(This article was written by Hermann Tertsch and appeared in El Debate. No hay normalidad bajo el crimen)
There are people who like to cause upsets. Even gratuitous ones. That is not my case. I like to avoid them. That is why I regret that the Spanish ambassador to Costa Rica, Eva Martínez, who had very kindly invited me on Thursday to dine with a large group of Costa Rican parliamentarians, had to suffer an unexpected disruption at the splendid residence of our embassy in San José. The first thing I did was to thank the ambassador for her invitation, which, with the impeccable professionalism of a career diplomat like her, she maintained even though the other two Spanish MEPs invited, from the PP, Antonio López-Istúriz, and from the PSOE, Ignacio Sánchez Amor, who are without doubt more akin to her than this one from VOX, had returned to Spain earlier. And they left me as the only Spanish parliamentarian with the Costa Ricans she had called to her table for this occasion.
But after the personal gratitude, I had to explain that my conscience, my responsibility and my duty as a Spaniard obliged me to leave the dinner at the residence without beginning it. Because they prevent me from any hint of institutional normality in view of the gravity of the events in Spain. There is no normality when one is witnessing a crime. And pretending normality while the affronts, abuses and crimes of this socialist power are being committed has been one of the most effective mechanisms of this government, as of Zapatero’s, to lull the whole of society with informational fodder, lies and base passions while they took, one after another, the steps toward destruction and plunder.
Pedro Sánchez’s “amnesty for criminal friends” is a crime in itself and a coup d’état that delegitimizes the democratic regime, its justice system, its security forces, its forty years of legality and even King Felipe VI. In the strict sense it also delegitimizes Pedro Sánchez, his coming to power and the elections before and after. Although he no longer needs any delegitimization, since as soon as he approves the amnesty he will be as criminal as Puigdemont and a genuine usurper of a power that will be illegal.
Given this nightmarish situation, with our Spanish institutions in the hands of individuals with the same democratic scruples as Hamas, the upset of the ambassador, who like it or not was appointed and is under the orders of the unworthy usurper who is the current caretaker head of government, was absolutely necessary. However impeccable, I insist, the ambassador’s attitude and conduct were, and they were. I had thought of simply excusing myself by telephone. But out of deference to the magnificent and dedicated Costa Rican parliamentarians I decided that I would attend in order to give them the explanation they deserved. And the explanation was necessary because not even the members of the foreign affairs committee present there, among them its chairman, know of the gravity of the Spanish evolution, or degradation.
And at the residence, as soon as I arrived, I told the parliamentarians that normality cannot be simulated when in Spain the government is destroying all the foundations of legality, security and coexistence. I explained to them there, in the presence of the ambassador, that the Professional Association of the Magistracy, the largest association of judges in Spain, holds that the amnesty for Catalan criminals is the end of the rule of law in Spain. And that eight members of the General Council of the Judiciary, what remains of the members of the justice apparatus not bought, intimidated or blackmailed by the power of the Sánchez government, have said the same. Because the delegitimization of the democratic regime and the legitimization of criminal and unconstitutional coup-plotting constitutes the greatest attack on the Spanish nation and its democracy. I said that a democratic and patriotic Spaniard cannot today accept normality in anything related to the government, already as illegitimate as it is illegal, of Pedro Sánchez.
If the ambassador experienced as an upset that I turned the embassy residence for a few long minutes into a rostrum for many truths about a criminal government, she can console herself with the fact that deep dismay, anguish, rage and fear are today the sentiments that predominate among the Spaniards who find themselves in the hands of fugitive criminals in Waterloo and others well ensconced in La Moncloa. I encourage all Spaniards not to give a single day of the appearance of normality to this usurping government if it comes to be constituted. We must all play our part, large or small, our labor and our duty, to restore legality, unity, constitutionality and democracy in Spain.
Hermann Tertsch is a Distinguished Fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, a Washington D.C.-based foreign policy and defense think tank.
