Rufián: ‘Why can your Constitution be used to threaten people, but not to give them roofs?’

Watch Gabriel Rufián, member of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (catalan pro-independence party), arguing, in a really tough speech, its ‘nay’ to Mariano Rajoy’s investiture.

Below you’ll find additional political context to the citation numbers that you’ll see in the subtitles.

[1] IBEX is the main benchmark stock market index in Spain

[2] The ‘cavern’ is often used to informally and pejorative refer to all right-wing, unionist press printed mainly in Madrid

[3] Carme Forcadell is the current president of Catalonia’s Parliament, threatened by the Spanish Constitutional Court for allowing pro-independence debates in the Catalan Parliament

[4] Jorge Fernández Díaz is the current Minister of the Interior in Spain, who was involved in a scandal in which he supposedly orchestrated campaigns with the police, the Catalan antifraud office and the general State’s attorney to make false scandals on Catalan politicians and corruption

[5] Santi Vidal is a judge who has expressed his support for Catalan independence, and participated in the first drafts for a Catalan constitution

[6] Daniel De Alfonso is the former director of the Catalan antifraud office, involved in the aforementioned scandal on making false acusations

[7] ‘Visca Catalunya Lliure’ is a traditional slogan of Catalan independentism

[8] This statement appeared in the conversations of the aforementioned scandal between Fernández Díaz and De Alfonso

[9] Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution allows the Spanish government to abolish the autonomy of any of the various regions of Spain

[10] These articles state that all Spaniards have the right to have, and the state the duty to support the supply of, a decent home; and that the state has the public initiative in all economic activity

[11] The ‘estelada’ is the traditional Catalan independentist flag, with a ‘senyera’ (four red bands on yellow) and a white star on blue

[12] General Yagüe, ‘The butcher of Badajoz‘, was a military in the national side of the Spanish Civil War, and minister of Franco. He was known for having ordered thousands killed, including injured men in hospitals

[13] Rufian refers to about 100.000 victims of the Spanish Civil War and the postwar repression, mostly from the Republic’s side, that were killed and buried in ditches and common graves, and still have not been identified nor delivered to their families

[14] These are all well known corruption scandals in which a number of Catalan politicians, mostly from the Convergència i Unió party, were involved

[15] These are all well known corruption scandals in which a number of Spanish politicans, mostly from the Partido Popular party, were involved

[16] AVE is the Spanish infrastructure of high speed trains

[17] ‘Rodalies’ are the short and mid-distance trains in Catalonia, famous for their unpunctuality, mechanical failures, and inefficient scheduling in peak hours

[18] ‘Billy el Niño’, Antonio González Pacheco, is a former member of the franquist Police, accused of tortures and murders during Franco’s dictatorship, and wanted internationally for those crimes