I think this development reflects the shift of European politcs (and not
only European) towards bonapartism. Threats of a military coup by a
large number of "ex"-militaries in a major EU country is an
unprecedented developments since a long time. But surely, such
ultra-reactionary forces feel emboldend by the developments of the last
12 months.
Am 28.12.2020 um 15:21 schrieb Louis Proyect:
NYT, Dec. 28, 2020
Ex-Military Officers Criticize Spain’s Government and Praise Franco
By Raphael Minder
MADRID — Earlier this month, 271 former members of Spain’s armed
forces used the anniversary of the country’s Constitution to issue a
manifesto criticizing the left-wing coalition government and warning
that Spain’s unity was under threat.
The manifesto was published shortly after chats were leaked to the
Spanish news media in which retired air force officers described Gen.
Francisco Franco, Spain’s former dictator, as “the irreplaceable one”
and gave a thumbs up to the suggestion that left-wing Spaniards be
shot. Some of the retired officers also sent letters to King Felipe VI
attacking the government led by the Socialist prime minister, Pedro
Sánchez.
Although the defense minister and the chief of the armed forces said
the statements did not represent the views of the active military, the
bold foray into politics by former officers prompted the government to
take legal action and worried analysts in a country that was led by a
military dictatorship until 1975.
This past week, the left-wing Spanish newspaper Público published
screen shots from another leaked WhatsApp group chat in which active
members of an artillery unit shared Fascist salutes and threatening
comments.
The defense chief of staff, Gen. Miguel Ángel Villarroya Vilalta,
reasserted “the political neutrality of our armed forces” in a
statement and warned that inappropriate private messages hurt “the
image of the armed forces,” even if they came from retired officers.
“The opinions of these people cannot be considered to represent the
collective to which they once belonged,” he said.
José Antonio Martín Pallín, a former judge of the Spanish Supreme
Court, said in a phone interview that he did not see grounds to
prosecute over the contents of a private chat but did see
justification in revoking a military honor, the Order of San
Hermenegildo, from those involved because “this order requires
exemplary behavior.”
The royal household forwarded the letters received by King Felipe VI
to the government, but Mr. Martín Pallín argued that “the king should
have publicly said something forceful against this missive.” Overall,
he added, “It’s clear to me that there are now serving officers who
uphold anti-democratic values, even if I’m not saying their views are
shared by the whole army.”
The growing influence of the far right within the military has also
become an issue in other countries, notably Germany, and coincides
with a push by governments to restrict individual rights, like freedom
of movement, because of the pandemic.
“Spain has its own singularity within what I see as a worrying Western
trend of many people increasingly accepting the ideas and the need for
authoritarianism,” said Josep Ramoneda, a philosopher and columnist.
“Unsurprisingly, the military is particularly fertile ground for
authoritarianism.”
José Ignacio Domínguez, a former air force officer who refused to sign
the letter that his cohorts had prepared for King Felipe, said that it
was an attempt “to get our king to intervene and help overthrow the
government.”
Even if the letter was signed by retirees, he said the political
leanings of the current armed forces were increasingly those of
Spain’s far-right party, Vox. Last year Vox became the third-largest
party in Parliament, winning 15 percent of the vote and performing
above its national average in provinces with large military bases.
After Franco’s death in 1975, Spain’s transition to democracy “left
the army completely untouched,” Mr. Domínguez noted, “so it’s not
surprising that Spain’s new far-right party has found strong
supporters among the many officers who continue to consider that they
form a Pretorian guard and don’t seem to understand that they should
obey whatever government has been democratically elected.”
Spain removed an equestrian statue of Franco from its main military
academy in Zaragoza only in 2006, which means that “every one of our
army generals got to walk past an enormous statue of our former
dictator during two years of his military training, something that
would be unthinkable in any other modern democracy,” Mr. Domínguez said.
Luis Gonzalo Segura, a former army lieutenant and anticorruption
whistle-blower, said that the messages exchanged by the former
officers made clear that “the only thing that stopped them from
calling for a coup d’état is that this would not be seen favorably by
the Spanish population and would be opposed by the rest of Europe.”
The leaked chat by former air force officers called for the shooting
of “26 million sons of bitches,” an apparent reference to the more
than half the Spanish population they said did not share their
right-wing views.
Mr. Segura was expelled from the army in 2015 for breaching military
discipline after he publicly accused his superiors of corruption and
other misdeeds.
Even though Spain’s armed forces were not affected by the transition
process after Franco’s death, Mr. Ramoneda, the columnist, noted that
their role was significantly altered in the 1980s by three events: a
failed military coup in 1981, a sweeping Socialist election victory in
1982 and Spain’s entrance into NATO that year, “which forced our most
senior military commanders to dilute their political views,
particularly since they suddenly got very proud to rub shoulders with
their counterparts from larger modern armies.”
Before Vox’s emergence, Mr. Ramoneda argued, the secessionist
challenge in Catalonia, which reached a boiling point in 2017, “is
what really changed the mood in the armed forces, giving many a new
sense of their role as defenders of Spain and its unity.”
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