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THE ZAPATERO PROJECT
CHRONICLE OF AN ATTACK ON SOCIETY
Ignacio Arsuaga Rato
and Miguel Vidal Santos
CHRONICLE OF AN ATTACK ON SOCIETY
HazteOir.org
First edition (100,000 copies): November 2010
© This book was published by
HazteOir.org
C/ José Rodríguez Pinilla, 23
28043 Madrid – Spain
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ISBN: 978-84-614-5197-5
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Impreso en España — Printed in Spain
The total or partial reproduction of this work on any kind of support and in
any media, either present or future, and the distribution of copies by means of
public rental or loan, are strictly prohibited without the prior written authorisation of the copyright owners, being subject to the corresponding penalties established by law.
To the members and volunteers of HazteOir.org
and Derecho a Vivir,
the leading forces behind the creative resistance
to the Zapatero Project
«The change we are calling for goes way beyond
merely taking turns in office.»
JOSÉ LUIS RODRÍGUEZ ZAPATERO,
Speech at the 37th PSOE Congress, 2008
Contents
THE AUTHORS
9
INTRODUCTION
11
I. A PROJECT DESIGNED TO SUBVERT OUR SOCIETY
Destroying Values and Principles through
Political Action
15
17
II. REINVENTION OF THE HUMAN AND CONTEMPT
FOR NATURE
The State: The Maker of Rights
The Law: Absolute Truth
The End of Dissidence
Domesticating the Opposition
Restricting Individual Freedom
An All-Encompassing Transformation Project
21
23
24
25
26
27
27
III. POST-HUMAN RIGHTS
Birth: The Right to Choose
Growing Up: The Right to an Absence of Compromise
Procreation: The Right to Decide
29
29
33
35
IV. THE MAN WHO DREAMT OF BEING GOD
Propaganda Versus Reason
37
43
V. WHEN EDUCATION IS INDOCTRINATION
«Sexual Rights»
Instilling Destruction
53
54
60
8
CONTENTS
VI. TOWARDS A NEW FORM OF TOTALITARIANISM
The Awakening of Civil Activism
The Zapatero Project Chooses Its Bull’s-Eye
A Single Truth, A Single Will
VII. DESTRUCTION OF THE FAMILY
An Exercise in Political Manipulation
Instruments of Propaganda
A Healthy Institution to Be Dismantled
VIII. THE NEW CATACOMBS
The Enemy to Be Defeated
IX. THE DECONSTRUCTION OF A NATION
Changing History
77
79
80
86
91
95
97
99
107
112
117
122
X. FROM CHANGE TO DESTRUCTION
A Project in a Hurry
125
128
XI. WHO IS GOING TO BELL THE CAT?
131
XII. THE ZAPATERO PROJECT WITHOUT ZAPATERO
135
WILL YOU JOIN US?
137
ABOUT HAZTEOIR.ORG
141
The Authors
Ignacio Arsuaga Rato founded HazteOir.org in 2001. He currently
serves as its President. As part of his efforts to promote citizen participation and defend human rights (in their entirety, starting with
conception and ending with our death by natural causes), he is convinced that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can
– with the help of God – change the world.
Arsuaga Rato is a lawyer, having graduated in law from the University Pontificia de Comillas (ICADE). He is married and is the
father of three children. He lives in Madrid.
The professional career pursued by Miguel Vidal Santos encompasses his work as a columnist in newspaper opinion pages, his activities for television and his work within the field of History. He
has written various books, including the following: Diccionario de
la Historia (“A Dictionary of History”); Salvapatrias y cruzados
(“Saviours of the Nation and Crusades”); and Historias de los golpes
de Estado en España (“The History of Coup d’États in Spain”). He
has also edited various literature and travel magazines and has
headed the programme and contents departments at different television channels.
Like any journalist worth his salt (and of a certain age), Vidal
Santos has “closed down” various media bodies, has been fired
from many others and has walked out of even more. For some years
10
now he has, thanks to God, been able to finally reconcile his professional activities with his own principles. He currently works as part
of the editorial team at HazteOir.org.
Introduction
Ten years ago, when HazteOir.org started out, José María Aznar
was the Head of the Spanish Government. At that time, in 2001, we
could hardly imagine the day when a group of extremists, led by
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, would assume the reins of government in order to undertake an entire programme of measures based
on the self-proclaimed objective of shaping Spanish society in the
very image of their own ideology. This group was made up of a
band of professional politicians who aimed to implement a project
that sought to destroy the family, dismantle the Catholic Church,
control the minds of our children and restrict citizens’ rights and
freedoms.
Since 2004, the year in which he took office at La Moncloa,
Rodríguez Zapatero has driven through a veritable avalanche of
laws, regulations and policies with a view to bulldozing the basic
institutions that make up our society and imposing his cultural
project on the public as a whole. He has also sought to export his
project to our sister nations in Latin America and in other parts
of the world.
12
Context
However, Rodríguez Zapatero is not exactly an anomaly in the
twenty-first century. Quite the contrary, in fact. He shares a common project with thinkers and politicians who are working in
other countries to introduce a model of society similar to that
proposed by Zapatero. They consist of secularists, relativists,
radical feminists, abortionists, representatives of the homosexual
lobby and totalitarianists of all stripes and colours. They have
gained considerable ground in recent decades.
You find them in the UNO, in the European Union and in almost
all institutions concerned with international cooperation. They preside over the governments of numerous countries on all five continents. In many cases, they have received support from the Spanish
Government through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Spanish International Cooperation Agency with a view to implementing
programmes aimed exclusively at imposing their ideology of gender
and sexual diversity. They have held meetings with Rodríguez
Zapatero at Summits for Heads of Government in order to promote
the “Alliance of Civilisations” and its ideological principles.
Neither has the Prime Minister of the Spanish Government invented his project ex novo. The Zapatero Project is ideologically
rooted in the thought of William of Ockham, the leading exponent of
what is known as “nominalism”. For the first time in the history of
philosophy, Ockham introduced a concept of freedom based exclusively on will, one completely distinct from the ideas of good or virtue.
Ockham initiated a line of thought that would conclude with the
atheistic humanism of the nineteenth century and Friedrich
Nietzsche’s will to power. This is a philosophical current that, in the
twentieth century, would lead to two world wars and provide support for Nazism, fascism and Communism. It is a line of thought
that, although duly polished up, still informs the Rodríguez
Zapatero Project today.
INTRODUCTION
13
Lifting the Veil
And yet, the actions of the current Prime Minister are perhaps even
more dangerous than those of his cousins, the totalitarians of last
century. Because the Zapatero Project is concealed under the velvety appeal of the magic words of «progress», «tolerance» and
«democracy». These words have been emptied of any genuine
meaning and are used in the official propaganda to camouflage the
reality of a tyrannical project designed to suppress us.
The fundamental aim of this book is precisely this: to lift the veil
that conceals the true face of Zapatero’s project. It is not our wish
to frighten you with an invented story. That is why we have tried to
stick to the words of the General Secretary of PSOE himself when
providing testimony to his works.
We are writing this book in order to help you understand how
the Zapatero Project could affect both you and your family and to
show you what you can do to fight against it. This book offers you
the tools you need to combat the destructive forces that seek to demolish the institution of family.
We aim to help you become aware of what is actually happening and, at the same time, offer you a source of hope. Because
there are many reasons to be hopeful ... one for each citizen who
has stepped up to the challenge. In reality, there are more of us
who believe that the family is a basic institution within society
than those who support the values of the Zapatero Project.
A Movement to Promote Dignity
This book is published by HazteOir.org, a Spanish association that,
since the year 2001, has fought on a daily basis to defend the freedoms and rights of all human beings, including those who are yet to
be born.
We, the authors, have decided to wage this battle, because there
is a great deal at stake: the future of our families, the future of your
families, and the future of the families of forthcoming generations.
14
Our children will either reap the rewards of our work or suffer the
consequences of our indifference.
Although we have won many battles in favour of life and the
family, we have lost many others. And the consequences of losing
the war would be catastrophic. The health and well-being of our
children, the economy, the future of our country and that of the
entire world depends on our successful defence of the basic institutions that make up our society.
The good news is that we can still turn the situation around. We
can trace our steps back along the path that the champions of the
Zapatero Project have led us along. We can continue to win some
of the minor battles and, one day, perhaps win the war. We have
seen too many miracles come true to have any doubts. They always
occur when a small group of aware and active citizens comes together in order to protect life and the family.
When members of society like us become aware of what is happening and recognise the consequences of our passive acceptance, we
are able to create a powerful source of resistance, one that, thanks be
to God, is already having an effect on the future of our society.
I
A Project Designed to Subvert Our Society
Off-the-cuff ideas, demagogy, nonsense, opportunism. Critics of
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero often resort to labels of this kind in
order to define the Prime Minister’s actions in government. The
leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) is often presented as an ignorant leader who is constantly putting his foot in it
and simply governs according to spontaneous impulse. Or his decisions are said to be those of an immature and even ignorant personality. On other occasions it is assumed that his political initiatives
are merely a knee-jerk response to the moment, to the current situation, to specific interests, or merely the result of agreements reached
here and there with some political splinter group or social lobby,
bearing no discernible relation one to the other.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The goals being pursued by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the Spanish Left today
are quite clear, having been set out before Zapatero even assumed
the reins of government in 2004. The objectives are perfectly defined, as are the means of achieving them. And all of this is in the
public domain, because there has never been any attempt to hide it.
In fact, on a number of occasions Zapatero has described what his
real project is, whilst highlighting the fact that his guidance of the
Government of the Nation is merely an instrument to be used to
achieve his goals.
16
Rodríguez Zapatero has explained his intentions at party congresses, in speeches, in interviews, in public pronouncements and
in the Spanish Parliament. And as long as his critics believe he is
just an immature demagogue, a fool or an opportunist, the leader of
the Spanish Left will have free rein in order to carry out a project
that brandishes ideology as a recruiting post, a means of achieving
goals that nobody on the Left had even dared to strive for before he
arrived on the scene.
«We Socialists have known for a long time, for more than a century,
that the greatest force for change, the force that directs and sweeps
the world along, the most powerful force for transformation, is the
force of ideas.»1
The Spanish Royal Academy (RAE) defines the verb «to subvert» as «to upset, to overturn, to destroy, especially in relation to
morality». This is precisely the plan that Rodríguez Zapatero had
the opportunity to devise throughout the fourteen years he served
as a Member of Parliament, a silent observer who occupied his
place in the Lower Chamber of Spain’s Parliament, but took no
initiative and took part in no activity, except for that of voting in
favour of proposals indicated by the Party Whip of his parliamentary group.
Between 1986 and the year 2000, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
brooded over his ambitions, whilst the heavy-weights in his party
fell victim, one by one, to the political agenda set out by Felipe
González.
González, Guerra and the leaders of the PSOE that emerged
from the Transition certainly wanted to transform society, but they
had to use their time in office in order to establish the foundations
for that transformation: the kidnapping of the education system and
the world of culture, the establishment of links with radical and
nationalist political formations, the construction of a network of
—————
1
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, speech at the 37th PSOE Congress, 2008:
http://goo.gl/xBi1M
A PROJECT DESIGNED TO SUBVERT OUR SOCIETY
17
clients that would guarantee the party’s survival at a local and regional level, and the strict control of public opinion.
In the year 2000, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero felt a calling to
finish the work of transformation that Felipe González had begun. His predecessors had set out the path to be followed. He no
longer had to concern himself with the fine print. He could go
straight for the goals that the Spanish Left of the 1970’s and
1980’s had never even dared to recognise. Imitating the fashionable slogans of European Socialism, he invented his own domestic
movement, the New Way, and as soon as he had won the general
elections, he began the task of completing the work initiated by
his party elders, with the aim of subverting the country and upsetting, overturning and destroying Spanish society and the territory
it inhabits.
Destroying Values and Principles through Political Action
The self-confessed goal, openly recognised by Rodríguez Zapatero,
is quite simple and yet ambitious: to turn the country on its head,
to change what has always been, that which has always been believed; to replace these values and beliefs with others. His aim is to
introduce new principles tailor-made for a Left that aspires to impose absolute control over every last haven of power ... with a view
to also establishing absolute control over every citizen.
Throughout the year 2007, the Galician writer, Suso de Toro,
held a series of conversations with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in
order to produce a book on the PSOE leader. From these conversations, De Toro drew a number of conclusions, which later on would
appear in various sections of the media. He labelled the Prime
Minister a «a civil soldier», a calculating and obstinate man, a person completely unaffected by external or internal influences. He
wrote that he had «never been sorry for anything» and that, when
faced with criticisms and attacks from his opponents, he «continues
the game quite unperturbed, and he will continue to do so until he
reaches checkmate».
18
The conversations between Rodríguez Zapatero and Suso de
Toro were recorded in the book entitled Madera de Zapatero. Retrato de un presidente (“Zapatero: Portrait of a Prime Minister”), a
publication in which the General Secretary of PSOE freely expounds upon his project and his strategy:
«If there is something that characterises this period of government
it is that we have a project. It is precisely because we have a project
that we come across such useless but active resistance on the part
of the hardest sections of the Right, because they know there is a
project. They have realised that there is a project imbued with cultural values and, therefore, ideological values, which are capable of
determining the social and historical identity of modern Spain for
many years to come.»2
All of the ingredients of «Zapateroism» are formulated in this
brief fragment, which perfectly reflects the intentions of the man
who expressed these words. Rodríguez Zapatero recognises that he
has undertaken a project that involves cultural and ideological values and that is capable of subverting «the social and historical identity» of Spain «for many years to come».
It is possible that the excessively ambitious character attributed
to Rodríguez Zapatero is true, but not in the most conventional
sense. The image of a new type of politician, one far removed from
the typical political professional, one who shuns «political games»,
an image that Rodríguez Zapatero managed to sell to the electorate
in 2004, is based precisely on the fact that the Prime Minister does
not appear to have an excessive longing for power. To many of his
followers, Rodríguez Zapatero is a humble man, a person who is
open to criticism, a person who is tolerant and prepared to discuss
matters. This is all due to the fact that his sense of ambition is not
based on a desire for power for power’s sake, but a desire for what
power will enable him to do:
—————
2
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in conversation with Suso de Toro, Madera
de Zapatero. Retrato de un presidente. Barcelona, 2007.
A PROJECT DESIGNED TO SUBVERT OUR SOCIETY
19
«For others, government itself may be the objective; for us, government is the instrument. For others, government is the goal; for
us it is the path.»3
Rodríguez Zapatero is both ambitious and messianic, a man
convinced that he can change the course of history in Spain. Furthermore, he believes he can change the very nature of our history,
the essence of Spanish society: its identity.
In this sense, the Prime Minister does not regard power as an end
in itself, but as an instrument. The spell that Rodríguez Zapatero casts
on his electorate is based on this kind of idealism, which consists of
distracting their attention by holding up supposedly achievable utopias
and sublime ideals in front of their eyes, instead of addressing questions of management, instead of discussing reality.
In order to carry out his «prophetic» mission, which is at once
idealistic and apparently founded on a desire to do good, Rodríguez
Zapatero has used all of the instruments of power at his disposal:
legislative amendments, rupture of the majority-backed social models of Spanish society, cultural changes. And sometimes through
democratic means, and other times through rather less democratic
means, he has acquired the largest possible number of instruments
of pressure and control: governments, social agents, citizens’
movements. All this is subordinated to the ultimate goal:
«The change we are calling for goes way beyond merely taking turns
in office. This change consists of the transformation of society.»4
Rodríguez Zapatero’s ideological contribution to the contemporary Left, the project he has worked to impose on Spanish society,
is founded on three essential pillars:
1. A reinvention of the human, which involves a complete sense
of contempt for the natural.
—————
3
4
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, speech at the 37th PSOE Congress, 2008.
Ibid.
20
2. A divorce between political action and the individual.
3. An adulteration of the concept of freedom.
Through the ideological approach that derives from these principles, Rodríguez Zapatero has designed a project that entails the
cultural and ideological transformation of Spanish society and the
territorial and political transformation of the Nation.
In this document, we delve into the details of Zapatero’s project for
Spain and its citizens, highlighting its ideological dimensions and its
strategies. We also analyse the scope of this project and the consequences it will have for our country, should it be finally carried out.
II
Reinvention of the Human
and Contempt for Nature
The project that Rodríguez Zapatero seeks to impose on Spain is
neither new nor entirely original. At different times throughout
Spain’s history since the nineteenth century, various ideas to destroy
the values on which society is based have been proposed. The newest development on this occasion is that the project is actually being
promoted by those in power, based on the most radical interpretation of these ideas and at the greatest possible pace. Furthermore,
democratic Spain has never known such comprehensive power as
that wielded by Rodríguez Zapatero. Throughout Zapatero’s second
term in office, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party governs over 23
provincial capitals, plus Santiago de Compostela, Mérida, Vigo and
Gijón. It controls 9 regional governments and innumerable provincial governments. Through local and regional public administration,
it holds the keys to numerous building societies and financial and
economic institutions of all kinds.
Since 1977, the year in which the first democratic elections took
place, some thirty-three years have elapsed. PSOE has governed
throughout more than half of this time, specifically for twenty years,
whilst the Partido Popular has governed for eight years and Unión
de Centro Democrático for just five years. Rodríguez Zapatero has
also reaped the rewards of this long period in office.
22
The Left and its tentacles extend throughout almost the entire
academic world at all its levels, starting with primary school and
continuing right up to university. It is also pervasive throughout the
world of culture, both within the creative and the industrial fields.
The Left enjoys an overwhelming grip on the media and on most of
the instruments that enable it to create and determine public opinion. For Spanish society as a whole, the ideas and opinions of the
Left provide the model for politically correct thought. Furthermore,
a part of the judicial system lies in its hands, which means that it has
managed to erase the boundaries established by Montesquieu.
With such powerful resources in his grasp, Rodríguez Zapatero
has sought to reinvent the very concept of being human.
