Councilman’s arrest shows Francoism is alive and well in Spanish institutions

The arrest of Joan Coma, a Vic city councilman for Capgirem Vic-CUP, raises grave concerns not only for those who support independence from Spain, but for all democrats. It sheds light on the current nature of the Spanish state—what it is and what it has become.

1. Joan Coma serves as a councilman in the city of Vic; he was elected democratically, as a candidate of a legally established political party, the leftist Capgirem Vic-CUP, which was the third most voted in the last local elections, with 17% of the vote and four council members.

2. Joan Coma has been detained under the orders of a special court that, as a direct heir to the Francoist Public Order Court, is a full-fledged legal and undemocratic aberration with no place in a modern state. Its existence can only be explained by the Franco regime’s repression and the subsequent collective amnesia that political forces of the transition agreed to in order to do away with any legal responsibilities stemming from the dictatorship.

3. The examining magistrate in the case is Judge Ismael Moreno, one-time second inspector in Franco’s National Police Corps, starting in 1974, when the dictator was still alive. Over time, Moreno has been involved in a series of controversial political actions as a judge, never mind that the mere fact of having worked for the dictatorship’s police force should be reason enough to prevent him from ever being a magistrate.

4. Joan Coma has been arrested after refusing to testify before Spain’s National Court, when actually, not to testify is an individual right. This is already arbitrary, but the most problematic fact, the one that raises grave concerns, is the reason for his indictment. Coma is being prosecuted simply for statements he made before the full council, in the exercise of his office. Statements that, in addition, were in support of a decision made by the Catalan parliament.

5. The charges against Joan Coma speak of ‘sedition’ and were filed by the lone council member of a far-right party that received 5% of the vote in the last local elections. ‘Sedition’ is a well-defined military term used by all dictatorial regimes as a repressive tool against any democratizing movement, even if peaceful.

The terrible summing-up of all of the above, then, is that a judge who is a former police officer of the Franco regime and now presides over a special court has ordered the arrest of a Catalan public officer for having defended before the full council a decision of the parliament of Catalonia. All of which shows that we live in a country where an elected politician in the public exercise of his office can be arrested simply for verbally defending his ideas—ideas that, by the way, are not illegal under the current legal system.

Call it what you may, but you would never witness this sequence of events in any other democracy in the world. Therein lies the real gravity of the moment. The arrest of Joan Coma highlights and documents beyond a shadow of a doubt the fact that Francoism lives on in Spanish institutions and in the current legal system. It is the canary in the goldmine, alerting us to the degradation of democracy that is already threatening us all, not only those of us who support independence.

PS: I salute you, Joan Coma, and I hope to see you soon strolling the streets of Vic again, your personal freedom restored, again fighting for the freedom of us all.