A Rising Thirst For Revenge Bodes Evil For Divided Spain

Juan José López Burniol is a veteran of legal circles and journalism of the Spanish center. He submitted the original of this essay to La Vanguardia, a newspaper of moderate leftist leanings sometimes linked to the monarchy.  La Vanguardia, which had long published his opinion articles, refused to print it. López Burniol received an email on August 19 from general editor Jordi Juan Raja, approved by owner Javier de Godó, advising him that the article was refused. López Burniol, out of delicacy, refused to disclose the newspaper’s reason for its refusal and added that he would no longer publish with the daily.

This comes as Spain is convulsed over the invasion by thousands of mostly Muslim men across the border of Ceuta, a territory surrounded by Morocco and which has been Spanish for centuries. The response of the Spanish government, currently in the hands of a leftist coalition led by President Sanchez’s Socialist Party, has been to allow the “migrants” into the country with the result of multiple rapes, violence, and theft. Thousands of newcomers have set up shantytowns on the beaches of Ceuta, while some have been shunted into temporary camps. In one such camp are the few women and girls who crossed into Ceuta, some of whom have been traumatized by rape and assault.

Spanish security forces have not defended the border of Ceuta, leading to fears that a similar invasion may be imminent for Melilla–another Spanish enclave on the Mediterranean shore surrounded by Morocco. Locals in Ceuta and Melilla have demanded that their governments remove the invaders.

Here follows a translation of the article:

Revenge

​For several years now, a persistent thirst for revenge has been taking shape in Spain—a thirst stemming from our last fratricidal conflict, the civil war which erupted ninety years ago. This revenge is being waged as a new civil war—fortunately a hybrid one—in which the fighting does not take place with conventional armies on traditional battlefields, but rather through deliberate and incited social division, institutional paralysis and collapse, and the radical polarization of positions, all of which lead to civil conflict.

This manifests itself in the alignment of two sides separated by a wall—an evil wall erected at the worst possible time by President Pedro Sánchez. These are the same sides defined by the Pact of San Sebastián in 1930 and which clashed in the civil war that began in 1936. On one side was the Left of varying degrees, plus the Catalan and Basque separatist Right; and on the other, the rest of the Right.

The goal of this vendetta—initiated from the seat of power by President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (2004 - 2011) and fueled without restraint by President Sánchez—is: a) to put an end to the second restoration of the monarchy established in the person of King Juan Carlos; b) to repeal the 1978 Constitution; c) to abolish the regime established by it; d) to depose King Felipe, to establish a direct link to the legitimacy of the Second Republic (which was desecrated in the 1930s, first by the left and then by the right); and d) to establish a presidential, pluriregional, and confederal Third Republic that would put an end to Spain as a nation—that is, as a sphere of national solidarity shaped by geography and history, in which all Spaniards are equal.

​Once again, the damned “two Spains” described by poet Antonio Machado in his 1912 poem, which has come to denote a divided and fratricidal country. And let’s be clear: they are not adversaries, but enemies. The resolution of the coming conflict will therefore not be governed by rules accepted by all, but by the respective power of the forces at play, with the mercenary support of their respective auxiliary media auxiliaries.

The conflict will begin soon—within a year at the latest. And this new civil war may coincide with the outbreak of the simmering and escalating crisis in Ceuta and Melilla, which, given the history, will end in another 1898, when the war with the United States brought about the end of the Spanish Empire outside North Africa, coupled with the stirrings of regional independence movements that became known as “The Disaster.” What is coming will  be the final “Disaster.”

Spain will be more isolated than ever, thanks to an insane foreign policy, and it will not even have the consolation of saving its honor—as it always has—through the sacrifice of its soldiers, as it did in Cuba and the Philippines. And the consequences of this debacle? Only God knows. In any case, Spain will lose. And then, all of us—absolutely all of us—will be able to say, referring to Spain: “We all helped kill her, and she died all on her own.” We will not have known how to preserve even the legacy we received.

In the midst of this painful situation, which is driving us toward the precipice, it may be instructive—and even entertaining—to read a recent book by historian Juan-Francisco Fuentes, a professor of history at the Complutense University in Madrid, which compiles his inaugural address to the Royal Academy of History. It is titled Hambre de patria [Hungering for a nation], which is a title that does no justice to the subtlety of the text and that meticulously details many aspects of the personal, intellectual, and emotional journey of Republican exiles following the Civil War. A journey that crystallized into a truth as solid as a temple: the Transition—setting aside the past to agree on the future—was envisioned in exile long before those of us on the inside could even begin to imagine it. That is why, today, I regard many of the Republican leaders of that time as if they had been “mine” all my life, while I distrust and reject our current leaders. They are legitimate, but to me they lack auctoritas—credibility.

May a leader—as much a democrat as a patriot—lead Spain out of these dire straits through the law, with the law, and by the law. Just as Charles de Gaulle lifted France out of its “strange defeat” (Marc Bloch), leading it to later rank among the victors of the war. And just as Winston Churchill led the United Kingdom to resist first and then to win. We all need a miracle sometimes. May it be so.

Juan José López Burniol is Vice-president of the Caixa d'Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona Banking Foundation "la Caixa". He holds a law degree from the University of Navarra. His career has encompassed academia and journalism. He has regularly contributed to various Spanish media, including "La Vanguardia", "El Periódico", "El País" "El Punt-Avui", "TV3", "8tv" and "Catalunya Ràdio".