«As I have evolved and matured, I have come to believe that the
most authentic religion is Man. It is the human being that deserves
adoration; he is the clear apex of the world as it has revealed itself
to be, as we have come to understand it.»1
The leader of the Socialist Party proposes to break radically
away from the idea of the human being as we have understood it up
until today. It is a question of erasing the essence of the individual,
our natural condition, that which enables us to be a man or a
woman, to handle our limitations and channel our compulsions, to
be a father or a mother.
This anthropological conception of the human being is considered an archaic form of slavery and must be replaced with mere
will. And this will is circumstantial, reversible, concrete; it can
change meaning as often as may be required.
This kind of radical break with the anthropological approach
inevitably leads to the creation of a state of affairs that goes beyond
the condition of the human being itself.
As a faithful apprentice of Nietzsche, Rodríguez Zapatero decrees the death of the human being in order to announce the birth
of the post-human man, of the «human being that deserves adora-
—————
1
REINVENTION OF THE HUMAN AND CONTEMPT FOR NATURE
23
tion», far removed from his natural condition and, therefore, artificial.
And once we have burned the bridges that connect us to civilisation, anything goes. Parliament can spend its time contemplating a
law that grants human rights to apes.
The anthropological conception proposed by PSOE’s General
Secretary can be boiled down to three aspects that characterise his
legislative measures:
1. Moral relativism moral, which is disguised as an «extension
of rights».
2. An extreme secular approach whose aim is to introduce a
kind of State-based religion.
3. Gender ideology, which uses an alleged sense of equality and
a never-ending battle against discrimination as a rallying cry.
Reinvention of the human being, which is the result of the systematic imposition of these three principles, converts the State into
the high priest of the new post-human anthropology proposed by
Rodríguez Zapatero, one in which:
− Rights no longer belong to citizens themselves, but are
granted to them.
− The law can pervert reason and nature if this is what the
majority decides.
− And dissidence disappears.
The State: The Maker of Rights
Man is no longer the bearer of rights. It is the State that determines
the rights of the new man, the post-human rights that he lacks. In
this respect, the State is the arbiter of the human condition itself.
The definition of what a right is in itself is also subject to the will of
the State.
24
Once the link with reality, with the natural condition of the human being us broken, the rights of each citizen become subject to
the rules of the political market, to the vagaries of fashion and circumstance and, in this sense, they become extremely precarious and
entirely unstable. They are also subject to the whims and desires of
those who hold the reins of power.
In this manner, the State (also with a view to securing votes) can
turn the subjective desires of the minority into law, such as the desire of homosexual lobby groups to see their sexist views enshrined
in law. Desire is thus raised to a political level, even though this may
entail the destruction of institutions such as the family, which have
served and continue to serve as the foundations of society.
The Law: Absolute Truth
The law replaces truth and natural reality. Truth is now proscribed,
a rebel without a cause, a crime and an anti-democratic assault
against that other truth, legal truth, which is imposed by the majority. The common good, the general interest, the virtuous, is solely
defined in terms of what is legal.
«They must understand that within the realm of public life, the only
possible moral is that which is found in the Constitution.»2
The moral point of reference is provided by the State. There are
no values over and above those passed by a majority vote. And
when that majority legislates against nature, the irrational becomes
the virtuous, the appropriate and the democratic. In this new rationality, «father» and «mother» cease to be objective realities if the
law decides it is so. «Man» can be «woman» if this is decided by the
will of the individual. Just like that. And the idea of «mother» disappears, buried under the label of Progenitor B.
—————
2 José Antonio Alonso, PSOE Spokesman in the Lower Chamber of
Spain’s Parliament: http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20090618/reacciones-dispares-adeclaraciones- obispos-sobre-aborto/281336.shtm
25
«In this country there have been too many historical occasions on
which we have sought – and too many people still seek – to legislate
morality. Legislate the morality of the country. And the only order
that we must establish is the order that grants freedom to all, not
that which grants freedom to each individual. It is freedom that
makes us true, not truth that makes us free.»3
The End of Dissidence
If the State is the maker of truth, the point of reference for morality
and the artifice of rights, and outside the State there only exists an
abyss of anti-democratic forces conceived as the resistance to the
majority (the paradigm of evil in Rodríguez Zapatero’s anthropology), then dissidence has no place and loses all its meaning.
The State, the supreme maker, envelops everything, is absolute
and, according to the old Hegelian canons of Marxism, is endowed
with a dialectic presence: it serves at once as reality and as criticism
of that reality. It is the all-encompassing State: everything that surrounds its citizens, anything that may concern them, anything they
might do, think or desire, either now or in the future, proceeds
from the State, which grants and regulates.
This proposition recalls the Orwellian State depicted in 1984. In
Zapatero’s project, as in the work by Orwell, the State not only
serves as the sole public realm, but it also seeks to control our
minds. The main character in the novel, the rebel, Winston Smith,
is tortured until he admits that two plus two is three, five or whatever the Party wishes it to be. The same character had written that
«freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is
granted, all else follows».
In this respect, it is impossible to dissent. The Zapatero Project
restricts our freedoms. And the freedom of education, freedom of conscience and freedom of religion are the first liberties to be curtailed.
—————
3
26
Domesticating the Opposition
The omnipotent State proposed by the Zapatero Project corners
dissidents in two ways: from a political point of view and from the
point of view of individual freedoms. The Zapatero Project extends
way beyond the work of government and the terms of office established by the corresponding legislatures and even beyond PSOE
itself. Within the political field, it proposes to domesticate the Opposition, in which respect it is essential for the Socialist Government itself «to re-found» the Partido Popular:
«The Right must be re-founded both culturally and ideologically.
The best aspect of this era is that it is inevitably going to end up
forming part of a democratic European Right, a re-founded Right.
Absolutely. Yes, yes.»4
Yielding to all political opposition and bending its principles
and values, this new cultural and ideological Right will emerge, both
«democratic» and «European», which is to say, ready to serve this
new State proposed by the Zapatero Project. The businessman,
Jesús Polanco, stated as much to chilling effect when he spoke to
his shareholders in March 2007:
«We do not have a right-wing party of which we can say: periods in
office have no consequence other than mere changes of management team.»5
—————
4
5 A transcription of the address delivered by Jesús Polanco to the Shareholders
Meeting of the Prisa Group can be found on the web site of Cadena SER:
http://www.cadenaser.com/articulo/espana/Respuesta/Polanco/durante/
Junta/Accionistas/csrcsrpor/20070323csrcsrnac_10/Tes
27
Restricting Individual Freedom
However, in addition to ensuring political submissiveness, the
Zapatero Project also seeks to end individual dissent. In this case it
is a question of restricting our freedom of conscience. During the
final throes of the Franco period, the most tolerant sections of the
regime proposed that each individual should hold the beliefs he
deemed appropriate, provided that he did not do so in public. Rodríguez Zapatero has made this proposal his own, adapting it to his
own cause: individual beliefs belong to the private realm. And they
can only be expressed in the public realm in the manner set out by
the law.
The Zapatero Project is not concerned about citizens’ principles
and beliefs, as long as they are kept indoors. What threatens
Zapatero’s plans is the visibility of these beliefs, their free exercise
and expression vis-à-vis public opinion.
An All-Encompassing Transformation Project
Endowed with the characteristics described above, the Zapatero
Project seeks to bring about a transformation of Spain at every
level. In this respect, this pseudo-millenarian vision is to be pursued
in the ideological, cultural, legislative, social and political realms.
The Project’s ambitious goals even include that of erasing the
historical, political and territorial identity of Spain in order to create
a new national identity tailor-made for the new citizens that
Zapatero also proposes to create.
III
Post-Human Rights
Birth, growing up, procreation. The Zapatero Project has not invented anything new. It simply takes from reality anything that might
disturb it and changes its meaning. In this respect, once all bothersome aspects have been removed, reality itself ends up disappearing,
replaced by a gratuitous and artificial creation that, nevertheless, continues to use the same cultural and linguistic codes. However, this is
merely an apparent paradox: the Zapatero Project talks, for example,
about «family», but its proposal has nothing to do with family.
Birth: The Right to Choose
This sense of ambiguity presides over the destruction of individual
and collective identity. The promoters of the Zapatero Project deliver their messages like the card-sharps you find on the streetcorners of large cities. With the argument-cum-alibi of promoting
freedom and new rights, they corner the traditional family whilst
supporting «new families»; they condemn marriage but promote
homosexual «marriages»; they scorn parental authority but invent
new «progenitors».
The first new right that the Zapatero Project formulates is applied
at the very moment of birth. Compared to his «enslaved» predecessor,
30
the new Man «who deserves adoration», first of all breaks away from
his own body. The type of anthropology proposed by the Zapatero
Project, thus, launches its first slogan, the right to choose, when faced
with the first reality: the identity of each human being. It is a matter of
burning the bridges that tie us to nature, in such a way that you are no
longer born man or woman: you choose what you are, regardless of
your body’s attributes when you entered the world.
Even if you decide to continue your path through life with the
same identity and the same body as you born with, you will retain
your right to change your mind and choose a different option. Because whatever your identity may be, whatever form your body
takes, nothing makes you any different to anyone else: there are no
differences between men and women. First, human beings broke
away from nature, and now they are breaking away from their sexual identity: gender and the individual are destined to tread different paths. And sex and gender have become one of the guiding
threads of the Zapatero Project: Citizenship Education, «sexual and
reproductive health», «sexual rights».
This obsession with sex and gender has even reached realms that
are somewhat far removed from the issue, such as the Red Cross
and a series of apparently innocent activities such as games. In
2009, the Ministry for Health subsidised an interactive game produced by Red Cross Youth. It was called VIHDAS and was aimed
at youngsters between 15 and 18 years of age. The game involved
a party held by a number of young people: a group of boys and girls
get together and the members are invited «get to know each other
in an intimate place». In order to do so, the players-members of the
group are invited to make use of the corresponding condom. After
this, the player (either boy or girl) must choose a partner of a different or the same sex and choose from among a range of different
options: kisses, masturbation, oral sex, caresses, use of sex toys,
vaginal sex or anal sex.
A laudable eradication of discrimination thus leads to the elimination of natural differences, replaced by a form of egalitarianism
that confuses and erases identities:
POST-HUMAN RIGHTS
31
«Let’s look at some examples of gender discrimination as suffered
by men. The definition of maternity as a biological function (and
not as it is: a social function that can be learned) is an example of
discrimination against men, one which, furthermore, creates a biased perspective of our social identities and capacities as people.
We men have the right to be mothers. Or is biology our fate?»1
«Little by little new ways of managing our bodies are gradually
permeating throughout society. People are beginning to determine
themselves at a sexual level.»2
What an individual might do by himself or what he might
achieve automatically becomes a right for all the rest, irrespective
of the characteristics, aptitude and limitations of each individual.
In this manner our rights are multiplied. They are also trivialised:
the list of new human rights includes all and anything. Provided
that these are things that serve to destroy the values that make up
our cultural identity. Rodríguez Zapatero calls these values
«ideological myths»:
«If Spanish society [takes on the idea of homosexual marriage and]
interiorises the idea that it is all right, that everything will continue
as before, that certain people who were unhappy will now be happier and that nobody is going to be forced to do anything in any
way and that everything is going to turn out just fine, then these
ideological myths will begin to fall away.»3
When theory becomes legislation, these new rights replace the
man and woman, the couple who make up the nucleus of the
family unit, with any kind of cooperative agreement between two
parties. The argument that underpins the new family legislation
—————
1
A paper presented at the Complutense University of Madrid by Andreu
Guasch, a lecturer in sociology at Barcelona University, within the framework
of the Mageeq Project.
2 Andreu Guasch, interview in El Norte de Castilla, 14.2.08.
3 José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in conversation with Suso de Toro, Madera
32
does not require the parties to be a man and a woman. It is
enough for anybody to express a wish to reach agreements regarding a shared residence and life with someone else. The law,
thus, places common-law partners on the same footing as married
couples. However, the intention that underlies this legislation
could also serve at some point to provide a legal rubber-stamp for
the polygamous relationships of a Muslim immigrant or even
those of a Spaniard.
Children are not the result of a marriage, but the product of an
agreement between the contracting parties and, in this respect, they
no longer require the prior existence of a mother and a father.
Techniques that have emerged from research financed by the State
provide these «new families» with the children they require, without any need to stick to the antiquated and bothersome obligation
imposed by the fact that the human species is made up of two different sexes, man and woman.
In this sense, gender roles are the next item on the list of things to
be eradicated. «Father» and «mother» are relative concepts and no
longer correspond to the gender of the parties who sign the family
agreement. Neither are they necessary in order to create a nuclear
family or to procreate, and they are even less essential when it comes
to bringing up the children. In fact, in the approach proposed by the
Zapatero Project, «new families» means, above all, families in which
nobody is a man or a woman, or a father or a mother, all of which are
realities that, like the nation itself, are «debatable and controversial».
The next stop (but not the end of the road) consists of the rupture between individual and sexuality. The new rights translate into
the disappearance of individual rights. You no longer have rights,
those old rights that helped you as a mother or as a man. A shining
universe of absolute equality unfolds before you in which your former identity has become the identity of everyone, in the name of
equality. Doublethink leaps from the pages of Orwell’s famous novel
to transform our ID: if your identity is the identity of everyone, it is
not precisely the identity of anyone. In this manner, your identity,
together with your freedom, remains for ever in the possession of
the State:
POST-HUMAN RIGHTS
33
«Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The
Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be
altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but
by the exercise of doublethink he also satisfies himself that reality
is not violated.
»The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out
with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would
bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt.
»Doublethink lies at the very heart of Ingsoc, since the essential
act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the
firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty.
»To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so
long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all
the while to take account of the reality which one denies ... all this
is indispensably necessary.
»Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise
doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the
truth. Ultimately it is by means of doublethink that the Party has
been able – and may, for all we know, continue to be able for thousands of years – to arrest the course of history.»4
Growing Up: The Right to An Absence of Compromise
Rodríguez Zapatero proposes a total and ongoing rejection of everything that detracts from absolute freedom, breaking away from all
traditions and moral values. Again, here, Zapatero is not doing anything original. He is simply reflecting the state of opinion that has
pervaded wide-ranging sections of Spanish society that have been
brought up under educational laws passed by his party.
—————
4
George Orwell, 1984.
34
One product of this educational model, which punishes excellence and stretches tolerance to the point of placing it above reason,
consists of the individual who shuns any kind of commitment,
something that is considered to be a serious curtailment of freedom.
Consecrating freedom as an absolute value and considering
rights to be the mere product of circumstance or passing fashions
that succeed within the supermarket of our collective customs, are
both entirely incompatible with the idea of personal commitment.
My right to freedom and pleasure makes it unfeasible to acquire
solid bonds that demand a degree of sacrifice, which is the basis of
any commitment.
In order to subvert the values and identity of our culture within
this realm, the Zapatero Project once again turns to gender. The aim
is to destroy the foundations of the family by breaking the link between marriage and sexuality.
We once again come across an apparent paradox here, especially
in view of the neo-language that envelops the entire Zapatero Project, which does not talk of sex, but of love and happiness. The
point of departure is the right to permanent happiness and limitless
love, the idea of turning a romantic utopia into reality.
And if your utopia grates somewhat, if you fail to achieve it on
this occasion, don’t worry! We have other realities packed with
happiness and love, other possible combinations, and we can swap
them as often as you like.
In order to achieve this perpetual and all-embracing happiness, it
is necessary to remove all obstacles, all barriers, all those elements that
formerly constituted the foundations of commitment. Let us shelve
anything that limits our right to pleasure and happiness as bothersome
hindrances. No physical or legal impediments must exist, not to mention restrictions based on gender or family structures that tie us down.
In order to achieve this goal, the State shall place an entire corps
of civil servants at my disposal who specialise in rubber-stamping
family breakdowns as rapidly as possible, and it shall reinforce its
role by means of messages that encourage public opinion to consider any form of behaviour based on the unilateral search for love,
pleasure and personal self-fulfilment to be entirely natural. With
POST-HUMAN RIGHTS
35
this “pack”, I can feel truly happy or at least believe that I might
aspire to being happy, over and above any bonds of commitment,
which are always subordinated to the main goal.
In the «new families» proposed by the Zapatero Project, everything can be erased in one stroke of the pen. We might call this instant elimination an «express service», due to the speed with which
civil servants specialising in this field can dissolve any agreements
that have been signed.
The right proposed by the Zapatero Project to be what we want
to be, the right to achieve the «happiness» it offers us, requires the
separation of two concepts that have always gone hand in hand in
our culture and that have helped to preserve our very civilisation
itself: love and gender.
Procreation: The Right to Decide
The Zapatero Project offers us the right to decide anything, even
our own nature, which means that the individual is no longer determined by his or her gender. It also proposes that we search for
happiness without assuming the slightest degree of personal commitment, which, among other consequences, eradicates one of the
most important family ties, that which links gender and marriage.
As a result of all this, the right to decide becomes the most flagrant axiom of the Zapatero Project. The «human being that deserves adoration» effectively becomes God. And, in this respect, he
will seize God’s first attribute: the ability to give and take away life.
Here we find ourselves at the very heart of the Zapatero universe:
the right to live. However, the centre of the Zapatero universe is
also a huge black hole.
This universe takes for granted that sex no longer bears any relation to procreation, an activity that can be carried out more «efficiently» in a laboratory. As the legal impediments continue to fall
away, à la carte babies become a reality and human cloning projects
financed with public resources are carried out, sex ceases to be the
path by which human beings multiply, effectively becoming the ob-
36
ject of exchange (Law on Gender Identity) or an object for worship
(White Paper on Affective-Sexual Diversity in Schools). As far as
procreation is concerned, in the Zapatero Project, it is the State that
assumes responsibility for this matter.
The State decides, through MP’s chosen via closed and blocked
lists, about matters relating to life and death. It establishes the fact
that sex can have «undesired consequences», a euphemism that
hides the existence of a life independent of the mother’s from the
very moment of conception. And it regulates the procedures
whereby insatiably free citizens with armfuls of rights can free
themselves of these «consequences». Through the auspices of the
State, the new citizens under the Zapatero Project imagine that they
have become God.
