writers like Simon Worrall, enthusiastically retweeting some of these ill advised declarations. I have also had conversations with Catalan people and been surprised by their lack of understanding of what living in a democracy actually means.

The sentiment behind the manifestations of these commentators seems to be that the actions of the police are repressive and unwarrantedly violent, and that the Spanish government must be brought to task and asked to respond for this undemocratic behaviour. In the next few paragraphs I will try to deal with these three accusations, repressive, unwarrantedly violent and undemocratic.

Firstly, these commentators, in their (I still want to think) well intentioned progressiveness, are immediately antipathetic to images of police confronting citizens in any way. I am too. However, before an accusation of repressiveness can be levelled, one must at least do some basic analysis. Spain is a democratic country, which enshrines in its Constitution and derivative legislation the right of its citizens to pacifically demonstrate, protest and voice their opinion. The Spanish police would not seek to repress any of these rights (I would not have so confidently said this 25 years ago, but we have come a long way) and, should it, then its actions could be rightfully called repressive. The citizens in the images we receive from Catalonia have full rights to protest and demonstrate, and an overwhelming majority of Spanish citizens would recognise them those, as they would to any other Spanish citizen. In fact, until today, they have freely demonstrated and protested as many times as they have seen fit. But these citizens in the images, confronting the police in a way that makes most of us lefties remember the good old days of student and popular uprisings, are not demonstrating. They are breaking the law. And this point seems to have been missed. They are breaking the law, and obstructing and resisting policing. Any modern democracy sets its foundations on the rule of law, and the security forces are there to protect it. And, when the law is broken, we expect the police to act. We may, at a personal level, be more sympathetic to some law breaking than to other, but, you see, the problem with democracy is that us individual citizens cannot decide what laws can be broken and which cannot. And how do we know that these citizens are breaking the law? Again, democracy has a guide to this. We know, because it is not the executive power (the government) that says so, but the judiciary. In democracy, separation of powers ensures that the executive cannot abuse its remit, and this is a well established principle in Spain. The Spanish and Catalan judiciary have both, on the basis of the legal framework with jurisdiction over this dispute, ruled that the proposed referendum is illegal. Therefore, when the police act to prevent the voting, they are not doing so as the strong arm of a repressive state, but rather acting on behalf of democracy, as it is their duty. Were these citizens legally protesting or demonstrating, as it is their right to do, any actions by the police to prevent them from doing so would be repressive and in contravention of the law of the land. But, when these citizens vote in an illegal election, and try to prevent the police from policing, they are committing a crime, or accomplices of a crime. This may sound hard, but the rulings of the Spanish and Catalan judiciary have left us in no doubt that these activities are illegal, and therefore, the police have no choice but to enforce the law. If they don’t, then that would be undemocratic, as the police would be abrogating unto itself the power to choose which laws should and should not be enforced (which, in fact, is what the Mossos d'Esquadra seem to have done, choosing not to enforce the law or the orders of the judiciary, and as a result placing themselves outside legality and as a downright undemocratic agent in these unfortunate events).

I find it difficult to believe that Mr. Cable, Ms Rowling or Mr Frankopan would be supportive of illicit activities in fellow modern democracies, which seek to subvert the rule of law.  I can therefore only surmise that, should they give proper consideration to the fact that the police are acting on a judiciary ruling, they would agree that the actions of the police are not repressive.

Let’s move on, therefore, to the question of whether the police are acting with excessive and, to quote Ms Rowling, unjustifiable violence. In modern democracies, police are entrusted with policing with minimum necessary force. They must keep force to a minimum, but they must police, first and foremost. A tenet of policing is that if force is necessary, police will not walk away, they will exercise it, in a measured manner. And this throws a different light in what is going on in Catalonia with policing. We must evaluate the use of force by police from the perspective that they are fighting what, in law, is a crime. If a bank robbery was taking place and some citizens were confronting the police and preventing them from entering the bank to stop it, how would we expect the police to act? Is there a difference in this case? If we realise, as we have to, that a crime is being committed (and please remember that I am commenting strictly from a legal viewpoint and not getting into the morals of the matter), then we must expect the police to not stand down.

Of course, in some cases, the force used by the police may be excessive. I am not saying that it is not, I have not seen most of the incidents and, in any case, I am prudent and democratic enough to realise that it is not up to me to unilaterally be judge of that (I wish Mr. Cable or Ms. Rowling were capable of similar restraint before throwing themselves onto Twitter), since our society already has a judiciary body entrusted with this task. The citizens in the images have full access to the judiciary and democratic protection Spain affords all its citizens. I can assure all readers that all police actions will be investigated (in fact, the process is already underway if you, once again, listen to the judiciary) and further, any aggrieved citizens have the right to report any police malpractice. Once again, this is the advantage of democracy. We don’t need Twitter judges, we have real ones.

In conclusion, before judging what is going on in Catalonia, we need to remember that the law is being broken in a democratic country. It may be an unjust law in the eyes of many, but that does not give citizens the right to unilaterally break it. I am sure that most of those citizens are well intentioned, believe in what they are doing and are not well informed about the exact workings of democratic institutions. It is their political leaders that have failed them, by leading them into an illegal course of action.

As for the Twitter commentators that got me back to blogging (and I do at least thank them for that), a word of caution. We live in dangerous times when progressive opinion leaders are happy to support the breaking of the rule of law in modern democracies, on a whim and without due consideration for the consequences of their actions. Being a public figure brings responsibility in a democracy. 

In the particular case of Mr. Cable, this is of course more serious, as his role is in political leadership, in a democratic country which would handle an attack on its law and security exactly in the same way as Spain is doing. I would just remind him that I do not remember Spain summoning any British ambassadors to Madrid when the British police dealt with mining strikes or the London riots. Mr. Cable, you should know better. Let the Spanish democratic process run its course, we don’t need, or want, your undemocratic moralising. We need to find a way to bring about a negotiated solution that resolves this issue pacifically and within the rule of law, and you are not helping. Once you decide to support the subversion of the rule of law, you place yourself in very unsavoury company.