Translation of the editorial article Vilaweb of 7 September 2026
or: Understanding the Ceuta crisis (translator)
The socialists are simply now paying for their enthusiastic support of the coup against Catalonia. They pay for not having sided with democracy and for not having fiercely defended against the PP the value of politics as a method of resolving conflicts
Ten years ago, saying that a Spanish government president could end up in prison – not as a theory, but as a fact to be verified soon – would have seemed like a joke from a late-night talk show. Today it is ordinary conversation in Madrid, and not only among extremists, but also among the most sensible commentators of the regime. The Ceuta crisis has been judicialized at a dizzying speed, and the question everyone is asking is no longer whether Pedro Sánchez will survive the legislature, but whether, at the end of this path, there is a banquet for him in a courtroom and, perhaps, a cell in a prison.
The mechanism they use is well known. Vox wants the short track: Article 102 of the Constitution, which involves an accusation of treason approved by Congress and the president brought before the second chamber of the Supreme Court. This does not seem easy: for now, the numbers do not add up at all – they would need eighty-eight deputies to start the process and one hundred seventy-six to approve it – and, moreover, the crime of treason is so narrowly defined in the penal code that it would be very complicated to abuse it.
The PP, on the other hand, prefers the slow path and, probably, more effective and safe: that Judge Tardón’s investigation progresses on its own, that reports keep appearing, that the chain of command is reconstructed record by record, and that, if one day indications against a person with parliamentary immunity appear, it is the same judge who submits a reasoned report to the Supreme Court. We may think that neither of the two paths will end in conviction before the elections, but that they are on the table and that it surrounds the Spanish politics is significant and conditions everything.
That is why I believe it is so necessary, seen from the Catalan independence movement, to read the why. To understand why Spain is already in the situation it is in.
Especially because we have to be aware that the underlying cause is not Ceuta. The offensive we are seeing these days was not invented by the right last August. The right, in any case, takes advantage of a permission that was granted to them. Specifically, it was granted to them by a man without morals or principles, named Pedro Sánchez.
He did it in September and October 2017 with the arrival of the riot police in Barcelona, Article 155, the dramatic spectacles in the parliament, the blows against the citizens, the pressure on companies, the trials, the prisons, and the exile. With the socialist applause for all of this, the PP and the PSOE jointly sent five unequivocal messages to the Spanish population. I wrote them right here, in an editorial article six years ago, and I copy them again today without having to change a comma. What the PP and the PSOE were using back then for Catalonia is exactly what the PP and Vox are using today for Ceuta.
1) The unity of the Spanish nation is more important than democracy.
2) If you do not like a government, you can follow non-democratic procedures to overthrow it without remorse.
3) The deep state is more powerful than the government and, therefore, is more effective at combating ideas you do not like.
4) Political violence is not only legitimate, but it is encouraged if the homeland is in danger.
5) The armed forces are the guarantee of unity.
Now read last week’s newspapers with this list next to them. A fifty-five-page police report that reaches a judge without being forwarded to the minister. A defense minister who, upon seeing that this could end up being a crime, puts herself at a safe distance from the president and lets the intelligence services say the opposite of Moncloa (presidential palace, transl). A government that no longer knows if there are sectors of the police and the Civil Guard acting on their own. And an opposition that has understood that it is not necessary to win any vote of no confidence if you can do the job with an investigation file. Point one. Point three. Point five. Point two. And they are already openly aiming at point four.
The socialists, as proud of themselves just in the way as they are always irresponsible – and I define irresponsible in the precise manner of Johann Chapoutot – are simply now paying for their enthusiastic support of the coup d’état against Catalonia. They are paying for not having supported democracy and for not having fiercely defended the value of politics as a method of resolving conflicts against the PP.
By doing what they did in 2017, the socialists signed a notarial certificate that says the state goes above the ballot boxes and that those who have the robes and the weapons are more powerful than those who have the votes. Simply put, the prosecutors, judges, commissioners, and generals who in 2017 learned that they could override a legitimate government have not unlearned the lesson. They saw that it worked. And they have become addicted to it.
By doing what they did in 2017, the socialists signed a notarial certificate that says the State interests stand above the ballot boxes and that those who wear the robes of office and have the weapons are more powerful than those who have the votes. Simply put, the prosecutors, judges, commissioners, and generals who in 2017 learned that they could override a legitimate government have not unlearned the lesson. They saw that it worked. And they have become addicted to it.
I would not want anyone to be confused: let it be clear that I do not celebrate anyone’s imprisonment, nor, even less, any advance of fascism. We already know all too well what a Spanish prison, exile, trials, and baton blows mean, and those who have experienced it up close do not make jokes about it. But I do believe that we have every right in the world – and the obligation! – to point out the morality of history and remind it to those who did not want to listen to us when it was necessary: whoever accepts the ways of fascist action, accepts its legitimacy. And sooner or later, their turn will come.
https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/madrid-explotara-preparem-nos-per-a-fer-servir-la-seua-ira/
All of this that I repeat today I already explained on these same pages on May 17, 2020, in the editorial “Madrid will explode: let us prepare to use its rage.” Six years ago, of this. But it has no merit, because no crystal ball was needed to write it: it was enough to look at the underlying currents instead of the surface waves, just as the great Fernand Braudel taught us.
In any case, since I was right, the question –I will also repeat what I said back then– is not what will happen to Pedro Sánchez and Spain. That is not at what interests me. The big issue that worries and stirs me is what we will do when all this finally erupts and how we will take advantage of it to achieve independence and leave Spain, taking advantage of the Spanish crisis. On this –I regret having to acknowledge it–, we are much worse off than six years ago. But an opportunity is an opportunity. And it keeps coming to us.
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