IV
The Man Who Dreamt of Being God
As viewed through the prism of the Zapatero Project, the rights that
citizens enjoyed under the Felipe González and José María Aznar
governments were of very poor quality. The Zapatero Government
has spent a good amount of its time presenting a portrait of social
life in the past as a veritable abyss of segregation and intransigence,
when extreme minority groups were forced to accept the tyrannical
decisions of the majority. It is true, women had the right to choose,
which is to say, they could abort. But they had to go to a special
establishment, they had to identify themselves, even if it were simply for the purposes of paying by credit card. Now and then they
were suggested that an exploration should be carried out. And there
were even one or two cases in which they were actually asked questions. Furthermore, they had to waste a whole morning so that the
«undesired consequence» could be removed. It was all very irritating.
Women had the right to decide, yes, but the procedure posed a
serious drawback: it was slow (24 hours, sometimes more) and it
was inconvenient (travel to the abortion clinic, formalities). During
the time that elapsed between the telephone call to ask for an appointment and the beginning of the «interruption» of the embryo’s
life, there was a danger than some women might become conscious
of what they were doing. Before Zapatero’s arrival on the scene, the
38
right to decide and its formalities and legal requirements may have
highlighted the fact that this was something abnormal, something
above the ordinary. Something even important. And yet, however
much the businessmen of the abortion industry might facilitate the
procedures and skip the formalities, the business could lose a customer at any time. And the party could lose a vote.
When it proposes turning
MASS ABORTIONS
the wish to emulate God into a
right, the Zapatero Project is
Jaime Cañellas Galindo, A psywell aware that it must facilitate
chiatrist, worked at the abortion
things even further, because
clinic, Centro Médico Aragón
when it comes to applying the
(Gerona). His work consisted of
diagnosing women who wished to
right to decide regarding life,
abort, based on a possible danger
education, family structure and
to the mother’s psychological
even one’s own sexual identity
health. After some months workin practice, there are many
ing at the clinic, the Guardia Civil
elements that betray the swinquestioned him: a complaint had
been made which included cerdle being perpetrated by its adtificates signed by him authorising
vocates, effectively revealing
abortions. However, these certifithe profoundly totalitarian nacates did not include the name of
ture of such an approach: the
pregnant woman.
Dr. Cañellas declared that he
subjection of individual freehad never signed these blank cerdom to the will of the State.
tificates. The clinic, Centro Médico
The Zapatero Project does
Aragón, used them behind his back
not
wish to endanger its opporin order to speed up the procetunity to twist reason and the law
dures for its customers. The psychiatrist denounced the practices
in order to extend the right to
carried out by the clinic to the mechoose to the farthest extremes
dia in 2007.
in every realm of life. In this respect, it has implemented two
parallel measures: the passing of
a new law offering «an abortion free-for-all» and free distribution,
without prescription or age limits, of the abortion procedure known
as the «morning-after pill» (MAP). In both cases the intention is the
same: to guarantee that, in cases where life exists, only one party
should have alleged rights and not both, under the Government’s pro-
THE MAN WHO DREAMT OF BEING GOD
39
tection. Because under the Zapatero Project, the authority that determines the category of an individual and his corresponding rights is the
State.
In 2009, the Government
approved the free sale of the
PHARMACEUTICAL ABORTION
«morning-after pill». As of
The «morning-after pill» began to be sold
this year, this abortion pill
without prescription at chemist’s in Sephas been on sale over the
tember 2009. Sales of the pill have multicounter at chemist’s without
plied since then, to the point where it has
become a fashionable product at chemist’s.
any kind of restriction, in
Figures furnished by Cofares, the largest
spite of its serious secondary
pharmaceuticals distributor in Spain
effects. Thus, any woman,
(based on a 23 per cent market share) conand even a minor, can use
firm the MAP boom.
this discreet abortion proceBetween October and December
2009, following the Zapatero Governdure as many times as she
ment’s Decree that authorised free sale,
likes.
some 45,315 packs of the «morning-after
This measure has had a
pill» were sold. During the same period
much
wider impact than the
the previous year, sales had come to 16,997
abortion law itself, because it
packs.
In 2008, Cofares distributed some
seeks to make the law unnec71,523 MAP packs throughout the whole
essary. When the Socialist
of Spain. In 2009 the figure came to
Government declares that its
104,476.
abortion law of 2010 will reAccording to figures provided by the
consultants, IMS Health, the use of these
duce the number of embryos
abortion pills in Spain is increasing.
destroyed, its reasoning is
Before the authorisation of free sale,
based on the following argusome 935 abortion pills were sold in
ment: the MAP permits aborSpain each day. Following prescriptiontion without even needing to
free sales, the «morning-after pill» and
the «five-day-after pill» have become the
turn to a business that spedaily abortion procedures of hundreds of
cialises in termination procethousands of people and the favourite
dures.
contraceptive of many young women.
In this respect, whilst the
Sales of these pills are now higher than
parliamentary groups were
those of contraceptives, coming to 2,100
units a day.
debating the provisions of the
Act for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Voluntary In-
40
terruption of Pregnancy at great length, a piece of legislation that
sought to authorise minors of sixteen years of age to abort, the Government was already gradually opening the door regarding this possibility by means of the MAP.
In December 2009, the Socialist Parliamentary Group,
“THE RIGHT TO DECIDE”
MEANS MORE ABORTIONS
with the help of ERC, IU and
PNV, radicalised its abortionist
Contrary to the claims made by the
project still further. And whilst
Zapatero Government’s propaganda,
this was going on in the Lower
proliferation of MAP use has not
House of Spain’s Parliament, El
helped to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and the number of
Congreso de los Diputados, just a
abortions. Quite the reverse, in fact.
short distance away in the Upper
Since 2001, in order to gain access
House, El Senado, Rodríguez
to the «morning-after pill» in the ReZapatero was inaugurating the
gion of Andalusia, it was enough to be
just 16 years of age. In that year, the
International Colloquium on the
Andalusian Health Service (SAS) disUniversal Abolition of the Death
tributed 25,785 «morning-after pills»
Penalty. There he was perfectly
throughout the Region. There were
prepared to proclaim his all-out
eleven thousand abortions. In 2008 the
defence of the right to life, someSAS distributed 66,777 MAP’s. According to official figures, there were
thing he called the «Supreme
more than twenty thousand abortions.
Right», in capital letters:
The free availability of the MAP led
to a four-fold increase in sales of the pill
as of early October 2009, which was
when the Zapatero Government authorised sale without prescription. Even the
commercial profits of this government
measure have attracted attention.
Carlos González Bosch, the Chairman of Cofares, the largest pharmaceuticals distributor in Spain, has called
this increase in post-coital pill sales
«scandalous» and has called on the
public authorities and on society as a
whole «to reflect upon whether this is
the goal they were pursuing» when the
legislative change was introduced.
«The right to life is the Supreme Right, as it has been
called by the Human Rights
Committee, because without
effective guarantees of this
right, all other rights lack
meaning and raison d’être.
This is something that appears
to be obvious to everyone.
However, if it really were that
obvious, today we would not
been obliged to call on public
authorities around the world to
completely respect the inviola-
41
ble, unconditional nature of human life and the right to not be subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading penalties.»1
Unlike his predecessors in government, Zapatero has managed
to consecrate the right to end an embryo’s life in two different ways,
the legal and the commercial. The Zapatero Project presents the law
on abortion as the right to decide, but it has also facilitated the pill,
thus extending the possibilities of exterminating embryos to the
very limit. However, it has also made the practice of abortion legal.
It is now a right.
In this respect, those under the age of 16 years can carry out
abortions because the State has taken away the parents’ authority:
the law permits minors not to inform their parents of their decision to abort. In the case of minors, it is the State that authorises
them to go ahead, not the parents. In this sense, the girl who has
decided to have an abortion does so behind her family’s back.
And if she takes the «morning-after pill», the decision is exactly
the same.
In this manner, although the Government argues that the law
on abortion seeks, among other objectives, to end all stigmatisation of women who decide to abort and to do away with the clandestine nature of the practice, the Zapatero Project effectively
consecrates the clandestine nature of abortion.
The removal of all imaginable barriers, including the obstacle of
reason, is imposed as an indispensable objective when it comes to
putting the Zapatero Project into practice. In this respect, private
agreements between two parties, whatever they may be, are placed
on the same footing as a marriage between a man and a woman,
which constitutes the essence of matrimony as it has been understood in all cultures since the very beginning of civilisation; the
family now becomes what the State defines it to be; and life also
becomes a relative concept, one that is now subject to the will of the
authorities and also subject to its needs.
—————
1
International Colloquium on the Universal Abolition of the Death Penalty, Madrid, 9.12.09: http://www.hazteoir.org/node/26217
42
Science has demonstrated the existence of different DNA sequences in the embryo and in the mother. From the very moment
of conception, the DNA of the new being manifests its individuality
and independence with regard to the mother. This is a new and distinct life. And this is how it will be until its natural end, in which
respect human life will continue to be human life, in spite of illness
or decrepitude.
Nevertheless, in the face of the scientific facts of life, the
Zapatero Project says nothing and the legal facts are diluted: we
constantly hear about multiple rights, but the language of power,
the neo-language of authority, erases our right to life. The most elementary right of all, the one that constitutes the very roots of the
law, is erased by the Zapatero Project. There are lives that do not
vote, such as embryonic lives and those in which the characteristic
features of life are fading, and their most elementary rights are
erased, including the right to ongoing life.
The goal being pursued by abortion, camouflaged under the
«progressive» gabble of the right to decide, is the same as the objective that is being sought by the rest of the proposals that the
Zapatero Project brings together under the heading of «new human
rights»: the restriction of civil rights, with the State serving as the
sole deposit and regulator of these rights.
In the same way in which the Organisation of the Islamic Conference passed its Declaration on Human Rights in Islam2 in Cairo
in 1990, a catalogue that was notoriously different with regard to
the Universal Declaration and founded on something as far removed
from human rights as sharia, the Zapatero Project has built the
framework for a series of «new human rights», which are equally far
removed from the Declaration passed in 1948 by the General Assembly of the United Nations3.
—————
2 You can read a Spanish version of the Declaration on Human Rights in
Islam, translated directly from the Arabic version published by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, on the UNHCR web site: http://www.acnur.org/biblioteca/pdf/5549.pdf
3 Reproduced on the United Nations web site: http://www.un.org/es
43
The United Nations text consecrated the right to life of all human beings without distinction. The Zapatero Project modifies this
stance, incorporating into the rights of all human beings that of being exterminated in accordance with the conditions established and
regulated by the State. Under the maxim of freedom, the Zapatero
Project institutes a culture of death.
In accordance with its neo-language, the extermination of a human life becomes a right that can be freely exercised by anyone who
is legitimised by the State for this purpose: owners of abortion clinics, abortion pill manufacturers, chemists who sell these products
and abortion professionals. The same occurs with euthanasia in its
various and euphemistic forms.
Propaganda Versus Reason
In the neo-language of the Zapatero Project, the most extreme and
crudest formulation of the extermination of unborn children comes
from the former Minister for Equality, Bibiana Aído:
«The foetus is a living being, of course; but what we cannot talk
about is a human being, because that has no scientific basis.»4
Each time the Zapatero Project has been forced to rationalise its
proposals, members of the public have been treated to the spectacle
of unjust nonsense being turned into propaganda. Public pressure
has forced the Rodríguez Zapatero Government to defend abortion
as a positive step for society. All of its attempts at justification have
resulted in the most crushing failure. In October 2010 the then
Minister for Equality, Bibiana Aído, replied to a written question
presented by the Member of Parliament for Unión del Pueblo Navarro, Carlos Salvador, asking for her opinion as to whether the in-
—————
4
Bibiana Aído, declarations made on the radio station, Cadena SER,
19.5.09.
44
terruption of a pregnancy did not constitute the elimination of a
human life:
«The Government cannot share the affirmation that the interruption of pregnancy constitutes the elimination of a human life [...]
The State must protect the life of the unborn child and this must be
done from the moment of gestation to the moment of birth [...]
Abortion does not entail the termination of a human life because
there is no unanimous opinion regarding what a human being is,
there is no scientific evidence, given that human life refers to a
complex concept based on ideas and philosophical, moral and social beliefs; in short, it is a matter that is subject to different opinions and personal preferences.»5
The most polished example of neo-language is offered by the
name of the law itself that turns the extermination of human beings
into a right: Act for Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy. Between the Minister’s definition
and the official name of the corresponding law extend the notorious
forms of manipulation that the Zapatero Project has applied to the
fundamental principles of political propaganda, known as the principles of simplification, transposition, vulgarisation, orchestration,
verisimilitude, hushing up and transfusion6:
The principle of simplification (individualising the adversary as a
single enemy):
José Antonio Alonso, Minister and PSOE Spokesman in the Lower
House of Parliament: «The Catholic Church wants to imprison
women who have to voluntarily interrupt their pregnancies».
El País (15.5.09): «The Church and the PP Lash Out at the Abortion Bill».
—————
5
http://goo.gl/Q9T2T
The principles listed here were formulated by Hitler’s Minister for People’s Education and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels: http://goo.gl/dy8pO y
http://goo.gl/ADinB
6
45
Juan Luis Cebrián, Managing Director of the PRISA Group
(9.1.08): «The Church is the intellectual battering ram of the PP».
Zapatero (6.1.08): «Nobody can impose faith, morality or customs,
only respect for the law, which is the DNA of democracy».
The principle of transposition (transferring your own errors onto
the adversary in order to attack them):
The Spanish Episcopal Conference published six documents
against abortion when the PP was in government, whilst it has published only three documents under the Zapatero Government.
Maribel Montaño, Socialist Secretary for Equality (22.1.08): «The
hypocrisy of the Catholic ecclesiastic hierarchy, because they only
remember abortion and divorce when the Left is in government».
The principle of vulgarisation (minimising the mental efforts of the
public vis-à-vis the messages that are launched):
María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, Deputy Prime Minister of the
Government (14.5.09): «We want to safeguard the dignity of
women».
Soledad Cabezón, PSOE’s Secretary for Equality Policies (3.10.09):
«We must guarantee women’s right to independence».
«For the youngest members of society. For their right to decide»
was the slogan of the campaign dreamt up by the Young Socialists
to support the abortion law.
Carmen Montón, PSOE Member of Parliament and Spokeswoman
for Equality: «They want abortion to stay in the Penal Code and for
woman to be unable to decide themselves».
Dolores Cabrera, PSOE’s Secretary for Equality: «PSOE defends
women’s right to decide with regard to sexuality and reproduction».
Francisca Medina, Assistant Spokesman of the Equality Commission
in the Lower House of Spain’s Parliament (10.3.09): «Women will de-
46
cide, without the supervision of third parties. The decision of women
is not a question of authorisation, but a question of rights».
The principle of orchestration (constantly repeating the same few
ideas). In reaction to the fact that no woman in Spain has ever been
imprisoned for carrying out an abortion:
Zapatero (18.11.09): «No woman must go to prison for voluntarily
interrupting a pregnancy».
Carme Chacón, Minister for Defence (1.6.09): «We have witnessed
abuses of all kinds, people who have been persecuted for aborting».
Leire Pajín, PSOE’s Organisation Secretary (21.5.09): «This law
will mean that women in this country no longer have to pay, even
with incarceration, for aborting».
José Bono, the Head of the Regional Government of Castile-La
Mancha and Speaker of the Lower House of Spain’s Parliament
(29.3.09): «No woman must go to prison for aborting».
José Antonio Alonso (17.3.09): «They want to continue sending
women to prison who have to abort».
The principle of verisimilitude (arguments based on alleged facts
that are either irrelevant or out of context). Vis-à-vis the demonstration in Madrid against the abortion law (17.10.09), which featured
the participation of more than one million people:
Report from the daily newspaper, Público: «An abortion of a
demonstration [...] Priests, nuns and pious women with their pious husbands, all of whom are at zero risk of becoming pregnant,
turned up to protest [...] Thousands of girls and boys were also
there, children forced by their parents to attend the demonstration. Above all, there were a large number of sixteen-year-old
girls, who, by the looks of it, are sufficiently mature to understand nonsense such as the idea that their god manufactures little
souls as soon as the zygote is formed, but are entirely immature
when it comes to deciding whether they can abort an unwanted
47
foetus [the law proposes that sixteen-year-old girls should be able
to decide to abort without their parents’ consent] [...] Aznar’s old
guard protests against abortion».
The principle of hushing up (suppressing information that may favour the adversary). A demonstration took place on 17th October
2009 against the abortion law. The demonstrators occupied Calle
Alcalá, stretching from Puerta del Sol to the Puerta de Alcalá itself,
including all of the adjacent streets. According to the organisers,
more than two million demonstrators took part. According to the
Madrid Regional Government, the number came to 1.2 million. The
demonstration was called by 42 civil associations:
The government news agency, Efe: the number of demonstrators
came to 55,316 persons.
El País: «According to estimates made by El País, the demonstrators against the law reform came to 265,000 [...] The march featured the participation of top Partido Popular leaders».
The principle of transfusion (resorting to myths and prejudices and
stirring up the most primitive layers of the collective imagination
facilitates the rapid acceptance of propaganda):
Mariano Fernández Bermejo, Minister for Justice (30.12.07):
«Through the auspices of its ecclesiastic hierarchy and the most reactionary elements of the Right, the Nationalist-Catholic movement
has sprung into campaign mode».
Bernat Soria, Minister for Health (16.12.07): «We cannot go back
to the times of the Inquisition, turn back the clock 500 or 300
years. The country that invented the Inquisition doesn’t seem to
want to consign it to the past. We cannot allow some 5 or 6 per cent
of people to be the inquisitors of the rest».
Convinced of the fact that politics consists of changing individual
forms of behaviour, instead of managing resources and channelling
initiatives in order to achieve the common good, a good part of the
48
Rodríguez Zapatero’s measures and a good part of the activity pursued
by PSOE since the year 2004 has been devoted to mere propaganda
about abortion, one of the key elements of its project. Without any
other arguments except for the tiresome slogans mentioned above and
by using the media and a series of audiovisual leisure opportunities
that present abortion as an aseptic and impersonal procedure that signifies the very culmination of freedom and modern life, a large part of
this Socialist Government’s work has consisted of convincing the public of the need to increase the number of unborn children.
