From Words to Fact: A New Party for Spain

Fernando Savater

Europa, November 2007

The newly founded UPD party attempts to address the excesses of “regionalism” in Spanish politics and to reclaim the equality of rights and opportunities for all citizens.

I have taught for many years that democracy consists of two essential notions: firstly, in a democracy we are all politicians, and members of the government are little more than our delegates,

those to whom we have given a mandate for a certain time and under certain conditions; Secondly, that it is senseless to simply lament, as monarchic subjects or slaves would do, the actions of our politicians: if we believe they are not conducting their function well, it is up to us to depose them in the ballot box, to substitute them for others, and, as a last resort, to offer to carry out their tasks ourselves when we think we can improve on them. The basis of the democratic system is that no one is born just to command or just to obey, but we all must be ready for one or the other according to what may benefit the community.

For this reason I have participated in all imaginable civic movements in the Basque countries: Movement for Peace and Non-Violence, Foro de Ermua, Basta Ya… it was a means of doing politics (not ethics nor conscientious objection) without converting into a professional politician. But today it is not enough to follow the same line of action, and we have no other remedy than to attempt offering a new political alternative so that our voice may reach up to the Spanish parliament. We have therefore launched ourselves in the difficult adventure of proposing a new political party: Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPD).

Our principal objective is to defend the equality of citizens, without which there is no State of Right that is worth its salt. But this implies beginning to unequivocally and constitutionally determine the attributes of the State and those of the “autonomies,” which are merely their subsidiary and not mini-states. What should worry us is not the nationalism of the nationalists; they defend what they believe in and so long as they do it pacifically and within the rule of law there is nothing to object, except attempting to oppose better reasons. Rather, it is the rampart nationalism of the non nationalists, the swell over all of Spain of a sort of induced pseudo-nationalism or a contagious regionalitis, which finds electoral and economic advantages in advancing (regional) nationalist claims demanding “that they give us back what is ours” and that “they give it all now” without any concern for the common good. One hears expressions such as “the Basque countries will be what the Basques will want” or “Catalonia what the Catalans will decide”; these are clearly nationalist statements, for the constitutional truth is that Spain will be what the Spanish in all and every part of the country want it to be. The most important self-determination is that of the Spanish citizens in the management of their global community. From the educational point of view, it is time to end it with the beatified fetish of endless difference and with the conversion of any discourse of unity and similarity into quasi-fascist impositions.

We view freedom of conscience and the laicism of the state as simply necessary in any democracy worthy of this name. And we are also convinced that there is no effective equality without a redistribution of wealth, and for this reason we defend public services and social protection without exclusions. And all of this is not a political “shopping list” full of heterogeneous annotations, but something intimately tied together and articulated in a coherent conception of the national reality.

The UPD does not come to castigate any existing political option, but to help to govern in a different way. We would like to contribute towards a sentiment of democratic modesty, as Albert Camus well expressed it: “the democrat, in the end, is someone who accepts that the adversary can be right, who allows him to express himself and accepts to reflect on his arguments.” This differentiates us from those who reduce political discourse to a banal “at least we are not like them.” To never share anything with the adversary and to never recognize in him any merit is the most idiotic of all sectarian formulae.

The last of our preoccupations is to define our place amongst the left or amongst the right, when in Spain the socialist government seeks support from the large banking groups for its economic policy and the liberal opposition goes hand in hand with the most fundamentalist of bishops. For too much time we suffered at the hands of a battalion of politicians immune to the sense of ridicule who, when faced with a mistake of Zapatero’s cabinet, remind us that the opposition in turn did the same or worse when in government, as if this were to serve as a consolation. One of the finest scenes in Macbeth sees the dialogue between prince Malcom, son of the assassinated Duncan, and Macduff, whose son has also died at the hands of the tyrant. To test Macduff, who wishes to return him the usurped throne, Malcolm admits to all kinds of vices and atrocious ambitions, which Macduff takes as trifles of no importance so long as Macbeth can be deposed. This is simply the choice of rancour. But the UPD will not lower itself to this, nor will it chase after those who raise their voices full of bile but short of ideas.

Many of the promoters of the UPD have defended these ideas in the media over the course of many years. But now we must go beyond the intellectual debate and, well argued as they may be, the mere exchange of opinions. We have seen that this is not enough, and we have decided to go from words to parliamentary facts. Are we ingenuous? Surely yes, at least in the original meaning of the word: we are born free, without vassalage or toll to pay. To go back to Macbeth; the usurper asked the outraged skies that they let him sleep, sleep “in spite of the thunders.” In Spain one hears thunders every time stronger, but we do not want to sleep: on the contrary, we intend to keep citizens well awake, vigilant, and combative.

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