If you want to know why Alicia Sánchez-Camacho has decided that she no longer trusts the Mossos d'Esquadra with the job of keeping her alive, you should look a little further back than Metodo3. Policy from on high dictates that the PP's plan now is to foment ethnic and political division in Catalonia. Encouraging people not to trust the police is an excellent way to get started.
And things are only just getting started.
The Spanish PP has directed a vicious attack against a judge. Again. The judge ruled no criminal offences had been committed by the organisers of the 25S protests in Madrid. A PP spokesman described him as "posh anarchist", "indecent", "intolerable", "unacceptable" and "dreadful". He also warned that the judge would be personally responsible for any 'incident' that happens to any MP.
I say again: a spokesman for the ruling party in Spain, hurling insults at a judge. This is not the sort of thing that should happen in a democracy. But in Spain, justice is cheap and when it goes against you, you insult and threaten the judge. All the more so, it seems, if you're the government.
Meanwhile, the senior government official in the Comunidad de Madrid has called for the right to protest to be curtailed. It seems that she doesn't approve of 'misuse of public space'. She has been campaigning for this since the mid 2000s when thousands of Spaniards were regularly bused in by the PP to protest against the PSOE government. Oh, sorry… no, she hasn't.
Oh and plus: finance minister Luís de Guindos was in London yesterday, looking for vultures investors to come to Spain and pick over what's left of the country invest in (…what?). His talk was interrupted by protestors chanting 'Spain for sale!'. But the worst came when he insisted that Spain wouldn't need a bailout. The audience laughed in his face.
I'm off to San Francisco this weekend. A 6am flight tomorrow. Have a great weekend, everybody.
The prime minister of Thailand declared that the country is in a state of emergency today, in response to widespread (and at times humiliating) protests against the current government (the third, if I recall correctly, since the military coup d'etat in 2007). Former PM, Thaksin Shinawatra, who the protestors apparently claim to see as their leader, has suggested that this might be the beginning of a revolution in Thailand.
When Shinawatra refers to a 'revolution', he probably means another coup, and though I lean towards Shinawatra's version of Thai democracy rather than that of the urban middle classes, I feel that Thailand needs to achieve a revolution which no one talks about: abolishing the monarchy. A truly socialist anti-king revolution in Bangkok would probably fix a lot of the problems that Thailand now faces.
Chances of that happening: ZERO
Over the last 30-odd years, Spain's politics have been relatively stable. Despite the occasional fascist coup attempt or the more frequent ETA bombings, Spain's constitutional monarchy seems to have stayed the course. But democracy in Spain wasn't always presided over by a king. The Second Spanish Republic, target of the 1936 military rebellion, aimed to create a Spain without kings or princes, while Franco's dictatorship is still praised by some sections of Spanish society for its imposition of order and Catholic purity.
In the end, the Republic failed for various reasons. This week's poll asks you to pick the best way ahead for Spain. The choices are fairly simple: Constitutional monarchy, republic, or dictatorship. There's also an "other" option for those who'd like to propose an alternative. As always, your comments are welcome.
A few days ago, I mentioned in these pages that members of the PSOE had suggested that the PP and its allies in the AVT were attempting to foment a coup d'etat against the Socialist government.
After some investigation, I have to report that the only place where I can find any reference to this quote is the right-wing website, 'Libertad Digital'. As LD is almost totally unreliable in their news coverage, I reckon that either the story was highly exaggerated or it was a total fabrication.
I should have checked-out the story properly before referring to it.
From Reuters:
The Thai armed forces and national police chiefs have set up a commission to decide on political reforms after troops and tanks took over government headquarters on Tuesday, a statement on television said.
The written statement relayed by all television channels, said the armed forces and police were in control of Bangkok, which remained peaceful, and appealed for calm.
The city is apparently under curfew now. Witnesses saw dozens of vehicles full of troops in the streets. All Thai TV channels are now broadcasting the same images of national unity.
…according to Reuters and BBC:
So glad that we booked our honeymoon in Thailand!