The impact of the Government’s measures on public opinion has
not been quite as expected. In this respect, the year 2009, the year in
which Rodríguez Zapatero’s abortion law was drafted and the greatest
pressure was exerted on public opinion, marked the key turning-point.
The black hole that exists within the Zapatero universe has
emerged through the auspices of public opinion. Newspapers as close
to the abortionist movements as La Vanguardia have recorded the shift
in public opinion regarding abortion. According to polls carried out
by the Noxa Institute and published by this newspaper, in 2008, before
the grand abortionist campaign was launched by the Socialist Government, some 57 per cent of the respondents were in favour of abortion and 30 per cent were against. One year later, those in favour of
abortion had fallen to 44 per cent, whilst the number of advocates of
the right to live had increased to 46 per cent. As of that time, all of the
polls, even those dependent on the Socialist Government itself, have
continued to record a constant rise in the number of people who support the right to live, which constitutes a clear setback for those in favour of PSOE’s pro-abortion reforms.
As of the second half of the year 2009, this trend has even been
detected among Socialist voters. During this period, some 25 per
cent of these voters rejected the Government’s abortionist project.
Socialist advocates of the right to live increased by 11 per cent,
whilst those in favour of extermination decreased by 13 per cent.
This historic sea-change in Spain has been brought about by the
determined and tenacious efforts of thousands of citizens, who,
throughout the whole country, have come together to form civil
platforms to defend the right to live. Throughout the whole of the
49
year 2009, the activities pursued by these groups of citizens focused
on disseminating scientific information regarding abortion and its
consequences, not to mention citizen-based activism, denouncing
government complicity with abortion clinic associations and residual groups of hot-headed radicals. This work managed to pierce the
wall of silence erected by the Socialist Government.
Extermination of
unborn children
Right to live
September 2008
57%
30%
May 2009
47%
46%
September 2009
44%
46%
PSOE sought to process and pass its abortionist project in the
most discreet and rapid manner possible, effectively lifting the public out of the debate that such an initiative required. The civil
groups and platforms halted this attempt and managed to explain
Rodríguez Zapatero’s true intentions to the public at large. The
PSOE agenda was forced to change and the abortionists then began
to bring their propaganda and the sympathetic media into play. But
they were now fighting a rearguard action. The initiative lay with
those that sought to protect the right to live.
On 29th March 2009, the March for Life7 brought some half a
million people out onto the streets of Madrid, whilst there were
nearly one hundred simultaneous demonstrations in other Spanish
cities and outside the Spanish embassies located in various different
countries. For the first time in Spanish history, an act of defence
regarding the right to live broke all of the forecasts that had been
made and filled the streets of our cities with a unified protest in favour of life that had never been so strong and determined.
Anti-abortion demonstrations date back to the year 1985, which
is when the first abortion law was announced. However, for years the
ranks of the protestors had been filled with a series of heroic forerunners who had acted in the most absolute solitude and had almost
—————
7
http://www.hazteoir.org/node/19005
50
never managed to influence public opinion. The March for Life held
in the year 2009 broke the taboo imposed by Spanish society based
on a politically-correct «progressive» stance, one in which abortion
was considered to be an expression of freedom, rather than a crime.
The international press8 echoed Spanish society’s reaction to the
abortionist plans of the Zapatero Project and the Socialist Government was left somewhat ruffled and with no other recourse except to
redouble its propaganda campaign consisting of manipulation and
insults against those of us who support the right to live.
In Spring 2009, various coaches toured the entire Peninsula over
a period of three weeks, spreading the “right to live” message. The
Tour for Life9 carried out by the coaches chartered by the “right to
life” platform, Derecho a Vivir (DAV), served to strengthen the mobilisation of thousands of people, citizens throughout the whole country
who voluntarily demonstrated their determination to be heard, with a
view to putting a stop to the Socialist Government’s abortionist plans.
The second mass demonstration in favour of the unborn foetus’
right to live took place on 17th October 2009, on this occasion only in
Madrid10. Faced with its resounding success, the Socialist Government and its political and media supporters wrote the event off as a
demonstration of «bishops and the Old Guard of the Partido Popular». However, the verbal attacks on the participants have only served
to motivate and mobilise even more supporters, as became evident on
7th March 2010 when the Second International March for Life11 once
again mobilised citizens in cities throughout all of Spain’s provinces.
In every province and in many towns and cities, members of the public took to the streets in order to express their revulsion for Rodríguez
Zapatero’s abortion law. Madrid was once again brought to a complete standstill as 600,000 supporters of the right to live marched
through the city’s streets, whilst Spain’s embassies abroad were surrounded by banners condemning the proposed law.
—————
8
http://blogs.hazteoir.org/vueltaporlavida
10 http://www.hazteoir.org/node/24660
11 http://www.hazteoir.org/node/28635
9
51
Nevertheless, Zapatero’s project has battled on regardless,
because its objectives do not include any kind of consultation
with the public, but the mere imposition of its principles. Backed
by nationalist and left-wing splinter groups, PSOE managed to
gather a sufficient number of votes together on 24th February in
order to pass its abortionist reform in the Upper House of
Spain’s Parliament, El Senado.
The policy of promoting and facilitating abortion has yielded its
«fruits»: between 2001 and 2008 the number of abortions doubled in
Spain, whilst the use of contraceptives, which according to the legislation produced by the Zapatero Project serve to reduce abortions, increased from 49 per cent in 1997 to 80 per cent in the year 2007.
Development of Abortion in Spain
Source: Institute for Family Policies (IPF).
One abortion takes place every 4.7 minutes in Spain, whilst one out
of every five pregnancies ends in abortion, which represents some 20
per cent of all pregnancies. According to the latest figures furnished by
the PSOE Government, some 317 abortions take place every day in
Spain. And every hour, two adolescents walk into an abortion clinic.
Since 2007, Spain has been the country within the EU-15 that has witnessed the largest increase in the number of abortions.
The Institute for Family Policies (IPF) has compared the official
abortion figures furnished by the Ministry of Health with various
population figures. The results are as follows:12
—————
12
Institute for Family Policies (IPF), Evolución de la Familia en España,
2010: http://www.ipfe.org/Informe_Evolucion_Familia_Espana_2010.pdf
52
• The number of abortions that take place in Spain over a period of 15 days (4,750 abortions) would serve to cover the
annual national and international demand for adoptions.
• Every day, 317 children fail to be born in Spain due to abortion. This is equivalent to the closing-down of a mediumsized school every 3 days due to a lack of children.
• The number of abortions that took place in the year 2008
(more than 115,000) is equivalent to cities such as Orense
and Lugo and comes to more than the entire population of
the Province of Soria or cities such as Gerona, Cáceres,
Toledo, Zamora and Huesca.
• The number of abortions that takes place over a period of 15
days exceeds the number of people who die from traffic accidents throughout an entire year.
• The number of abortions that takes place in a year (115,812 in
the year 2008) is equivalent to Spain’s birth deficit.
• Since abortion practices were legalised in 1985, Spain has
witnessed some 1,350,000 abortions. This figure is equivalent
to the population of regions such as Extremadura, Aragon,
Asturias, the Balearic Islands, or Navarre and Cantabria together.
On the same day that the Upper House of Spain’s Parliament
passed the law on abortion with the votes of PSOE and its regional
franchises, ERC, IU and BNG, together with various members of
the Senate from the parties CiU and PSM-EN and two independent
Senate members from Navarre and Ibiza, Rodríguez Zapatero declared the following:
«Nobody has the right to take life away from another human being, absolutely nobody. Let us work for this cause. I am at your entire disposal.»13
—————
13
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the World Congress Against the Death
Penalty, Geneva, 24.2.10: http://www.hazteoir.org/node/28385
V
When Education Is Indoctrination
Education is one of the most carefully controlled instruments of the
Zapatero Project and all of the Government’s initiatives in this field
contemplate the corresponding indoctrination procedures. The
same also applies in the case of abortion.
«For more than a century we have known that the force that sweeps
the world along consists of ideas. That is why we must know how
to do two things at the same time: change the present through
Government and transform the future through ideas.»1
The Act for Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy (the law that offers an «abortion
free-for-all») imposed by the Socialist Party, does not limit itself to
simply amending the abortionist legislation that has been in force in
Spain since 1985. This law, which constitutes a key plank of the
Zapatero Project, reflects the Prime Minister’s wish to subvert the current social structure, eradicating its present values and replacing them
with others of more dubious democratic credentials. In order to
achieve this aim, the law proposed by Rodríguez Zapatero introduces
the question of abortion into the education system.
—————
1
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, 37th PSOE Congress, 2008.
54
AT 9 YEARS OF AGE “YOU ARE
THE OWNER OF YOUR BODY, OF
YOUR PLEASURE”
In 2009 the Ministry for Equality
published the Eighth Health Guide
for «adolescent girls between 9 and
17 years of age». This publication
recommends girls of this age to abort
«as soon as possible», without making any mention of the need to consult their parents at any time. In fact,
parents disappear from the text
completely:
«There is no specific age or moment for sharing our sexuality. Do not
impose it on yourself or let others impose it on you. It is your decision.
Live, explore, discover, learn. You are
the owner of your feelings, of your
body, of your pleasure and of your life.
»If you do not wish to go ahead
with your pregnancy, go to a family
planning centre or a health centre as
soon as possible. They will help
you.»
The Ministry’s Eighth Health
Guide includes illustrations that
show, for example, minors having
sex inside cars, as well as providing advice regarding the use of
condoms and the «morning-after
pill», all aimed at girls of nine
years of age and over.
The indoctrinatory dimension of the law receives the
name of «sexual and reproductive health». In the terminology
of the international abortion
lobbies, this so-called sexual
and reproductive health has
served as a cover for promoting
Malthusian population control
policies and abortion policies in
the least-developed countries
on Earth, disguising them as a
means of achieving new freedoms exclusively for women:
«The explicit recognition and reaffirmation of the right of all
women to control all aspects of
their health, in particular their
own fertility, is basic to their
empowerment.»2
«Sexual Rights»
Since 1994, the year in which
the concept of «sexual and reproductive health» was introduced at the International
Conference on Population and
Development that took place in
—————
2 Fourth edition of the United Nations World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995: http://www.un.org/spanish/conferences/Beijing/mujer2021.htm.
Various documents relating to this Conference can be downloaded from the
web page belonging to the former Ministry for Equality (today State Department for Equality) —http://www.migualdad.es.
WHEN EDUCATION IS INDOCTRINATION
55
Cairo, organised by the United Nations Population Fund, in real
terms this expression has signified an extension of abortion and
abortion procedures as a form of contraception, the end of conscientious objection on the part of doctors and mass sterilisation:
«The human rights of women include their right to have control
over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their
sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free from coercion, discrimination and violence.»3
In this respect, the expression «sexual and reproductive health»
has come to serve as an equivalent of the term «abortion»:
«Reproductive health is the state of complete physical, mental and
social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,
in all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions
and processes. Reproductive health therefore implies that people
are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the
capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and
how often to do so.
»Sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life
and personal relations, and not merely counselling and care related
to reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases.»4
For her part, the US Secretary of State of the United States,
Hillary Clinton, expressly recognised the following during a hearing
before a US Senate Committee:
«I will say that I’ve worked in this area for many years. And if we’re
talking about maternal health, you cannot have maternal health
without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion.»5
—————
3 International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 1994:
http://www.un.org/es/development/devagenda/population.shtml
4 Ibid.
5 http://unitedfamiliesinternational.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/hillaryclinton-confirms-reproductive-health-means-abortion
56
SEXUAL AND
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
ACT FOR SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE
=
ABORTION
1994. The Cairo Conference on Population and Development established
the concept of «sexual and reproductive health», whilst the World Health
Organisation has defined «fertility
regulation» as «family planning, abortion, raising the minimum age for marriage and breast-feeding».
1995. Beijing. The Fourth United
Nations World Conference on Women.
Abortion and sexual and reproductive
rights were constituted as human rights
for women.
2002. The European Parliament’s
Committee on Women’s Rights and
Gender Equality recommended that
«in order to safeguard women’s reproductive health and rights, abortion
should be made legal, safe and accessible to all».
2004. The Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe Council passed
the European Strategy for the Promotion of Sexual and Reproductive
Health and Rights. Article 2: «The
right to sexual and reproductive health
implies that people are able to enjoy a
mutually satisfying and safe relationship, free from coercion or violence
and without fear of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including
HIV/Aids, or unwanted pregnancies.
Individuals and couples should be able
to regulate their fertility without adverse or dangerous consequences».
HEALTH AND THE VOLUNTARY
INTERRUPTION OF PREGNANCY6
Chapter III
Measures within the educational field
Article 9. Incorporation of training regarding sexual and reproductive health
into the education system. The education
system shall contemplate the provision of
training regarding sexual and reproductive health.
e) The prevention of unplanned pregnancies.
Article 10
Training activities.
The public authorities shall support the
educational community in carrying out
training activities relating to sex education, the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies, furnishing the appropriate
information to the mothers and fathers.
Chapter IV
National Strategy for Sexual and Reproductive Health
Article 11. Elaboration of a National
Strategy for Sexual and Reproductive
Health. In order to fulfil the objectives
set out in this law, the State Government,
in collaboration with the Regional Governments, shall implement a Plan, which
shall be known as the National Strategy
for Sexual and Reproductive Health.
The neo-language that characterises the Zapatero Project defines
the concept of sexual and reproductive health in the following
manner:
—————
6
As reproduced in the Official State Gazette (BOE) 4.3.10: http://www.boe.es
57
«Sexual health: a state of physical, psychological and socio-cultural
well-being linked to sexuality, which requires an environment that
is free from coercion, discrimination and violence.
»Reproductive health: a state of physical, psychological and socio-cultural well-being with regard to aspects linked to the reproductive capacity of an individual, which entails the possibility of
a safe sex life, the freedom to have children and the freedom to
decide when to have them.»
This definition appears in what is known as the National Strategy
for Sexual and Reproductive Health7, an initiative promoted in the
year 2009 by the Socialist Government through the auspices of the
Ministry of Health and Social Policy. This document, which is almost 200 pages long, does not feature a single mention of the terms
«child» or «baby», which are replaced with the term «offspring».
Thus, the text often makes reference to «women and their offspring», but never to women and their children.
This document clearly establishes the fact that reproductive
health means abortion («one of the basic rights of women with regard to reproductive health consists of their right to information
and their right to decide freely»). It also makes it clear what these
new «sexual rights» mean:
«The concept of sexual rights is constantly evolving and being revised. Its conceptualisation is the result of a process that has
emerged due to the demands of different social movements, such
as international women’s movements and international organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and
LGBT groups (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals).»8
With the precedents having been laid regarding the «legitimacy» of the sexual rights proposed by the Zapatero Project, the
—————
7 Estrategia Nacional de Salud Sexual y Reproductiva, Ministry of Health
and Social Policy, 2010. The entire document can be consulted at
8 Ibid.
58
Strategy introduces a relativist approach from the very beginning,
firmly applying its doctrine of destruction regarding reality and
nature:
«The concept of “gender” refers to the series of biological, physical,
economic, social, psychological, erotic, political and cultural characteristics attributed to individuals according to their sex. Based on
gender, a social construct emerges regarding what it means to be a
man and a woman, one that varies over time and from one society
to another, effectively building the idea of gender and producing
the masculine and feminine dichotomy.
»Each culture defines what is normal and morally virtuous with
regard to the sexual activity of individuals, their sexual options/orientations and their sexual practices.»9
By applying the script followed by all of the other initiatives
promoted by the Zapatero Project with mechanical precision, the
Strategy then goes on to destroy the very foundations of society by
questioning maternity and, consequently, the family:
«The myth of maternal instinct, which is supposedly natural and intrinsic, predestines women to be mothers so that they subsequently
grant priority to looking after the offspring they give birth to, although there is no equivalent correlation in the case of men. Maternity, and especially the practice of maternity, condition maternal
consciousness. The myth of maternal instinct is a clear example of
the use of biological facts (such as the uterus, pregnancy and childbirth) in order to confine women in relation to their reproductive
function.
»Maternity is not a natural fact, given that the process of human
procreation is mediated by cultural factors [...] Consequently, the
ideology of maternity (Albite-Vélez & Valle-Ferrer, 2003; Golden,
1998) was constructed as an inducement for women to exercise a
sense of sacrifice and self-denial in favour of the family’s well-being,
laying the foundations for women’s oppression within the domestic,
—————
9
Ibid.
59
private and public realms, as well as for the multiple forms of violence against women both inside and outside the home.»10
The Strategy also offers a reward for those who apply themselves
to the cause. For all those who accept the interference of the State
under the sheets and with regard to their conscience, the Zapatero
Project promises a secular heaven bursting with happiness and absolute pleasure:
«We depart from an integral approach for the promotion of sexual
health, one that guarantees the sexual rights of men and women
and seeks to encourage change regarding gender bias, fostering, for
example, the joint responsibility of individuals within sexual relations, irrespective of their sex and sexual options or orientations.
That is to say, both men and women are responsible for promoting
a satisfactory, pleasurable and egalitarian experience of sexuality.»11
The National Strategy for Sexual and Reproductive Health was
approved by the Zapatero Government and the Health Departments of the different Regional Governments, except for those governed by the Partido Popular, in October 2010. The text that
emerged from the Inter-Territorial Council of the National Health
System, that body that gave the go-ahead to the Strategy, offers a
meticulously precise distinction between «reproductive health» and
«sexual health». Trinidad Jiménez, at that time Minister for Health,
boasted of the alleged achievement:
«For the first time in Spain, a distinction has been made between reproductive health and sexual health, in order to recognise the right to
sexuality without reproduction. This initiative is born with the vocation to guarantee the sexual and reproductive rights of all citizens.»12
—————
10
11
12
Ibid.
