SPANISH STATE
Written by Felipe Alegría – Corriente Roja
Monday, 23 June 2014 19:46
The king´s abdication is a desperate attempt to protect the monarchy and a crumbling regime.

An agonizing regime

The regime that was born in 1978 through the so-called Transition is on a critical situation indeed. This regime was the result of the Transition pact between a criminal regime in crisis, the Franco dictatorship, and the illegalized, at that time, “democratic opposition”. This expression was used to designate the PCE (the major party back then), the PSOE and the nationalist forces from Catalonia and the Basque Country.

The pact ensured the preservation of the main state apparatus from the Franco period (army, police, judges and high bureaucrats never processed for their crimes) and the economic interests of the wealthy families, clustered around banks and their associated companies.

The interests of the Catholic Church were meticulously preserved too.  In exchange for this, the regime (that was going to a terminal crisis facing a strong workers and popular movement) acknowledged the democratic freedoms already conquered on the streets and offered to the democratic opposition a “sunny” spot in the Congress, in the parliaments of the autonomous communities, and in the municipalities from which they could be integrated into “governance”.

The opposition parties embraced the inherited banner of Francoism, the King designated by Franco and the “indivisible  unity of the Spanish motherland”. They accepted, as part of the pact, the integration to NATO and the European Union, which was presented to the people as the seventh heaven. On the that layout, the King was the symbol of the pact, chief of the army and the image of the unity of the Spanish State.

Now, 36 years later, this big building had started to decompose. After the real-estate boom’s blow-up  and the capitalist crisis, the regime increasingly appeared as the troika minion and the tool of banks and companies to pauperize the people and strip them from their rights; and, indeed, as a corruption shelter for the institutions (starting with monarchy and PPSOE).

The 15M and its “you don’t represent us” started the demolition in 2011.  The last chapter came 3 years later with the king´s abdication.

The King´s “merits”

Rajoy, Rubacalba, and the media are presenting Juan Carlos as the maker and pillar of the Spanish Democracy. In order to do this, they have concealed the fact that he was designated by Franco, that he swore to accept his “principles of the movement” and never pronounced a single sentence against  Francoism or their crimes.

They have concealed the story about his “dangerous liaisons” (dangerous friendships) with bankers that ended up processed or in jail such as the Condes, Albertos or Prados. They have concealed the fact that the hardly suspicious newspaper, The New York Times, credits him with a fortune of 2000 millions that nobody knows where it came from.

They have concealed his intimacy with the Saudi and Emirates corrupt dynasties and as well as his bears and elephants hunting.

They have insisted, on the contrary, on an alleged great merit: saving democracy on February  23rd.They cling with despair to this official version they have turned to a faith dogma, but that is like leaking water on every side, nonetheless.

No wonder, Pilar Urbano’s most recent book, in which she explained the intimacies between the King and the General Armada, was silenced by the media, without anyone daring to file any complaint against the author.

What are they up to with the abdication?

The King resisted the abdication until the last moment. If he agreed to it at the end it’s because he hadn’t any other choice. The discredit of the monarchy is so big that they needed to loose dead weight. The depth of the crisis is reflected on the rush and improvisation of their actions, forced by the EU election results, Rubacalba´s resignation and the Catalan  sovereigntist timetable. They haven’t even decided in which kind of tribunal he would be judged after his abdication.

What they want is to use the crowning to launch a “second transition”, meaning a new pact that legitimates the regime in crisis and allows it to continue with by doing just a few constitutional changes. This topic has been discussed for a long time in the heights.

The problem is that they do not have it easy. The main institutions are widely discredited and those who represent the “first transition” have lost their prestige. Is it possible for the PP, PSOE and the CEOE and CCOO-UGT leadership to cast a second transition? No to mention that the historical nationalities’ aspirations have gone too far already as to be diverted to a new “autonomism”  that could dodge their demands on their right to self-determination. We will face many ploys after the new King´s proclamation indeed. However it will be much more difficult to stabilize and put an end to the crisis.

What way out for the working class?

What until recently seemed to be impossible can become a reality now, that is, to checkmate the monarchy. Tens of thousands from us have walked out to the streets and we are going to become a multitude. The new rule must be born mortally wounded.

The moment demands a unifying agreement between the left forces, class unionism, social movements and nationalist left to launch a campaign of pronouncements in municipalities, of agitation and mobilization that reaches the last corner to demand a constitutional referendum about keeping the monarchy and allowing the people to get rid of it. The IU and PODEMOS have a special responsibility regarding this. The responsibility on the nationality issue lies with the independentist left. Nobody would understand them not getting involved in the struggle for this democratic demand appealing to the “it’s a Spanish problem and not ours” argument.

The struggle to free ourselves from the monarchy and for the rights of nationalities goes hand in hand. It’s necessary to join both demands in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Vigo.

It must not be forgotten that to accomplish the referendum Rajoy needs to be ousted by the streets mobilizations in the first place and forced to convene anticipated elections to finally break apart the monarchic bipartisanship.

There are tricky royalists that argument that it’s all the same to have a King or a Republic, because there are bad Republics as well as democratic monarchies. This tricky argument forgets history and the present situation and, furthermore, try to give the impression that the problem is only a matter of changing a King for a President. Not at all. To put an end to the monarchy is nothing but the entrance door into a constituent process that – based on the right of nationalities to decide and on the leading role of workers and popular organizations – change from top to bottom the political, social and economic foundations of the society to put them at the service of the people.