Telemadrid, a local TV corporation based in the capital city of Spain, broadcasted a programme called "La imposición y perversión del lenguaje" (The imposition and perversion of the speech) a few days ago. It aimed to criticize that Basque and Catalan "nationalists" manipulate the speech for propaganda purposes, such as to impose their goal to break up with Spain. In fact, Catalans and Basques were accused of "semantic manipulation", as the whole video wants to show. They do not even hesitate to compare them with Hitler and Stalin because of that supposed exercise of propaganda, as anyone can see at the begining of the video. Furthermore, when talking about the "imposition of their idiom by Basque separatists", they claim it succeeded due to the pressure exercised by ETA to impose its own rhetoric. Moreover, the authors of the documentary deny the existence of Basque political prisoners and accuse the members of Abertzale left of being terrorists.
The video below is a 30-second extract of the video with English subtitles courtesy of Help Catalonia, an advocacy group whose aim is to expose the attacks suffered by Catalonia:
Unfortunately, this is not the first example of banalization of Nazism and Stalinism, either an attempt to assimilate Basque language and culture to terrorism. Such accusations are frequent among Spanish media, social networks (try to search "putos vascos" -fucking Basques- or "putos catalanes" -fucking Catalans- on Twitter) and even high-profiled politicians. For instance, journalist Isabel San Sebastián claimed that Basque was a language spoken only by "separatists, nationalists and ETA supporters". On the other hand, Spanish Minister García-Margallo linked Catalan nationalism with Nazism and Marxism. Someone can read or hear such speeches nearly every day in Spain.
However, the problem is not only that such insulting comments are perfectly legal (they have always been tolerated by the power and never have been punished so far) but that other comments which are likely to be much more aggressive also remain unpunished. Moreover, authorities try to relate not only separatism but also other civil rights defenders to Hitler and ETA's violence: the last one was the Spanish Interior Minister, who said that "avorting had something to do with ETA, but not too much".
Furthermore, those who are trying to identificate protesters of separatists with Nazis are precisely the heirs of Franco and his dictatorship, which succeeded due to the military support of Hitler's Germany. In fact, the Spanish dictator would send the so-called División Azul to fight alongside German troops in the Eastern front. What is more, they are the only ones imposing their language, culture or way of thinking while trying to punish or marginalise those who act in a different way. As an example, Aragonese government has removed from regional laws any protection to Catalan language (spoken in the North-East of the region) and even changed its name into LAPAO while Aragonese has being called LAPAPYP. This is an example of cultural genocide like several others which are taking place every day.
A State in which those who are different are unfairly accusated of being terrorists and nazis cannot guarantee neither coexistence between its citizens nor the respect of their human rights. Spain has to learn many things yet.
However, the problem is not only that such insulting comments are perfectly legal (they have always been tolerated by the power and never have been punished so far) but that other comments which are likely to be much more aggressive also remain unpunished. Moreover, authorities try to relate not only separatism but also other civil rights defenders to Hitler and ETA's violence: the last one was the Spanish Interior Minister, who said that "avorting had something to do with ETA, but not too much".
Furthermore, those who are trying to identificate protesters of separatists with Nazis are precisely the heirs of Franco and his dictatorship, which succeeded due to the military support of Hitler's Germany. In fact, the Spanish dictator would send the so-called División Azul to fight alongside German troops in the Eastern front. What is more, they are the only ones imposing their language, culture or way of thinking while trying to punish or marginalise those who act in a different way. As an example, Aragonese government has removed from regional laws any protection to Catalan language (spoken in the North-East of the region) and even changed its name into LAPAO while Aragonese has being called LAPAPYP. This is an example of cultural genocide like several others which are taking place every day.
A State in which those who are different are unfairly accusated of being terrorists and nazis cannot guarantee neither coexistence between its citizens nor the respect of their human rights. Spain has to learn many things yet.
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