Ibid.
http://www.religionenlibertad.com/articulo.asp?idarticulo=11583
60
Instilling Destruction
All of these initiatives, the Strategy, the Abortion Law of 2010 and
the free distribution of the morning-after pill, have been enthusiastically applied to the education system, based on the idea that by
controlling future citizens, you can control society. In this respect,
the abortion policies and those relating to the sexual life of citizens
promoted by Rodríguez Zapatero propose specific indoctrination
measures at education centres catering for all ages, starting with
infant schools and continuing up to university:
«Within the field of education, sex education for infants and adolescents shall be promoted, in accordance with the level of development at each age, using a holistic perspective of sexuality and diversity as a point of reference.
»Channels of communication and cooperation with regard to
the world of education shall be promoted in order to include the
idea of sexual health, based on an integral and gender-aware
perspective, in university studies, post-graduate studies and specialised education.»13
The National Strategy for Sexual and Reproductive Health also
details the assault on the world of university: abortion becomes
«teaching» for medical students and students of other specialised
fields linked to health. The Zapatero Project requires the
unconditional surrender of our intelligence and will, as well as
determining the manner in which professional activities are to be
approached:
«The training of health professionals shall be undertaken from a
gender-aware perspective and shall entail the incorporation of sexual and reproductive health into curricular programmes corresponding to careers relating to medicine and the health sciences, including research and training regarding clinical practices relating to
the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.
—————
13
Estrategia Nacional de Salud Sexual y Reproductiva, Ministry of Health
and Social Policy, 2010.
WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT
THE BOY KNOWS HOW TO USE A
CONDOM?
This was the title of a workshop that
took place this very academic year for
a second-year class (Segundo de
ESO) at a secondary school in Madrid, aimed at students of between
13 and 14 years of age. They are in
the classroom, but there are no books
or exercise books. The object of the
exercise is for «adolescents to learn
how to develop their personalities
and carry out a practical task». In order to do so, the tables are covered
with an endless number of sealed
condoms and a spectacular dildo.
The boys, but above all the girls, giggling and joking, are required to unroll the condoms onto the dildo. The
ultimate and true objective of the
training is described in a digital
school magazine with the following
text: «Hey girl!»
— If he doesn’t know how, you’ll
have to be the one who knows,
won’t you?
— Why do they have to make the
decision for you?
— What makes you think that the
boy has kept the condom in good
condition or knows how to use it?18
61
»The training of professionals
shall be undertaken based on a
gender-aware perspective and
shall include sexual and reproductive health on ongoing training programmes throughout the
course of a professional’s career.
»Maps of professional competences (knowledge, skills and
attitudes) shall be created for different professional profiles with
a view to incorporating sexual
health aspects into health care
practice, within the framework
of this Strategy.
»Channels of communication
and cooperation with regard to
the world of education shall be
promoted in order to include the
idea of sexual health, based on
an integral and gender-aware
perspective, in university studies,
post-graduate studies and specialised education.»14
The interference of the
public authorities in the private lives of children and
young people and the consequent meddling with their moral conscience has evolved into an
apology for sexuality, in its capacity as an «educational» instrument.
Every year since 2007, the Local Council of Elche, which is
governed by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, organises the
Diverse Festival of Lesbian, Gay, Transsexual, Bisexual and Inter-
—————
14
Ibid.
62
sexual Culture15. The activities include workshops in primary and
secondary schools throughout the town in order to teach children to accept «sexual diversity» and «to come out of the
closet». There are also storytelling sessions aimed at primary
school children with titles such as Once Upon a Time a Child
with Two Mummies, and workshops with headings such as To
School without Closets.
The coordinator of the Festival defines the event in the following
manner:
«We propose a new perspective in which the classroom ceases to be
a homogeneous whole in order to reflect its entire affective-sexual
diversity.»
«Couldn’t it be that what you need is a good homosexual affair?»
is one of the slogans of the campaign with which the Local Council
of Benicasim (PSOE) addresses the children of the town through its
Youth Centre in order to mark what is known as the International
Day Against Homophobia. Another slogan reads: «Don’t you think
heterosexuality is just a passing phase you’re going through?»16. The
campaign is aimed at young people of between 14 and 17 years of
age.
The Guide produced by the Ministries of Education and Health,
Gaining Health in School: Guide on How to Achieve It17, which was
published in 2009, defines the objectives of «affective-sexual education»:
• Integrating affective and sexual education into the curriculum at different educational levels.
• Using the condom in sexual relations.
—————
15
http://www.intereconomia.com/noticias-gaceta/sociedad/animan-ponersepiel-homosexual
17 Technical Secretariat at the Ministry of Education, Madrid, 2009:
http://ww.msps.es/profesionales/saludPublica/prevPromocion/promocion/
saludJovenes/docs/ganarSaludEscuela.pdf
16
63
• Promoting a favourable environment for healthy attitudes regarding affective and sexual matters.
• Providing students with opportunities to explore their feelings and opinions regarding affective-sexual matters within
a normalised context.18
With regard to the way in which this subject should tackled, the
text declares:
«Educational methods employ active learning strategies, as well as
interactive teaching techniques, in order to help students learn.
These promote the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes and skills,
as well as the confidence required for the development of a satisfactory sexual identity and satisfactory affective relations.»
The knowledge that must be imparted in Secondary Education
refers to «sexual identity and orientation». Primary Education involves the acquisition of other knowledge, including the following:
• Greater knowledge about one’s own body. Greater knowledge about the characteristics and morphology of the genitals.
• Bonds between individuals and the relationships that arise
as a result. Sexual behaviour as an intimate expression of
affection.
In addition to indoctrination tools such as this guide published
under the paradoxical name of Gaining Health in School, the introduction of the subject “Citizenship Education” in September 2007
constituted a fundamental instrument for implanting the Zapatero
Project within the education system at an early age. This is a subject
that proposes to build «a shared ethics», one based on the relativism of coincidental agreement. Once again here we come across the
outrageous battle that the Zapatero Project is waging against nature,
—————
18
Published in ABC, 24.5.10
64
which is replaces with «unfinished historical conquests» in the form
of ever-changing and always relative human rights that are subject
to «extension or withdrawal according to the context».
The regulatory premises for the subject offer us a key opportunity to understand the degree to which the Zapatero Project seeks
to indoctrinate students within the educational field:
«Acquisition of knowledge and reflection on human rights are also
common, from the perspective of their historical nature, thus helping students to value the fact that they are not guaranteed by the
existence of a Declaration, but that it is possible to extend or withdraw them according to the context.»19
Poster of a pro-ETA trade union in the Manual for Citizenship Education, published by Ediciones del Serbal.
The Zapatero Project once again raises the idea here that it is the
State that should determine truth and morality. Citizenship Education (EpC) talks about «personal identity», about «affectiveemotional education» and about «building a moral conscience».
—————
19
Royal Decree 1631/2006, dated 29th December, which established the
minimum teaching contents corresponding to Compulsory Secondary Education. Official State Gazette (BOE) dated 5.1.2007.
65
Here we are dealing with the «religion» of the Zapatero Project, a
«religion» based on the dogmas of relativism (there is no absolute
truth), legal positivism (the laws passed by Parliament have no other
external point of reference over and above the will of the legislator),
secularism (religions are always a source of violence and regression)
and gender ideology (the gender of each human being is not determined by nature, but is the product of an individual decision that
is taken after experiencing all kinds of sexual relations):
«The aim is to check whether political and moral pluralism is understood.»20
Remember, my child, the
market is everything.
Yes, Sister Free
Competition.
Manual for Citizenship Education published by Ediciones del Serbal.
This political and moral pluralism is defined in the pages of
the Official State Gazette (BOE), which becomes the holy book
of the new religion, whose morality is shaped by political action.
The will of the parties, as expressed through the well-known «rig-
—————
20
School subject known as Ethical-Civic Education, which is taught during the fourth year of Compulsory Secondary Education. Evaluation Criteria.
66
our» of their parliamentary work, ensures that those who have a
calling are precisely those who accept the decisions of their party
leadership as constituting an expression of supreme will, the very
same leadership echelons that close the doors on the public with
their closed lists. As for the recalcitrant members of society who
insist on resisting the State’s efforts to regulate people’s private
lives, they are expelled from the «progressive» paradise and socially repudiated and condemned for seeking to guarantee that
«democratic» power is restricted solely to the regulation of collective public affairs.
“Extremists”, “ultra-Conservatives”, “reactionaries” and “antidemocratic activists” are just some of the names that the authorities
attribute to those who believe that universal suffrage should end
where individual conscience begins and, consequently, where the
freedom of each individual comes into play. And the education system is the key means with which to bore through the wall of freedom constructed by individual conscience.
And who do you love the
most? Mummy or Daddy?
Daddy and my
two Mummies.
Manual for Citizenship Education published by Editorial Praxis.
Below we reproduce various texts taken from the regulatory decrees for the subject known as Citizenship Education:
67
•
«In order to achieve [an understanding of political and moral
pluralism], a detailed focus shall be placed on principles of
personal and social ethics.»
• «Focusing on ethical-civic education based on an ethical reflection that departs from the most familiar environments, in
order to help create a civic moral conscience through an
analysis of moral dilemmas.»
• «The analysis of moral dilemmas helps students to construct
their own ethical judgements based on democratic values and
practices.»
Among the student evaluation criteria established for this subject, the Royal Decree for Secondary Education establishes the following:
«Differentiation of the basic features that characterise individuals’ moral dimension (norms, the hierarchy of values, customs,
etc.) and the main moral problems. With this criterion the aim
is to evaluate whether they identify different aspects regarding
the moral dimension of individuals and human behaviour, as well
as the moral dilemmas that arise in the world today.»
Through its teaching content, this subject inoculates students with
gender-based ideology, in which respect the supposition of gender
roles is considered to be nothing more than cultural stereotyping and
sexist prejudice. The subject promotes the idea that gender is an identity that everyone can choose voluntarily. It advocates the idea, therefore, that all «affective-sexual orientations» are comparable:
«Sometimes, people of one sex or another disagree with the gender
identity that society assigns to them: they do not wish to fulfil the
roles that socially apply to them as men and women. Neither is it
very clear what being a boy or a girl exactly is. Socially it is believed
that girls should like boys and boys should like girls; but, as you
now, it doesn’t always work that way.»21
—————
21
Manual for Citizenship Education published by Pearson Alhambra.
68
«The term ‘gender” refers to a cultural construction and, like all
cultural aspects, it can be modified. It is clear, then, that the distinction regarding gender relations is not something that is either natural or biological, but something that is learned and, very often, imposed.»22
According to Citizenship Education, the family is nothing more
than a social construction, a kind of collective state of mind, one
that is determined by the customs and practices of each age and one
that can be modified at will.
The laudable aim of eradicating any form of discrimination pursued by this subject departs from an initial premise that contaminates its egalitarian ideas: the confusion between discrimination and
difference. The gender-based ideology that impregnates the entire
subject and its corresponding relativism lead to a rejection of any
kind of difference. In the Citizenship Education Manual published
by Octaedro, we can read the following:
«It is common to hear the statement: “Men and women are not the
same, they are very different”. Well this is an argument that justifies
sexism.
—————
22
Manual for Citizenship Education published by Algaida.
69
»In order to address sex discrimination, it is necessary to eliminate stereotypes regarding men and women, because these are not
true reflections of reality, but cultural beliefs that are invented and,
therefore, false.»
THEORY:
REGULATORY DECREES FOR CITI-
PRACTICE:
“PLEASURE IS IN YOUR HANDS”
ZENSHIP EDUCATION (EPC)
The Ministry of Health regulates the
obligation of all education centres to
impart sex and reproductive education
to their students. The persons responsible for imparting this training shall
be from outside the centres and shall
be designated by the Government,
who shall determine who is qualified
to teach this subject.
Education centres shall not be able to
appeal to their own philosophy in order
to oppose this measure, which shall be
under the control and supervision of the
Government.
A Hippy Mother
She believes that
young people
should gradually
acquire
responsibilities
and learn to make
their own
mistakes.
Suppressing
young people is
counterproductive, given
that it forms the
basis of family
conflict.
La Razón. Trujillo, Cáceres. 13.11.09.–
Teresa García is a “gender and equal opportunities trainer” from the sex shop
«Los placeres de Lola» (“Lola’s Pleasures”). She is also responsible for imparting the workshop Pleasure Is in Your
Hands among fourth-year secondary
education students (ESO) in the town.
The press has christened this activity the
“Masturbation Workshop”:
«The Manual that was handed to the kids
encouraged them to “have a go at a homosexual experience” and to compare ideas
should they have any doubts about
whether they are lesbians or not.»
A Traditional Father
His children have
very strictly defined
timetables. Discipline
is very important, as
is complying with the
rules. He tries to instil
a sense of
responsibility in them
and believes that
there is nothing good
out on the streets at
night. What is more,
what they can do at
night they can do
during the day.
Manual for Citizenship Education published by Editorial Santillana.
Natural differences (man-woman) are denounced in the name
of tolerance, because they are considered to be forms of discrimi-
70
nation («social and gender-based division of labour»). According
to the Ministry of Education, students of Citizenship Education
(EpC) must learn:
«To carry out a critical evaluation of social and gender-based division of labour and racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, sexist and homophobic social prejudices.
»To identify and reject, through an analysis of real and figurative
cases, examples of discrimination against persons of different origin,
gender, ideology, religion, affective-sexual orientation and others.»23
Manual for Citizenship Education published by Editorial Akal.
Religious beliefs are discarded, being relegated to what the law
describes as “private morality”, in which respect they are consigned
to the hidden realm of our private lives. Tolerance regarding different religious alternatives is encouraged, but this sense of tolerance
—————
23 Educación para la Ciudadanía y derechos humanos, Block 2 (InterPersonal Relations and Participation). Official State Gazette (BOE) dated
8.1.07. Secondary Education Decree.
71
is based on the idea that those who profess such beliefs should not
make them public.
Yes, but we’ve
certainly learned what
In Russia we
capitalism is soon
never really knew what
enough.
Communism is.
Indoctrination regarding the «morality» of the new State religion
is accompanied by political indoctrination. The contents of this
school subject contain elements of a political and even party-based
nature, which are as subjective and prone to manipulation as the
following:
«A study of the factors of discrimination regarding different
groups, an analysis of globalisation, the concept of global citizenship, sustainable human development and all aspects relating to cooperation and the development of a culture of peace.
»Discovery of the causes that lead to human rights violations,
poverty and inequality, as well as the relationship between armed
conflicts and under-development, evaluating measures aimed at
achieving peace and security and active participation as a means of
creating a fairer world.
»During this stage, various contents shall be included relating
to the measures undertaken by international bodies and those
72
movements, organisations and forces that work to promote human
rights and peace.»24
According to the provisions set out by the Ministry of Education, the following criteria should be applied in order to evaluate
students:
«Identification of the characteristics of globalisation and the role
that the media plays in this respect, recognising the relations that
exist between the society in which we live and the life of peoples in
other parts of the world.»
You see? That thing that hurts there is
the West.
When the legislative theory of education is translated into practice,
the picture reflects the indoctrinatory foundations of the Zapatero
Project in all its crude reality. What follows is a selection of texts taken
from different Citizenship Education Manuals:
—————
24
Royal Decree 1631/2006, dated 29th December, which established the
minimum teaching contents corresponding to Compulsory Secondary Education. Official State Bulletin (BOE) dated 5.1.2007.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
73
«Write a composition under the following title: if I am selfemployed, why do they have to force me to do what I don’t
want to?» (Editorial McGraw Hill)
«In 1789 the French Revolution ended the period of absolutist government, returned power to the people and introduced a regime based on equality and individual freedoms
known as Liberalism. In 1917, another revolution, in Russia,
brought down the tsars, returned power to the people and
introduced a regime based on equality and individual freedoms known as Socialism. In both cases, but in different
ways, the old idea of democracy invented many centuries
earlier by the Greeks, was reborn.» (Ediciones del Serbal)
«During the twentieth century, the rights that had been
gained were consolidated and extended until they encompassed aspects of private life, such as the right of abortion.»
(Editorial Octaedro)
«Each person can proceed differently (some prefer vaginal intercourse and others lean towards other kinds of relations: this
person adorns the act with dreams and fantasies, whilst that
person is less imaginative, etcetera).» (Editorial McGraw Hill)
«In your relationships with people from different generations
to your own (for example, without your parents or grandparents), they very often tell you how you should do things, or
whether you should do certain things or not; in short, they
give you orders.» (Editorial Bruño)
«Dad, tell me that lovely story again about how they killed that
guerrilla leader in Bolivia [Ernesto Che Guevara] and how everything has seemed more ugly since that day ...» (Editorial Praxis)
«All of which culminated around the mid-nineteenth century
with the creation of the notion of social justice. Among the
most outstanding thinkers, activists and revolutionaries in
those organisations, we might mention the Frenchmen, Fourier and Proudhon, the Englishman, Owen, and the German
thinkers, Marx and LaSalle.» (Editorial McGraw Hill)
«Coexistence of civilisations, clash or alliance? It seems that
we are merely destined to see history repeating itself. But we
74
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
can also attempt to change the course of history. Since the
late twentieth century, a series of proposals channelled
through the United Nations has advocated an alliance between the West and the Muslim world in order to combat international terrorism through means other than military
methods: especially by means of cultural dialogue and the
correction of economic inequalities.» (Ediciones del Serbal)
«Sexually, we are male and female. However, culturally, every
historical period has adopted a model for male behaviour
and a model for female behaviour. In traditional patriarchal
societies, the roles were very strictly defined. This model was
discriminatory with regard to women and, therefore, unjust.»
