Thursday, November 20, 2008

Garzón Throws In The Towel

Baltasar Garzón seems to have abruptly given up in the case he initiated over the victims of Franco's repression. This follows an emergency judicial session held a couple of weeks ago which led to progress on reopening some of the mass graves of the victims being suspended. The judges put aside minor issues such as terrorism cases or the massive Marbella corruption trial to hold their special hearing at the request of prosecutors determined that the case should not go any further. Garzón has now decided the case should be dealt with by local courts in each area. Opinion seems to be split on the move, some observers seem to think it was his only option to keep the issue open, others believe that it will kill the initiative. Where this leaves issues such as the move to open the grave of Federico García Lorca is open to question. The genie is still out of the bottle, and interestingly Garzón has now raised the issue of children who were taken away from their parents and "adopted" by Franco supporters. It's a crime that is not covered by the amnesty law, and raises a clear parallel with similar cases in South America.

The president of the Spanish parliament, Jose Bono, provoked an extraordinary row over his acceptance of a PP proposal to put up a plaque in honour of a nun who was persecuted during the Spanish Civil War. Bono, who would doubtless be horrified at any similar proposal to honour victims of the Republican side in the Congreso, has started a rebellion in the ranks of the PSOE. He was overheard the other day calling his colleagues "hijos de puta", which suggests that the use of the expression is not just confined to Carlos Fabra and the province of Castellón. In the end the proposal had to be dropped. Switching seamlessly to a surreal parallel universe, Esperanza Aguirre claimed last week that her party had nothing to be ashamed of over the past because Franco was a Socialist! So now the truth finally emerges, he started the civil war because the liberal pinkos running the Republican government refused his request to make the Internationale the national anthem. Of course, he moved a tiny bit towards the right in his later years.

4 comments:

Troy said...

Over on my blog I've been talking about parallel universe portholes that seem to be dotting the country and it seems that you have found one Graeme.

In fact, it seems that Aguirre seems to be leaving them in her wake, perhaps she is some sort of harbinger from another dimension, ready to take on the ideological fight where she will be proclaimed empress of Spain.

God fearing "socialists" like Bono will eagerly worship at her feet as she returns Spain to its inquisitional glory! Sound like a porthole to you?

Graeme said...

I think the word we're looking for as far as Aguirre is concerned might be pothole rather than porthole - the latter suggests there might be an escape route.

Tom said...

Well, in many ways, Franco was a socialist. Like, when he... er... hold on... no... that was a Nazi salute he gave, wasn't it. Hmmm....

I haven't read the full quote (link please!), but I suspect that this is connected to the whole 'Hitler was a socialist because he believed in state intervention' crap that anyone who's done a week of Political Science 101 would know to be (a) nonsense and (b) irrelevant. I note that this argument has been employed frequently over the last few days by people who consider the BNP to be 'a bit too poncey-left', because it supports an increase in the minimum wage (for whites).

Graeme said...

Tom, she said it on TV - if you do a google search for "Aguirre Franco Socialista" I think you'll find there's a Youtube link comes up.