Jose Maria Aznar believes that Spain is going through a “crucial moment” in its history. “One of those moments when the future of a country is decided for generations.” According to the former president of the government, “Spanish society must be fully aware of this” of this situation. Because “in your hand, and only in it, is the necessary reaction, and the consequences of both success and error will weigh on your future.”
Aznar participated in an event organized by the Institute of Political Leadershipin a master class entitled The governments of José María Aznar (1996-2004)taught at the Goethe-Institut in Madrid. During the conference, he reflected on his time in government and current political issues.
“Today the enemies of constitutional Spain They have the government with one knee on the ground and the other trembling“. And for its part, the Government of Pedro Sánchez “has socialism on its knees” and with crossed arms”, he diagnosed. This is how he wants all of us, and justice, to begin with.
According to the former leader of the PPP, Spain is facing “an institutional and social abyss”. Aznar predicts that if the process continues, “coexistence will be weakened” because the circumstances do not exist, even for some. general electionsnot one motion of censure nor for the resignation of the president of the government.
“NOW We are not facing an impasse, but rather an institutional and social chasm where they wanted to put us,” he said. According to Aznar, this Now is not the time for the “politics of doubt”but “very serious policies”. Paraphrasing himself, when he raised his voice against the amnesty bill 13 months ago, he said: “It is time that everyone who has something to say or do should do so.”
The former president insisted, frustrated, that, at the moment, “it does not seem that Sánchez and the government’s extremisms are going to happen.” And This will “encourage frustration” among citizens.
The former president not only criticized Sánchez’s policy of pacts, but he reviewed everything that has happened since he left power. “On March 12, 2000, that is to say when he revalidated his 1996 victory, this time with an absolute majority, I commented: “Today the civil war as a political argument is over.” It was true. This is why some began, from that day on, to try to deny it.“.
turning
For Aznar it is obvious that this was a turning point and that since then the “degenerative” process in which we find ourselves today began. “The electoral strength of the PP has placed socialism in the face of a dilemma: or accept the exhaustion of your project and renew yourself compete in the center, or look for extremist shortcuts. And it also alarmed nationalism. »
It is for this reason that since 2004, the PSOE of Zapatero then “sought the shortcut and the alliance at the extremes”.breaking with the PP as an indispensable partner in state affairs; and nationalism has renounced institutional participation.
In this way, “institutional agreement has given way to auction or blackmail, because the common good has given way to party interest or personal survival”, and this is where we find ourselves today, both in the case of Sánchez and that of Carles Puigdemont.
In the case of the current president, this is seen in his pacts with himself. former president escaped or with formations like EH-Bildu. According to Aznar, to ETA terrorists “neither Europe nor lawyers are getting them out of prison”, but rather Sánchez releases them for “their weakness and vanity”.
The former president believes that the current government is “waiting for the release of terrorists, because Its continuity depends on its infamy. And when we protest, there is no shortage of voices saying ‘the PP needs ETA to exist’… but they don’t understand anything,” he said.Terrorism does not aspire to continue killing, but to make people pay the price of stopping these massacres.. “It’s his way of getting what the ballot box doesn’t give him.”
And if the PP speaks of ETA, he insisted, “it is because the government has decided to reduce the punishment of terrorists and because Bildu governs in Spain“. Aznar reiterated that “terrorism and crime are fought and not remunerated”, because his goal is “that the day comes when a society gives in”.
The cause of 1-O
And in the case of the independence movement, Aznar argues that “Also in Catalonia, the objective is to pay for violence”.
In this case, Sánchez does it, according to the PP, “saying that peace is possible, but not with the Statute, nor with the Constitution, nor with the Popular Party and not without the quota” that he promised to the ‘ERC in exchange for investing in Salvador Illa.
For Aznar, “the Tinell Pact” with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero inaugurated “the total delegitimization of the PP” as a strategic alliance “in which socialism obtains the government of a Spain in the process of destruction, and separatism obtains authorization to continue destroying it”.
And it is “the cause of the coup, not in the PP”. Because Tinell led us to the reform of the unconstitutional Statute, then to the illegal 1-O referendum, and now to the joint venture between the PSOE and the separatists. “This is not intended to appease or normalize anything, This sets the country on fire socially and destroys it institutionally.“, he concluded.