(Editorial SM)
«The greatest threat that has ever been posed to the survival
of the family is, precisely, capitalism.» (Editorial Akal)
«It is essential for young people to rebel against more mature
people. If they did not, they would simply imitate them and
society would fail to progress.» (Editorial McGraw Hill)
«Following the format that appears in other modern constitutions, the Spanish Constitution consists of: a Preamble,
whose drafting, a prime example of clarity and concise expression, is the work of Enrique Tierno Galván, Mayor of
Madrid.» (Editorial Bruño)
«The United States and Soviet Russia imposed their democratic models and engaged in a tense period of relations
known as the Cold War.» (Ediciones del Serbal)
«The Lower House of Spain’s Parliament has passed the Education Act with the PP voting against it.» (Editorial Bruño)
«There are cases in which affective-sexual identity does not correspond to biological gender. For example, a transsexual woman
is a person who feels like a woman trapped in a man’s body. This
conflict sometimes leads to a difficult process of gender reallocation in order to achieve a sense of harmony between the person’s
body and psychological identity.» (Editorial Pearson)
«The detractors of globalisation – anti-globalisation activists
– argue that, as we become more globalised, the rich earn
75
more and the poor are left worse off. As evidence to support
their case, they quote objective data provided by numerous
international organisations to the effect that inequality is increasing throughout the planet.» (Ediciones del Serbal)
• «There is only one country in the world that features development that is acceptable and universally applicable at the
same time: Cuba.» (Editorial Akal)
• «The greatest triumph of youth was witnessed in the late
1960’s. May 1968 has remained as a symbolic date for the
commencement of a profound shift in the way in which we
understand life.» (Editorial McGraw Hill)
• «Today, global neo-Liberalism seeks to turn the clock back
to “less State intervention”: liberalising and privatising public goods and services, threatening their quality and survival
where they already exist (developed countries) and making
it impossible for them to emerge where they do not (underdeveloped countries). And it is the underprivileged who once
again pay the consequences.» (Ediciones del Serbal)
With the subjects “Citizenship Education” and “Sciences for the
Contemporary World” (which is taught during the two-year preuniversity course known as “Bachillerato”), the Zapatero Project
takes away another prerogative that corresponds to society: the
family ceases to be the natural context in which training and education takes place and the State becomes the only authority with the
right to educate citizens regarding moral matters. And this is the
case even if it entails educational failure and the sectarian manipulation of generations of Spaniards.
Of course, the Government imposes the subject of Citizenship
Education in an entirely totalitarian manner on all Spanish children
and adolescents without exception:
«There shall be no conscientious objection with regard to Citizenship Education.»25
—————
25
Francisco Caamaño, Minister for Justice, in Europa Press, 12.8.09.
VI
Towards a New Form of Totalitarianism
The Zapatero Project, which implemented its first effective measures following PSOE’s victory in the parliamentary elections of
2004, has been persistently imposed since then by means of different instruments and at different rates of application.
During the first legislature, between 2004 and 2008, the
Zapatero Project underwent an initial preparatory phase in the
Lower House of Spain’s Parliament with the creation and consolidation of quasi-client-based networks for the provision of parliamentary support. Following this period, the Government began to
lay the key pillars of its Project by passing some of its most emblematic laws.
When it came to looking for parliamentary support in order to
force his project through, Rodríguez Zapatero had no compunction
in placing everything he had at his disposal on sale. And, thus, after
decimating the State’s economic resources, he began to lay his
hands on its structures, the object of desire of the nationalist parties, whose desire to deconstruct the Nation is as great as their desire for money.
In exchange for parliamentary support, the Zapatero Project has
distributed the State’s resources in a discriminate manner by
amending the Financing Law for the Regional Governments and the
General State Budget. However, it has also begun to divide up the
78
State itself in the face of nationalist demands. In this respect, from
its Catalonian base it has exchanged support for its goals in the
Lower House of Parliament for a drafting of the Statute of Catalonia that has effectively undermined the Constitutional Court. The
State Government and the Regional Government of Catalonia have,
thus, aroused identity-based tensions and placed the country’s very
institutional stability at risk.
During his first legislature and with the support of minority
groups and radical left-wing and secessionist groups, Rodríguez
Zapatero managed to pass Parliamentary Acts such as the Education Act (2006) and the Act for Effective Equality between Men and
Women (2007), as well as the reform of various Regional Government Statutes, pieces of legislation that members of the public
failed to understand and that did not correspond to their needs.
As of the year 2008, during the Government’s second legislature,
the Zapatero Project has passed a new package of legislative measures required to make its ultimate goals a reality, effectively attempting to undertake a far-reaching transformation of the structures that sustain our society by means of the application of the laws
approved during the first term in office.
Milestones of this second phase of the Zapatero Project consist of
the Act for Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy, which entered into effect on 5th July 2010, and
an attempt to pass a new Religious Freedom Act in order to prohibit
or restrict public expressions of faith.
However, furthermore, during its second term, the Zapatero
Project has begun to apply the legislation that was passed during
the first legislature relating to education and the family, in which
respect the Government has applied various direct enforcement
measures (regulations, laws) and indirect measures (advertising, the
media). The family has now become the target of the Project, because it is within the heart of the family that the culture, identity
and roots that form the foundations of our civilisation are naturally
manifested and it is in the family that children, society’s future citizens, acquire the skills needed to resist the assaults orchestrated by
those in power.
TOWARDS A NEW FORM OF TOTALITARIASNISM
79
Nevertheless, whilst Rodríguez Zapatero’s plans to transform
Spanish society and turn the country’s identity on its head have not
encountered any great resistance in the Lower House of Parliament,
the situation is quite different in families and on the streets. This is
where the Zapatero Project has had to take on extra work, a task it
had never predicted would be so costly in terms of time and resources: society’s reaction.
The Awakening of Civil Activism
Since Rodríguez Zapatero assumed the reins the power, various sections of society have sounded the alarm regarding the Prime Minister’s plans. The much-increased activity of the few civil forums and
associations that existed in 2004 and the appearance of many other
civil groups since then, provide a good example of the social reaction that that has resulted from Zapatero’s attempt to impose his
project on Spanish society.
Numerous members of society have felt that both their identity
and values have been attacked by the initiatives undertaken by Rodríguez Zapatero. What is more, in the face of resistance, the Project has radicalised its approach, seeking to close ranks around the
most extreme sections of the Left in order to create an unbreakable
bond with the Project embodied by the General Secretary of PSOE.
As the Zapatero Project progressed during the Government’s
first term in office, something quite new occurred in Spain: members of Spanish society, traditionally rather individualistic and reluctant to organise themselves collectively or to join movements and
associations, began to swell the ranks of the civil organisations who
proposed the most active measures to counter the destructive initiatives undertaken by Rodríguez Zapatero’s PSOE.
The impact made by the association, HazteOir.org (HO), and its
“Right to Live” forum, Derecho a Vivir (DAV), is a shining example
in this respect. In March 2009, just four months after it was
founded, with a deadline of just two weeks and without using any
other communication media except for the Internet, DAV was ca-
80
pable of bringing half a million people out onto the streets of Madrid, in addition to several hundred thousand others throughout the
rest of the provincial capitals around Spain, in order to protest
against Rodríguez Zapatero’s abortionist project.
The growth of the civil movement opposed to the Zapatero
Project has also been facilitated by a section of society that feels
especially aggrieved with the Socialist Government: the victims of
terrorism.
During the Socialist Government’s negotiations with ETA during the first legislature, the Association of Victims of Terrorism
(AVT), headed at that time by Francisco José Alcaraz, became the
main point of reference regarding civil protests against the State’s
complicity with regard to terrorism. AVT managed to bring out
hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets on a number of
occasions behind the flag of civil rebellion. The direct democratic
participation and mobilisation methods used by AVT helped to
break the somewhat conformist attitudes witnessed among wideranging sections of Spanish society in recent years, behavour typical
of individuals accustomed to living on the margins of political life.
The Zapatero Project Chooses Its Bull’s Eye
Alongside an active and constantly-growing civil protest movement,
the most solid resistance to the Zapatero Project has come from a
different realm: the Catholic Church.
In order to tackle the growing wave of rejection aroused by the
Zapatero Project, the Government has employed a strategy that is
as predictable as it is simple: it has selected, from among all the objectors to its plans, those who are most liable to keep the most radical sections of the left-wing electorate up at nights. And the chosen
target, the institution enthroned as the «enemy» of freedom, is the
Church, followed not far behind by the Partido Popular.
The spokesmen of the Zapatero Project are unable to recognise
that an increasingly wide section of society rejects its plans. Quite
the contrary, in fact; everything comes down to «the cavern», a kind
81
of ultra-right-wing conspiracy, impregnated with who-knows-what
Francoist throwbacks, organised by Catholic bishops and the Partido Popular. Every time citizens populate the streets in order to say
“No” to the Zapatero Project, the declarations of the members of
the Socialist Government and PSOE’s leaders accuse the Spanish
Episcopal Conference and the Partido Popular of hindering the
country’s «progress», ignoring the fact that this civil protest is
coming from Spanish society itself, constituting a phenomenon that
is as new in our collective life as it is exemplary.
The Catholic Church has not had to do anything in particular to
become the bull’s eye for the invective that has been thrown by the
supporters of the Zapatero Project: all it has done is to remind the
faithful of the principles on which their faith is founded.
In November 2006, the Spanish Episcopal Conference published a series of pastoral instructions entitled Moral Guidance Regarding the Current Situation in Spain.1 The purpose of this document was to provide believers with a series of key recommendations
in order to maintain «the integrity of the faith and the coherence of
Christian life». On the front of the document, Spain’s bishops recalled that «a moral consideration of the affairs of public life, far
from constituting a threat of any kind to democracy, is an indispensable requirement for the exercise of freedom and the establishment
of justice».
Throughout the document, the Spanish Church reiterates the
idea that it is not attempting to impose anything, nor claiming a
leading role or any kind of privilege. It is simply offering its point
of view to Catholics and to whomever else wishes to listen, as just
another contribution to collective life.
The most common message repeated throughout the text consists of a desire to search for agreement between the document’s
authors, representatives of the feelings expressed by wide-ranging
sections of Spanish society, and those who disagree with their stance
based on secular ideas, individuals who are not discredited at any
point:
—————
1
http://goo.gl/laZKY
82
«On some points we Catholics and secularists have different points
of view. Our desire is to gradually discover a just arrangement in
which all of us can live according to our convictions, without anyone seeking to impose their points of view on others by disloyal and
unjust means. Within this context, we Catholics simply ask for respect for our identity and the freedom to announce, through the
ordinary channels, the message of Christ as the universal Saviour,
within a climate of tolerance and harmony, without privileges or
discrimination of any kind.
»We express our will and the will of all Catholics to live in the
heart of society by loyally fulfilling our civil obligations, offering the
spiritual wealth of the gifts we have received from the Lord, these
constituting an important contribution to people’s well-being and
the enrichment of life’s spiritual, cultural and moral legacy. We respect those who see things differently. We only ask for freedom and
respect when it comes to living in accordance with our convictions
and freely proposing our way of seeing things, without anyone
feeling threatened or interpreting our presence as an offence or a
threat to the freedom of others. We sincerely wish to collaborate in
the spiritual enrichment of our society, in consolidating justice and
harmony and freedom, these being the essential foundations of true
peace.
»We offer the fruits of our reflections and judgement to members of the Church and to all those who would listen to us, freely
sharing all of our fears and hopes with others.
»We once again declare our desire to live in harmony within this
society by loyally respecting its democratic institutions, acknowledging the legitimate authorities, obeying just laws and cooperating
specifically in order to further the common good. Nobody need
fear any assault or disloyalty from Catholics with regard to democratic life.»2
The document, Moral Guidance Regarding the Current Situation
in Spain, analyses the approaches adopted by secular forces and
emphasises the fact that, in political practice, the aim is not to pro-
—————
2
Orientaciones morales sobre la situación actual de España, Spanish Episcopal Conference, 2006.
83
tect «the just autonomy of the present order», but «to do away with
God in our vision and evaluation of the world». One consequence
of this process is a sense of contempt towards believers:
«Any reference to God is considered to be a sign of deficiency with
regard to intellectual maturity and the full exercise of freedom.
»Some sections seek to exclude Catholics from public life and
speed up secular trends and the acceptance of moral relativism as
the only mentality compatible with democracy.»
The Church has highlighted the goal of some secularists «to be
absolute owners of everything, to direct our lives and the life of society according to our taste [...], as if we were the true creators of
the world and of ourselves», thus turning freedom into «the supreme standard of good and evil».
This text, which was harshly criticized by the Socialist Party, was
duly misrepresented as an attempt on the part of the bishops to meddle in politics, a field considered by secularists as being sacrosanct and
the sole preserve of Parliament and those who are «instructed» to
serve there, namely politicians appointed directly by the party leaderships and only indirectly by members of the public.
The Moral Guidance certainly does address political questions,
which are tackled in accordance with the criteria mentioned above.
These matters basically refer to a rupture of the spirit of tolerance
that the Spanish bishops believe to have characterised the Transition period:
«Many hoped that the democratic arrangement for a harmonious
society, as governed by the Constitution of 1978, and based on the
reconciliation and consensus of all Spaniards, would enable us to
go beyond the old confrontations that have divided and impoverished our nation, one of which undoubtedly consisted of the clash
between Catholicism and secularism, understood as ways of life that
are exclusivist and incompatible. And such a development may well
have occurred. However, we are sorry to observe today how a sense
of rejection and distrust regarding the Church and the Catholic religion has re-emerged in recent years and in a somewhat more radi-
84
cal and far-reaching manner than a mere return to the old anticlericalism.»
The statement most susceptible to being interpreted as Church
interference within the field of politics is one that mentions something that is somewhat obvious, namely the need for believers to
vote in general elections in accordance with their principles:
«Before supporting one option or another with their vote, Catholics
and those citizens who wish to act responsibly must evaluate the
different political manifestos, bearing in mind the importance that
each party, each programme and each leader grants to the moral
dimension of life. They must also consider the moral justification of
their ideas and programmes.»
Eduardo Sotillos responded to this statement in the following
manner in the Socialist organ, Fundación Sistema:
«The Government is proving to be eminently respectful in the face
of the stepped-up campaign being waged by an effective propaganda apparatus that is fighting against it ferociously. This is undoubtedly what is must and should do, but it would be suicidal to
close one’s eyes to this belligerent attitude and fail to formulate an
appropriate response.»3
From the PSOE group known as “Cristianos Socialistas”
(“Christian Socialists”), the Federal Coordinator, Carlos García de
Andoaín, declared the following to Europa Press:
«As opposed to an evangelical or specifically Christian approach,
a conservative current of thought exists. There is a group of bishops
that has decided to help the PP regain power.»4
—————
3
4
http://www.fundacionsistema.com/News/ItemDetail.aspx?id=403
http://goo.gl/ZxB2V
85
José Blanco, Organisation Secretary at PSOE at the time, declared on the eve of the general elections in 2008 that «nothing will
be the same afterwards [after the elections] regarding the relations
between the Catholic hierarchy and the Government», and he then
went on to threaten the Church with financial strangulation5.
Blanco stated that the time had come «to turn words into actions»
and «to take definitive steps» regarding the financial state of the
Church. This active member of the Socialist leadership omitted to
mention the fact that the money he was referring to did not belong
to PSOE, but to members of society who freely choose to hand it
over to the Church.
«Religious freedom must have limits [...] It must conform to the
logic of this society [...] We must regulate religious freedom, but
also freedom of conscience.»6
The programme that has resulted from the Zapatero Project’s
attempts to confront the Church has focused on expelling the latter
from the public arena. In this respect, the Zapatero Project seeks to
eradicate all moral references from collective life, to the point at
which the «morality» of the State is the only kind that persists. In
order to do this, the Zapatero Project has designed a new product,
one that is half ideology and half State «morality»: the National
Plan for the Alliance of Civilisations. This Plan employs various
different instruments: the Pluralism and Harmonious Coexistence
Foundation, the Observatory for Cultural and Religious Pluralism
and the Bill for a new Religious Freedom Law.
Through all of these channels it seeks to extend the ideologicalmoral ideas of the Alliance of Civilisations among young people,
attempting to promote more minority confessions in order to place
them on an equal footing with the Catholic faith and, above all, re-
—————
5
El Mundo, 4.2.08: http://goo.gl/SHlBY
Francisco Caamaño, Minister for Justice, at the Summer Courses of El
Escorial, 2009: http://www.publico.es/espana/238520/caamano/dice/limitar/
libertad/religiosa
6
86
stricting the freedom of movement of believers of all confessions
and, in particular, that of Catholics.
All of these measures, whose ultimate goal is to replace religious
morality with «progressive» values, seek to remove religion from
public life in accordance with the Zapatero Project, associating it
with negative values (intransigence, intolerance, irrationality, violence, fanaticism) and reducing its influence to strictly private
realms.
A Single Truth, A Single Will
The document produced by the Spanish Episcopal Conference entitled Moral Guidance Regarding the Current Situation in Spain was
issued on 23rd November 2006. A few days later, on 4th December,
PSOE responded with a text entitled Constitution, “Laicity”and
Citizenship Education7, which the Socialists presented as a commemorative manifesto of the Twenty-Eighth Anniversary of the
Constitution.
This document consisted of a direct blow-for-blow response to the
declarations of the Episcopal Conference and clearly sought to take
the Church on. Where the Church invoked the spirit of reconciliation
enshrined in the Constitution of 1978, PSOE linked the current period of constitutional legality with the Second Republic, a period of
ill-fated recollection within the history of Spain in general and for
Catholics in particular.
The central argument of the manifesto Constitution, “Laicity”and
Citizenship Education is based on the idea of «laicidad» or “laicity”,
a word that cannot be found in the dictionary of the Spanish Royal
Academy (RAE) and that the Zapatero Project uses to distance itself
from the correct term: “laico”, meaning “lay” or “secular” («independent of any religious organisation or confession»). As part of a
new exercise in neo-language, the term “laicity” distorts the mean-
—————
7
This document can be read on the web site of the Spanish Socialist
Workers Party (PSOE): http://www.psoe.es/download.do?id=53720
87
ing of the term from which it originates in order to shift from “independent of a religious confession” to “subjection of a religious
confession”.
MORAL GUIDANCE REGARDING THE
CONSTITUTION, “LAICITY “AND
CURRENT SITUATION IN SPAIN
CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
→ «Many hoped that the democratic arrangement for a harmonious society, as
governed by the Constitution of 1978,
and based on the reconciliation and consensus of all Spaniards, would enable us
to go beyond the old confrontations that
have divided and impoverished our nation.»
