Mine, the good ones, yours, the bad ones
2 de octubre de 2019

A few weeks ago, a study translated to datums and measures something that all know, even if we’re ashamed to admit it: most of the humans don’t choose a correct political option commensurate with their ethics, but the other way around. That is, first they adopt a flag, and then, defend the ethical positions of those who stand up for it.

In a epoch in which the politic talk more about “identities”, about affiliation to a group or another, this has serious consequences. It is enough to see the Catalan nationalists calling out for the presumption of innocence of seven radicals, enough two already have confessed to manufacturing and testing bombs to wreak havoc as a political weapon. We have already saw it in Alsasua, where the supposedly nacionalist Basque moderates  of Navarra have been tucking to confessed attackers, pressures for the local identity sectarianism. ¿How are going to be the bad ones if they are of ours?

What remains of the Socialist Party is even more illustrative. The amount of his electorate who vote by reflex is huge. “I’m from the left,” “I’m from the PSOE”, and the rest of the image loose importance. With whom they agree, what programme they have, what candidates they have, it doesn’t matter. This people vote to the candidate of their tribe or they stay at home. But the flashy in which they are shown themselves capable of defending it despite copernican twists such as the PSN, who, before the elections, wanted a progresist government without nationalisms, and after this, make a coalition with the conservatives nationalists. This party does the opposite as what it promised in almost every campaign message, but for many of his voters the new attitude is ethically correct, because it’s the one of his party. Or, in fact, replaces it. 

Only in this way, cases are explained such us the one of the Grande Marlaska minister. A person whom professional trajectory could be expected to uphold solid ethical principles of respect for the law, freedoms and opinions of others. And yet, since he was invested, he has been showing that his values are far behind the conveniences of his party, if they are not directly dependent on them. 

Marlaska is (let’s not forget) the ultimate responsible for public safety in Spain, and if he needs it, he has the capacity to intercede to claim it. Despite this, in Catalonia it has allowed the political (and deeply sectarian) control of the Mossos d’Esquadra to be consolidated, through an openly supremacist Department of Internal Affairs that mistreats constitutional agents. This puts in danger nothing less than the neutrality of the state forces in Catalonia. But PSOE has decided not to remove the wasp’s nest. In consequence, for Marlaska nothing happens, even though it should prevent the spread of radicalization.


Grande Marlaska has, since he was invested, shown that his principles are far behind his party’s conveniences, if they are not dependent on them


A task put to the test, given that the normalization of tributes to ETAs (in their land and outside it) represents just the opposite. It would also be incumbent upon it to monitor the emergence of new terrorist risks. And seven of them have been catched already red-handed. To top it all, his reaction has not been to congratulate himself on it, but to abroncar to the Guardia Civil (that has acted all the time under judicial direction). ¿What is the explanation about this behaviour? That your party doesn’t want reality to interrupt a good electoral argument.

On the other hand, Marlaska is a member of the LGTBI collective, and is supposed to have sufficient criteria and information. But before this year’s Gay Pride celebration, he said that Citizen support for Vox on these issues (something that has never existed) “would have consequences. And he justified the bush and aggressions by a group of demonstrators, many of them socialist militants, to the citizens’ delegation.  That is, a party that defends the rights of this collective to live in complete equality, but that is not theirs. The truth, The respect to the others, the coexistence, the dignity of their position, matter less than trying to stain of green to Citizens. 

Thus, Marlaska became the minister who commissioned, accepted and quoted a false police report on the Gay Pride incidents. So false that the unions had to intervene and denounce him so that he would stop using it. However, this falsification has not had any repercussions.  Because it was done to justify the minister’s actions and words. Because party loyalty has been put ahead of ethics.

Marlaska is, finally, the minister who goes back to his old ways when he blames Carrizosa for his expulsion from a Parliament in which was being asked the the release of detainees for preparing explosions and the impunity of prisoners for attempting illegal secession. For Marlaska, the problem is not in the sectarianism (the partisan, tribal ethics) of those who expel, but in the manners of the expelled. Because the Catalan separatists constitute, for the agenda of the PSOE, peaceful people whatever they do, and those of Citizens, by definition, revolutionaries, even if they are right. 

There are many people, unfortunately, that act alike. This affects voters of the PSOE, PP, Cs, Podemos, Geroa and all the others. The mines are good in every situation because there are mines. And what others do is bad, whatever it is, because there are not mines. A slope on which it is easy to slip into sectarian behaviour. This phenomenon explains the mobilization of voters alarmed because “the right is coming,” that puppet we have been demonizing for more than 40 years.

In fact, it’s not always like that. There is a part of the population does not feel attached to any acronym, flag or collective. People who choose their vote on the basis of the ethic demonstrated by the acts and the programme of the parties. People who don’t allow anyone to cover themselves with their flag, be it ikurriña, estelada, red, rojigualda, purple or rainbow. 

This citizens find it difficult to know the reality, given the quality of the media and the opaque scenography of the parties, but at least, they try. They do not simplify. Make an effort. Deserve all the respect, no matter what they vote. Let’s toast to them. 

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