Alfred Bosch’s remarkable speech to the Spanish Congress in defense of democracy

  • "We are not Robinson Crusoe, we are Man Friday, the servant who cannot choose his own name"

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09.04.2014 - 08:16

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ERC’s spokesperson in the Spanish Congress, Alfred Bosch, sees very clearly that the No to the referendum is not the end of the process. “I’m sorry if anyone thinks that is going to happen,” he said at the beginning of his speech. Bosch directly accused the two large Spanish political parties of denying the vote of the Catalan people and warned them that, no matter what they do, they cannot block the will of the majority of the Catalan people: “The big Spanish parties can try to stop the earth from turning but they know that, despite everything, it will keep on rotating just the same.” And to make his point, he used Galileo’s famous quote, “Eppur si muove” [And yet it moves].

“We are not Robinson Crusoe,” he said, referring to the comparison that Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy had made just a few moments before. “Right now we are Friday, the servant, who can’t even choose his own name.”

“You cannot order the story to be over. Or that the wind stop blowing, the tides stop rising and falling, and that the planets stop rotating,” said Bosch to the Spanish Government. He also insisted that the Catalan process would not conclude with a vote in the Spanish Congress or with a decision by the Spanish Executive, but rather that it would be resolved “at the ballot boxes”, because the majority of the Catalan people had decided so.

The proposal that was being debated symbolizes, according to Bosch, the will of the agreement of the Catalan political forces and the “great respect” for all of the citizens that are represented in the Spanish Congress. Nevertheless, the Catalan Parliament as not taken this path to negotiate whether the referendum will be held, but rather to negotiate conditions about how it might be held, he reminded.

He also mentioned the claims of love for Catalonia that Mariano Rajoy had expressed earlier. According to Bosch, “True love is that which respects, which is based on freedom, on equality, that doesn’t prohibit or censor, and not the love that denies the will of the other.”

To finish, Bosch spoke directly to the Spanish citizens, to whom he asked that they not support the “crazy actions” of the Spanish Government. Denying the right of the Catalans “damages Spanish democracy” and serves as a precedent, for example for denying Spaniards the right to choose between a monarchy and a republic.

He also made part of his speech in English, with translations into Spanish. He said “We are decent, peaceful people. “We have the right to be free. No one has the right to impede our freedom.” and “The Catalan nation is not better than any other, but not less.”

Bosch guaranteed that the ‘game’ would not be decided in a vote in the Spanish Congress but rather in the Catalan ballot boxes on November 9th.


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