Political hate speech makes many people sick. Even the possibility of a new civil war has been hinted at, writes Kauppalehti’s Spain correspondent Jyrki Palo.
Will there be another civil war? It’s not only private thinkers in Madrid who are thinking about it, but the question is also flickering in the press – albeit cautiously, because Spain suffered a bloody civil war between 1936 and 1939.
The political confrontation has become serious. The left-wing government and the right-wing opposition accuse each other of lying and corruption almost non-stop, while the politically biased media reinforces the messages.
Well-known author, academician Arturo Pérez-Reverte says in the message service X that after spending a week in Italy, he wanted to take a look at what is in his home country. After only five minutes of listening to politicians, he started to feel nauseous.
The comment received an avalanche of likes, so he is not the only Spaniard affected by politicians’ hate speech about opponents.
The political power play overshadows
The Spanish economy is growing at a happy rate of two percent, property values have risen, employment is at a good level, consumption is strong, exports are also driving and government tax revenues are swelling.
But still, the political power game threatens state institutions – the judiciary, the Constitutional Court and the Parliament.
“Political power play threatens state institutions.”
Socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez keeps the right-wing out of government politics with the support of separatist parties in Catalonia.
As a price for support, he will push through the legislation demanded by the separatists, which the right-wing and a large part of the judiciary strongly oppose as violating the constitution and the state.
The dispute will end up in the EU court. It has already been covered up in the EU Parliament, and the new Parliament will also get it in front of it.
Many things go wrong
The state budget for this year could not be drawn up in Spain. It was given up because the regional elections in Catalonia on May 12th increase political tensions too much.
The receipt of EU recovery subsidies has stopped because the tensions prevent the necessary legal reforms. The Commission stopped the tranche of ten billion euros at the turn of the year.
High-ranking judicial appointments abound in the Spanish judiciary. The government pushes through its own, which the right wing does not accept. The right-wing is bitter that the government already appointed its members to the leadership of the Constitutional Court and the Prosecutor’s Office.
EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders has repeatedly demanded a solution to judge appointments. An agreement has been sought under his leadership in Brussels, but Spain’s problems will remain on the table of Reynders’ successor.
The author is Kauppalehti’s correspondent in Madrid.