→ «The Constitution of 1978, together
with the Constitution of 1931, represent
the highest expressions in the history of
the Spanish nation of the people’s will to
live under a democratic regime.»
→ «Spain is being invaded by a way of
life in which any reference to God is considered to be a sign of deficiency with
regard to intellectual maturity and the
full exercise of freedom. We live in a
world in which an atheist understanding
of existence is gaining ground: “if God
exists, I am not free; if I am free I cannot
acknowledge the existence of God”.»
→ «It is not a question of recognising the
just autonomy of the present order, replete with its institutions and procedures,
something that is entirely compatible
with the Christian faith and even directly
favoured and encouraged by it. It is
rather a question of exercising the will to
do away with God.»
→ «Our basic legislation lays the foundations for the development of another
kind of diversity: that which derives from
the free and plural exercise of the right to
freedom of conscience on the part of all
citizens.»
→ «It is essential to recall and reaffirm
the value of a constitutional principle,
that of “Laicity”, which emerges as the
ideal framework and guarantee for freedom of conscience, this being a key requirement for freedom and equality.»
“Laicity” entails the creation of a pseudo-religion of the State
that binds all citizens and subordinates and confines religion to the
private realm of each individual:
«Monotheistic or religious fundamentalism creates barriers between
citizens. “Laicity” is a space for Integration [with a capital in the
original]. Without “laicity” there would be no [sic] new citizen
rights, certain freedoms such as the voluntary interruption of pregnancy would be civil crimes, as would marriage between persons of
88
the same sex ... and crimes such as female abuse, ablation and sex
discrimination would cease to be so. Without “laicity” it would be
difficult to avoid the proliferation of forms of behaviour that are
contrary to the formation of free and critical consciences and the
cultivation of civil virtues.»8
The Zapatero Project, thus, sets up the target and we have our
enemy of freedom: religion causes ablation, segregation, barriers, it
sends people to prison, subverts rights, curtails freedom and ends
virtue. Now let’s take another step forward and exalt the new «religion» of the State, “laicity”, which consecrates and protects all the
values that religion suffocates:
«The only will and sovereignty is that of citizenship.»9
There is no truth other than that which is determined by the
State through the established power, which is theoretically controlled by citizens, although they have no voice other than that
of the delegations that represent them, and only to accept or reject a list every four years that is neither chosen nor drawn up by
them. There are few documents in which the essence of the
Zapatero Project is so clearly illustrated: power is truth. And
those who have power, embody the truth. And so – would you
believe it? – relativism does encompass an absolute truth after
all. And in considerable measure too!
In this respect, the Zapatero Project contributes no greater sense
of originality than its sheer brazenness, the relaxed way in which, at
the dawn of the third millennium, it simply dusts off stale old theories, such as those preached by Hegel when he stated that «the
State, inasmuch as it is the actuality of the substantial will, is rationality in itself and for itself». Conceptions of this kind opened the
door to the deformed ideological manifestations of the nineteenth
century, such as racism, nationalism and Marxism, not to mention
the totalitarian aberrations of the twentieth century, including
—————
8
9
Ibid.
Ibid.
89
Communism, National Socialism and fascism. This is the same
ideological undercurrent, the same destructive and millenarian conception of civilization as that which is being presented in newlypolished form under the Zapatero Project.
In 1919, at the Sverdlov Communist University, Lenin pronounced a phrase in which, if we substitute the original terms that
are most obsolete (those that appear in brackets) with the customary terms used in contemporary left-wing discourse (those that appear in italics), we come across some curiously familiar echoes:
«We have deprived the Right (the capitalists) of this machine
and we have taken it over. We shall use this machine, or bludgeon,
to destroy all inequality (exploitation).»10
After turning the State into the exclusive point of reference with
regard to truth, all realities must necessarily bend to its will. If the
State constitutes the «only will», the first step that the citizen must
take is to join it, unless he prefers to remain outside the system, in
the difficult terrain of civil death. «The supreme duty» of each individual, declared Hegel, is «to be a member of the State». And Mussolini agreed: «Everything inside the State, nothing outside the
State». Fidel Castro would go on to parody him by declaring: «Everything inside the Revolution, nothing outside the Revolution». The
consequence of this exaltation of the State, in its role as the sole
embodiment of will and truth, is that every citizen must acquire that
will and that truth. The Zapatero Project does not call this indoctrination, but civil education:
«One of the most important challenges facing the public
authorities after twenty-eight years of constitutional government, is
to contribute to the training of “free, active and committed consciences” with a “minimum shared constitutional ethics”.»11
—————
10 In Los fundamentos del leninismo: http://goo.gl/iaBnc. Also in the Marxists Internet Archive: http://ww.marxists.org
11 Manifesto Constitución, Laicidad y Educación para la Ciudadanía:
http://www.psoe.es/download.do?id=53720
90
The Zapatero Project, with its exaltation of parliamentary majorities as the only legitimate source of truth, constitutes the model
in our time of what Jacob Talmon called «political messianism» in
his analysis of totalitarianism in democratic systems12. And in the
definition that Friedrich A. Hayek offers us of the corruption that
prevails in democratic regimes, we can easily find recognisable echoes in Spanish political life since Rodríguez Zapatero came to
power:
«For two centuries, from the end of absolute monarchy to the rise
of unlimited democracy, the great aim of constitutional government
had been to limit all governmental powers. The chief principles
gradually established to prevent the arbitrary exercise of power
were the separation of powers, the sovereignty of law and government under the law. All these great liberal principles were given
second rank and half forgotten when it came to be believed that
democratic control of government made unnecessary any other
safeguards against the arbitrary use of power.»13
When a State establishes itself as the ultimate ethical authority
whose provisions must necessarily be fulfilled, it, in fact, takes on
the same sacred character as that of the pagan States that existed
prior to Christianity. The Christian maxim «Give to Caesar what is
Caesar’s and to God what is God’s» establishes conscience as the
limit to the authority of political power. The distinction between the
realm of the State or politics and the religious realm made the very
idea of freedom possible that triumphed throughout the West for
centuries. As Benedict XVI has stated, «the growth of freedom that
Mankind owes to the martyrs is infinitely greater than the one that
revolutionaries could obtain for it.»14
—————
12
Jacob Talmon, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, London, 1952.
Friedrich A. Hayek, Law, Legislation and Liberty, Chicago, 1973.
14 Papal address to the International Congress of Catholic Pharmacists,
29.10.07: http://es.catholic.net/laicos/622/2706/articulo.php?id=33685
13
VII
Destruction of the Family
The great obstacle that the Zapatero Project comes up against when
it comes to subverting our values and collective identity consists of
the family. The family institution represents the very antithesis of
the social and cultural destruction that the Zapatero Government
is attempting to impose upon us. The family brings together all of
the elements that the Zapatero Project must destroy in order to
achieve its objectives.
The family constitutes an unbreakable barrier against relativism
and the erosion of individual freedom, against the attempt to replace personal values with the will of the State, and against “laicity”
in its capacity as a structure for imposed values. Its foundations,
which consist of values that are passed on from generation to generation, its absolute sovereignty within the realm of beliefs, the different roles allocated to each of its members, its capacity to withstand undesired pressures and influences ... everything makes the
family a veritable bastion, one that the Zapatero Project needs to
subjugate as soon as possible: if it does not manage to do so, the
Project itself will succumb. And faced with the fact that it is impossible to bend the family to its will and make it serve its own interests, the Zapatero Project has decided to destroy it.
The greatest efforts made by the Zapatero Project are aimed at
bringing about the destruction of the natural family, a term that is
viewed in a rather poor light today, but one that perfectly defines
92
everything that Zapatero seeks to eliminate: something that characterises this institution and that in every culture and in every civilisation throughout the course of history has constituted the key engine
for the progress of Mankind.
The process chosen to bring about the destruction of the family
structure is two-fold. On the one hand, the Zapatero Project proposes
what it calls «new families», structures that have nothing to do with the
family, but which appropriate the name. And on the other, it creates a
legal instrument that is easy to handle and is capable of wreaking rapid
destruction.
When you change the constituent parts that make up a piece of
music, it ends up sounding different. It would be difficult to identify Hey Jude by Paul McCartney if it were performed with the instruments used for Bach’s Magnificat. The Zapatero Project seeks
to directly destroy the very concept of family by changing its «ingredients»: changing marriage, man and woman, the very foundation of the family, by introducing the homosexual couple. But it
preserves the same name: marriage. Because it seeks to alter precisely what the name represents.
Homosexual «marriage» does not seek to bring about any socalled extension of rights, as the Government’s official line argues
ad infinitum. It is not a question of granting greater civil rights to
homosexual couples, because the corresponding political will to do
so and the corresponding measures would be sufficient for this. The
Zapatero Project aims to go further and, in this respect, it appropriates the word and the institution that defines the essential basis of
the family.
Legal regulation of what are known as common-law marriages
has existed at Spain’s local councils and in its regions since the
1990’s, long before Rodríguez Zapatero’s arrival on the scene. In
fact, twelve Spanish Regions have laws relating to common-law
marriages (Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the
Canary Islands, Cantabria, Catalonia, Extremadura, Madrid, Navarre, the Basque Country and the Valencian Region). This legislation grants the partners who make up such marriages rights similar to those provided by marriage, although a legal distinction is
DESTRUCTION OF THE FAMILY
93
preserved between the marriage institution and de facto marriages.
Although he recognised that this issue «did not form part of my political priorities» in March 2004, even before he became Prime Minister,
Rodríguez Zapatero declared that he wanted to give the same rights to
homosexual couples as those granted to married couples. In order to do
so, it would have been sufficient to pass a piece of common-law marriage legislation of national scope in order to bring these rights together.
However, this was not enough, because the «political priority» of the
Zapatero Project is to destroy the structure of the natural family.
In this sense, it is not so much the catalogue of rights that is granted
to homosexual couples, nor the legislative time-periods contemplated,
nor even the provisions of the law itself, but the terminology employed
that is important. For the Zapatero Project, the essential aspect of Law
13/2005, which amends the Civil Code in relation to the right to contract matrimony1, is that the cohabitation agreement between homosexual couples should be called “marriage” and that their union
should be known as a “family”. It makes little difference whether the
«ingredients» or the structure or the characteristic features of this union have anything to do with matrimony and family.
Having modified the ingredients of the only social formula that
has guaranteed Mankind’s progress and the development of civilisation to date, the Project then moves on to the next stage, the creation of an instrument designed to wreak rapid destruction: it is essential to turn divorce into yet another consumer product. If you
type «express divorce» into any search engine on the Internet, an
endless number of advertisements appear, such as the following:
«Express Divorce. Find out more without any commitment. Catering for the whole of Spain, online and in situ. Maximum speed,
maximum savings.»
«RAPID because you do not have to fill out any forms, simply call
us. You can also send us an electronic mail.»
—————
1
Official State Gazette (BOE), dated 2.7.05: http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/
2005/07/02/pdfs/ A2363223634.pdf
94
«Express Divorce: €200. All Included. With Children, €225. Rigorous, Effective and Rapid.»
«Request your express divorce from wherever you are and when it
suits you best.»
«Express Divorce: €440. All included. Your divorce agreement in
just 24 hours. Divorces with children or property, €490.»
Nº Divorces (Spain)
Source: Institute for Family Policies (IPF).
«Express Divorce» has become a profitable trading name. The
Divorce Amendment Law2, which entered into force in 2005, removed the period of reflection, that is to say, the time that elapses
before the divorce becomes effective. It also consolidated the unilateral nature of break-ups: the will of one of the parties became enough
for the bond to be broken, whether or not the other party was in
agreement, which brings this regulation dangerously close to the concept of repudiation. Express divorce also means that it is no longer
necessary to cite any allegations in order to end a marriage. With this
legal instrument, divorce has become an ordinary procedure for the
resolution of matrimonial crisis. In fact, at present, it is easier to di-
—————
2
Official State Gazette (BOE), dated 9.7.05:
http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2005/07/09/pdfs/ A2445824461.pdf
95
vorce someone in Spain (ie. break a marriage contract) than to break,
for example, a job contract or a property lease agreement.
In Spain there are more than 1,700,000 divorcees, which represents some 4.5 per cent of society as a whole. Since express divorce
came into effect, the number of break-ups has increased by 140 per
cent. Before the law was passed, divorce was an option chosen by
40 per cent of couples who ended their marriage. Today some 93
per cent choose divorce. A divorce takes place every 4 minutes in
Spain and 15 marriages break up every hour. Some 359 families are
broken apart each day. Between 2005 and 2008, 487,000 divorces
took place. Nearly 100,000 children witness the break-up of their
families each year.3
Together with de-naturalisation and legal destruction of marriage and the invention of the «right» to adoption on the part of
homosexual couples, the divorce law amendment has served as an
effective means of destroying the nature of the family. However, in
order to enhance its effectiveness, the Zapatero Project has not hesitated to resort to multiple procedures in order to make the new
model socially acceptable or even fashionable, whilst reducing the
status of the natural family. Advertising, the manipulation of reality
carried out by political parties and the work of the media have all
served as channels with which to encourage society to accept the
new family model that the Zapatero Project is keen to impose.
An Exercise in Political Manipulation
When the Catalonian Regional Government requested to form part
of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) on 24th
October 2007, the Tri-Partite Government (PSC-PSOE, ERC and
IU-LV) was perfectly aware of what it was doing.
The Catalonian Regional Government did not consider it to be
any kind of obstacle the fact that no region in the world, no city,
—————
3
Institute for Family Policies (IPF), Evolución de la Familia en España,
2010: http://www.ipfe.org/Informe_Evolucion_Familia_Espana_2010.pdf
96
local council, province, department, district, local area, Federal
State, country, confederation, nor any other territorial organisation,
has ever formed part of ILGA, an international lobby group that
promotes the privileges of «lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals, transsexuals
and intersex» (sic) persons in the political realm.
It did not serve as any kind of impediment either that the NGO
Committee of the United Nations Economic and Social Council
should have recommended the Member States not to grant consultative status to ILGA. The reason for this recommendation was
based on the fact that this organisation encompasses bodies for the
defence of pederasty, which it conceals under the euphemistic
heading of «inter-generational love».
None of these facts served as any kind of impediment when it
came to the Catalonian Regional Government joining the International Lesbian and Gay Association. This was because the objective
of the Socialists, Republicans and Communists who made up the
Tri-Partite Government was not to draw attention to a highly eccentric decision, nor even to woo the support of a small number of
eventual voters. The aim was to consolidate the foundations of the
Zapatero Project in Catalonia. And in this region, attacks on the
family institution have always been one step ahead with regard to
those perpetrated throughout the rest of Spain.
In 2006, the Catalonian Regional Government presented its Plan
to Prevent Discrimination Against Homosexuals and Transsexuals,
a programme that began with a budget of 90,000 euros. This sum
of money was devoted, among other aspects, to including «homosexual and transsexual fact» in the educational curriculum of Catalan children by means of activities relating to homosexuality and
transsexuality in educational centres.
In order to strengthen its campaign for homosexuality in student
education itineraries, the Regional Government’s programme included activities outside the school timetable, such as the creation,
production and distribution of stories, puppets and games featuring
homosexual and transsexual contents for children.
A kind of gay indoctrination police was also created by granting
the Catalonian Audiovisual Board (CAC) the role of monitoring
97
those elements that did not contribute towards the «homosocialisation process». The Programa per al Col·lectiu Gai, Lesbià i
Transsexual4 produced by the Catalonian Regional Government
includes the following in its official documentation:
«The media do not often report on many of the public events organised by [homosexual and transsexual] bodies in Catalonia and when
these activities are reported, they are very often reduced to anecdotal
or folkloric status. It is, therefore, necessary to guarantee the rigour of
the news that is reported in order to facilitate social pedagogy.
»The majority of the cultural products today that refer to homosexuality and transsexuality are aimed at adults, which means that
children and adolescents are left on the sidelines. In this respect, it
is also necessary to focus on the leisure and cultural contents that
are aimed at this segment of the population.
»We must eliminate heterosexualism from teaching material
and teacher training material. The majority of text books (from
primary school up to university) fail to address homosexuality
or heterosexuality, simply referring to reproduction and sexuality. Many outstanding historical figures in different disciples,
both gay and lesbian, fail to appear with any frequency.»
The fact that public buildings throughout Catalonia, including
the Departments of the Regional Government and the Town Halls
governed by the Tri-Partite Alliance, should have the gay flag flying
from their roofs, constitutes yet another initiative that forms part of
the package of measures designed to offer a more prominent and,
sometimes, preponderant, view of something that, at the very most,
must be considered to be a true minority option.
Instruments of Propaganda
Along with this manipulation of reality, which is encouraged by the
political parties and which bulldozes the authority of parents, be-
—————
4
This document can be consulted on the portal belonging to the Catalonian Regional Government: http://goo.gl/F8hk
98
coming a prime example of the most sectarian form of indoctrination
(an activity that is actually paid for by the public purse without any
kind of consultation in this respect), the Zapatero Project has also
turned to the media, the majority of which are prepared to propagate
its alleged values by always presenting the object of destruction in the
most distorted and pejorative light.
One of the most habitual and coarse forms of manipulation employed consists of comparing calls for the right to live or defence of
the family institution with support for Francoism:
«The Conservative bench of the City Council [of Madrid] yesterday
launched two of its representatives on a crusade to defend the most
conservative proposals of the Right: Francoist measures and the
persecution of abortion.»5
The worlds of entertainment and news, key structuring elements
of the programme schedules on all the television channels, have also
become launch-pads for the most destructive aspects of the
Zapatero Project.
The news services of the public television channels and a good
number of the private channels have turned news items that are entirely anecdotal and trivial, not to mention irrelevant and completely
unrepresentative, into the very focus of national attention. As opposed to the great issues of our time, whose importance is minimised
as they are pushed into the background, the views and opinions of
any kind of minority group are effectively magnified. And the more
eccentric and minority-based their demands, the more attention they
get from the cameras, provided that they present an idyllic or victimised perspective of their interests and a scornful view of the general
interest and the family. Thus, on the day on which one million people
take to the streets in order to express their support for the natural
family, the media who support the Zapatero Project highlight the terrible predicament of a man who is convinced he is a woman and has
to bear the humiliation of carrying his national ID card (DNI) with
the name “Felipe” on it.
