Public (in)security

Esther Vera
1 min

Editor-in-chiefOne of the political prisoners held in the Lledoners facility has confided that an unwanted knock-on effect of imprisonment on his young son is that he now draws "the goodies in jail and the baddies on the street". His childlike understanding of good and evil and the common norms of coexistence in civilized society have become distorted.

The same is true for many members of the public who have come to distrust the so-called state security forces, on a scale unprecedented since the Transition [as the post-Franco period is known]. Since the police charges on polling stations on October 1 last year, the presence of Spain’s National Police on the streets of Catalonia is not a reassuring sight for many people. However much Spain’s Ministry of the Interior insists that the thousand officers it will deploy in Catalonia is nothing out of the ordinary, for many Catalans, the police’s presence will do nothing to increase their confidence.

One of the many consequences of the political events which occurred a year ago is the deterioration of democracy and the damage done to the most basic values of dialogue, agreement, the right to participation and tolerance. This is in addition to the deterioration in the recognition of justice as an indisputable building block of society, something which could further deteriorate with the October 1 trial.

One day Spanish public opinion will be able to acknowledge the terrible effect that the PP and the deep state’s policies have had on the quality of its democracy in recent years. The great defenders of Spanish unity will have ended up choking it.

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