—————
5
El País, 28.1.10.
99
The same thing occurs in the field of entertainment. In the same
country in which an under-twenty-year-old woman gets pregnant
every eighteen minutes and in which there are 15,000 abortions a
year within this age-range, television programmes and series, which
are watched by the majority of young people of this age, propose
models in which the idea of maternity is trivialised, premature sexual relations are encouraged, moral relativism is promoted and
abortion is presented as a contraceptive method. Once again, eccentric and minority views become the key point of reference.
In Spanish television series, mothers and fathers are always portrayed as being virtually stupid. In the majority of cases, adults are
depicted as being ignorant yokels who never get it right, who are
incapable of communicating and whose ideas, way of life and way
of thinking and behaving are considered to be ridiculous and obsolete. The natural family has virtually disappeared from the world of
television in Spain and, when it does appear, it is always in the most
pathetic light. At the same time, we come across an entire array of
alternative personal relationship models that are neither representative nor especially real. They are not presented with slightest degree
of objectivity either and the facts are not really true in the majority
of cases.
The natural family, which is often called «traditional» in the
worst sense of the term, is, thus, subjected to the crossfire of political measures undertaken by different parties and institutions and to
media pressure. The vitality and vigour of the family in Spain must
be truly great for it to be able to resist this overwhelming assault
and for it to continue to be considered, according to all of the
opinion polls, the most important institution within society. However, this is precisely why the attacks perpetrated against the family
are ongoing and endless.
A Healthy Institution to Be Dismantled
Every time someone in Spain dares to publicise the figures that
show the failure of common-law couples, or whatever you would
100
like to call them, compared to marriages and the family, that person
is submitted to a thorough lynching on the part of the media. The
Rodríguez Zapatero Government plays down these figures, when it
cannot conceal them – as it does in relation to the country’s spinechilling suicide rates – because these figures attest, in the cold and
objective light of day, to the fact that the Zapatero Project is a sham
and that the model of society it proposes leads to catastrophic failure. But the figures are there, however much you might try to ignore them.
Rodríguez Zapatero has made the battle against the violent
abuse of women one of its flagship policies. Nevertheless, its proposals, far from actually addressing this social disgrace, actually
promote it.
According to figures compiled by the Institute for Family Policies (IPF), some 33 homicides took place in the year 2008 in Spain
among 10,265,400 married couples. Some 48 deaths occurred
among 1,223,700 de facto couples. That is to say, for every 311,000
marriages there was one homicide, whilst one homicide occurred
for every 25,500 de facto marriages. For every homicide that took
place within a marriage, there were more than 12 homicides among
de facto couples.
Marriages
De facto
marriages
Total
Homicides
10,265,400
33
Protection
orders
18,129
1,223,700
48
23,310
The official figures also show that there are fewer protection
orders issued in the case of marriages than among de facto couples.
Six out of every ten protection orders are issued among de facto
couples. In the year 2008, some 18,129 protection orders were issued among 10,265,400 married couples. However, 23,310 orders
were issued for 1,223,700 de facto couples. For every protection
order issued for a marriage, more than 10 were issued among de
facto couples.
101
The anti-family policies being pursued by Rodríguez Zapatero
exacerbate a dangerous trend within Spanish society: in the year
2008 some 52,051 fewer children were born in Spain than in 1980.
In just three decades, the birth-rate has gone down by 9.1 per cent.
However, during this time, the population has increased by more
than nine million people. Only immigration, which shot up after the
year 2000, has prevented the decrease from being even higher. In
2008, children born to foreign mothers already represented 20.71
per cent of total births in Spain.
Studies devoted to homosexuality are generously subsidised and
analyse all kinds of aspects relating to this matter. In the name of integration and equality, the governments of numerous countries, and
especially Spain’s government, furnish gay organisations with resources so that they can produce analyses, statistics and studies on
various aspects of homosexual life. However, on very few occasions
has the role of homosexuals and lesbians in bringing up children been
analysed. The most important piece of research in this field was carried out by Tasker and Golombok in the 1990’s6. This consisted of
following the progress of 20 men and 26 women, all biological children of lesbians, from childhood to adulthood (23.5 years of age).
Variable
Lesbian Mother
Heterosexual Mother
Some type of sexual attraction
for the same gender
36%
22%
Consideration of possible
homosexual relations
56%
14%
Sexual relations with the same
gender
24%
0%
Homosexual or bisexual identity
8%
0%
The study entitled “It’s Not the Same: Report on Child Development and Same Sex Couples,7 published by HazteOir.org, in collabo-
—————
6 «Adults Raised As Children in Lesbian Families» (American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, 1995, 65[2], 203-215) and Growing Up in a Lesbian Family:
Effects on Child Development (New York, 1997, Guilford Press).
7 En http://www.hazteoir.org/documentos/noesigual3.pdf
102
ration with the Spanish Family Forum (Foro Español de la Familia)
and the Institute for Family Policies (IPF), states the following:
«There is no agreement among different researchers that enables us to
draw valid or sufficient conclusions regarding the question of adoption
by homosexual or lesbian couples, although it could be argued that
some reasonable doubt exists regarding the ideal nature of such arrangements, given that both the studies that are against this kind of
adoption and many of the studies that are in favour of it, indicate differences among the children brought up by same sex couples.»
The battle against the family that the Zapatero Project is waging
has led to some clearly abnormal situations that the public is only
now beginning to take on board. Some 44 per cent of Spaniards,
according to a survey carried out by Sigma Dos, are in favour of
transsexuals being able to change sex and have children.
Estefanía Jiménez Coronado, aged twenty-five and an epileptic,
took advantage of the legislation in force in 2009 that allowed her
to change sex at will and she began a hormone treatment course in
order to become a man. She changed her name to Rubén Noé. She
then decided she wanted to have children, but not as a mother but
as a father. And since she had not yet gone under the knife in order
to effect the change physically, she continued taking hormones, but
now in a reverse sense:
«They induced the female hormone cycle with pills and prepared
my womb so that it would once again be suitable to carry an embryo. Then they inseminated me.»
Estefanía/Rubén Noé thus became the first transsexual in Spain
to become pregnant. And what is more, she conceived twins. She
explained this series of events to the newspaper, El Mundo8, which
included her photograph and that of her «wife», a 43-year-old
woman who was separated and a mother of two children aged 13
and 16 years, one of them also an epileptic:
—————
8
El Mundo, 20.3.09.
103
«The young transsexual explains that, perhaps because she is
adopted, the only doubts she had when she decided to be a “man”
came from the fact that she also wanted to be a “biological father”,
which is what she aims to be to the children she gives birth to. Rubén
Noé is convinced of her sexual identity. That is why, once the children
are born, she will once again undergo hormone treatment and complete the sex-change process: “It’s as if you were born with three
hands: you take advantage of them whilst you have them, but when
the extra hand becomes a problem, you remove it”.»
The pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, but the doctor informed
Estefanía/Rubén Noé that she could try again whenever she wanted.
She did not hesitate for one moment.
In Spain, the transsexual units run by the Regional Governments
are open to initiating sex-change processes, stopping them and restarting them at the behest of the consumer. They are also given to
allowing minors to change sex. The Valencian public health system
caters for 120 people who wish to mutilate themselves, of whom 10
are children. The Carlos Haya Hospital in Malaga has 800 patients,
77 of them children, featuring an average age of 15 years. The Gender Identity Unit at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona has changed
the sex of 25 minors and is monitoring four others. El País reported
the declarations of various 15-year-old minors who are in the process of mutilating themselves9:
•
«I only know I want to have the operation. I hate what I’ve
got. I don’t want my vagina in order to fuck, but just to be
myself.»
• «I haven’t gone all the way yet. I’ll wait until I have my vagina. But affairs, yes, of course. You don’t have to say anything. All cats are grey in the dark.»
• «I looked on the Internet and when I entered transsexual forums, I said to myself: “That’s me”.»
—————
9
El País, 24.1.10.
104
On 1st April 2008, the newspaper, La Vanguardia, published an interview with Beatriz Preciado10, a girl from Burgos based in Barcelona
and a lecturer in «gender theory» at the University of Paris VIII:
«La Vanguardia: Are you a man or a woman?
Beatriz Preciado: That question reflects a disturbing Western
obsession.
LV: What obsession is that?
BP: That of seeking to reduce the truth about sex into a binomial.
LV: But the fact is there are only men and women ...!
BP: I devote my life to exploding that binomial distinction. I declare the infinite multiplicity of gender! All that about men and
women is just a question of cultural constructions. Which means there
are no homosexuals and heterosexuals either.
LV: In that case, what is there?
BP: A pan-sexual trans-gender. Should I be required to define
myself, that is how I would do so.
LV: But we have vaginas and penises, breasts and testicles, oestrogen and testosterone ...
BP: Yes. And?
LV: That’s not culture, it’s biology!
BP: Brandishing anatomic (or bio-chemical) characteristics in
order to establish sexual identities. That is cultural!»
After six years of policies aimed at destroying the family, in October 2010 the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS), a body that
depends directly on the Rodríguez Zapatero Government, released
a study regarding the opinions that members of the public have of
the family institution11. The results reflect the public’s resistance to
the Zapatero Project:
—————
10 http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.es/preview/2003/06/06/pagina-68/69412648/
pdf.html
11 The CIS study was carried out between 3rd and 13th September 2010
and published in October of that year. It can be downloaded from:
http://www.thefamilywatch.org/doc/doc-0162-es.pdf
105
• For 44 per cent of Spaniards, family is the most important
thing.
• Some 49.3 per cent are convinced that the most important
function of the family is to create and bring up children.
Some 27.7 per cent believe that the family is essential in order to provide love and affection.
• According to 44.8 per cent of the public, the family is the
place in which to tackle personal issues. Some 46.9 per cent
of people visit their families without having any particular
need to do so. Some 50.1 per cent of respondents celebrate
the key occasions throughout the year with their families.
• In the opinion of 47.2 per cent, it would be impossible to
overcome difficult situations without the help of their family.
• Some 67.8 per cent of Spaniards feel comfortable within the
family context.
• The majority of the public are in favour of traditional roles
within the family. Some 45.7 per cent believe that if one of
the partners should look after the children and tend to the
housework, it should be the woman. Only 1.8 per cent believe that such a role should correspond to the man and 20.9
per cent that it should correspond to both the man and the
woman.
The family is the institution that people turn to first when they
find themselves in situations of need.
VIII
The New Catacombs
Since the Zapatero Project began to be put into effect, the Catholic
Church has become one of its main targets, because the goal of subverting our values, our culture and our identity necessarily requires the
prior dissolution of the Church’s social and public role. In short, the
aim is to bury the Church in a series of latter-day catacombs.
In this respect, the Church has been obliged to speak out on repeated occasions in order to defend itself from various accusations and
misrepresentations of its views. The fact that Spain’s bishops have expressed the Catholic view of life with considerable clarity has always
inflamed the political and media circles that promote the Zapatero
Project.
Compared to a political Opposition that has always been rather
timorous when it comes to standing up to the Left within the realm
of ideas and somewhat reluctant to take the Zapatero Project on
come what may, the Church, without wishing or trying to, has
gradually become the main bastion of resistance in Spain with regard to proposals that seek to subvert our values and identity.
«The role of the Catholic religion is one of the great issues. Because, in the end, in the absence of other developments that may
have helped define our historical identity as a country, it is the
strong impact made by Catholicism that has shaped the country’s
108
identity [...] We have stumbled through history. Of course, religion
has produced the odd genius in the field of art. However, Catholicism in Spain has conditioned and generated enormous gaps.»1
The Zapatero Project has imbued our collective life with a kind of
prior censorship based on a cautionary suspension of any fact, event,
declaration or piece of news relating to the Church. The Church’s
messages are sifted and manipulated and are only disseminated when
the distortion process is complete and they can be presented as evidence of assault against democracy and against civil rights.
In the pastoral message issued by the Spanish Episcopal Conference entitled Moral Guidance Regarding the Current Situation in
Spain, the bishops expressed their opinion with considerable precision regarding the participation of Catholics in public life:
«A moral consideration of the affairs of public life, far from constituting a threat of any kind to democracy, is an indispensable
requirement for the exercise of freedom and the establishment
of justice.
»It is not a question of imposing our own moral criteria on society as a whole.
» We express our will and the will of all Catholics to live in the
heart of society by loyally fulfilling our civil obligations.
»We respect those who see things differently.
» We only ask for freedom and respect when it comes to living
in accordance with our convictions and freely proposing our way
of seeing things, without anyone feeling threatened or interpreting
our presence as an offence or a threat to the freedom of others.
» We sincerely wish to collaborate in the spiritual enrichment of
our society, in consolidating justice and harmony and freedom,
these being the essential foundations of true peace.»
The political and media circles that support the Zapatero Project
have declared that this and other documents published by the
Spanish Episcopal Conference are anti-democratic and constitute
interference on the part of the Church within the realm of politics:
—————
1
THE NEW CATACOMBS
109
«The bishops have a right to call for people to vote for the PP, but
this time they have gone even further; they have succumbed to the
temptation of using the issue of terrorism in an electoral campaign,
and this they have no right to do.»2
The references to terrorism made by the Spanish Episcopal Conference were as follows:
«Terrorism is an intrinsically perverse practice, one that is entirely
incompatible with a moral vision of a just and reasonable life. Not
only does it seriously violate the right to life and freedom, but it
constitutes an example of the most obdurate intolerance and totalitarianism.
»A society that wishes to be just and free cannot acknowledge
a terrorist organisation, either implicitly or explicitly, as a political
representative of any sector of the population, and neither can it
grant terrorism a political voice.»
In February 2006, the magazine, MicroMega, something of an intellectual point of reference for the Italian Left, interviewed José Luis
Rodríguez Zapatero. The leader of the Spanish Socialists had been in
power for little more than two years and in Italy he still enjoyed a certain degree of popularity among left-wing groups. In this magazine
published by the group, L'Espresso, Rodríguez Zapatero expounded
upon his idea of the secular State and laid his anachronistic stereotypes
out for all to see when he expressed his view regarding the role of the
Church in democratic societies, one that bears no relation to the
Church’s daily activities in democratic Spain:
«Democracy demands a non-confessional State and a public culture
based on secular values. The Catholic Church may maintain some
stance that evokes the aspiration of ecclesiastical laws to place
themselves above the laws of the polis, but I believe such an attitude today is an ideological relic.»
—————
2 José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the Os Remedios Hall in Orense,
31.1.08. Reported by El Mundo, 1.2.08: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/
2008/02/01/espana/1201895790.html
110
The rhetoric of the «ideological relic» is habitual in Rodríguez
Zapatero’s declarations, given that he has always sought to persuade
the public that any fact, proposition or circumstance that might originate with the Church constitutes a step backwards in terms of civilisation, civil rights and freedom. In this respect, the Zapatero Project
distorts the message of the Church and that of its believers and manipulates information and even the language itself in order to achieve
its objectives: it destroys any moral point of reference that challenges
the State, consigns religious beliefs to the realm of private life and
smashes the idea of natural law.
«The idea of a natural law over and above the laws that Man creates
for himself constitutes an ideological relic, as compared to social reality and its ongoing development. It is a respectable idea, but one
that is nevertheless a vestige of the past.»3
In order to eradicate this «vestige of the past», the Zapatero
Project has used all of the resources at the State’s disposal. Since the
year 2004, numerous examples of an anti-Christian drive have
emerged through the institutions and policies of the Socialist Government:
→ Condemnation of the Pope. In April 2009, a Committee in
the Lower House of Spain’s Parliament agreed to approve,
with PSOE votes, a condemnation of Benedict XVI as a result of a series of declarations concerning AIDS and condoms that the Holy Father never actually made.
→ Removal of religious symbols. In 2009, the newspaper, El
País, which is not especially given to supporting the Church,
reported that 84 per cent of the public are in favour of religious symbols in schools. Faced with these figures, the same
year the Socialist Government announced its intention to
pass a law in order to remove all religious symbols from
public spaces, including schools.
—————
3
THE NEW CATACOMBS
111
→ Adapting religious freedom to «circumstances». Rodríguez
Zapatero began his second term in office with one of his key
reforms, that of the Religious Freedom Law, which dates
back to 1980. The Deputy Prime Minister at the time, María
Teresa Fernández de la Vega, defined the purpose of the reform in the following manner:
«We propose to review the Religious Freedom Act in order
to adapt it to new circumstances and to the religious pluralism that characterises Spain today.»4
In the preparatory documents for the reform, this intention was reflected in the eradication of any mention of the
Catholic Church and its symbols in public life, although the
customs and symbols of minority religions were accepted,
such as the Islamic headscarf in the case of women.
→ Restricting freedom of conscience. The Minister for Justice,
Francisco Caamaño, announced in the summer of 2009 that,
with its reform of the Religious Freedom Law, the Socialist
Government sought to restrict freedoms:
• «Religious freedom must have certain limits.»
• «It is necessary to review the regulation regarding religious freedom and the way in which it is practised.»
• «Religious freedom must adapt to the logic of this society.»
• «We must regulate religious freedom, but also freedom of
conscience.»
• «Freedom of conscience cannot be a permanent means of
disobeying the law.»5
—————
4 Daily Record of Sessions in the Lower House of Spain’s Parliament, El
Congreso de los Diputados, 7.5.08: http://goo.gl/Yu7e
5 Course entitled La pluralidad religiosa en la sociedad española contemporánea. Cuestiones a debate, organised by Fundación Pluralismo y Convivencia
in El Escorial, 12.7.09.
112
The Enemy to Be Defeated
The Zapatero Project appeals to the most anachronistic secularism
and its reactions to the slightest hint of Catholicism, however tiny
it might be, often verge on the ridiculous. On 4th November 2008,
the Internal Governing Committee of the Lower House of Spain’s
Parliament passed a resolution whose purpose, in the words of the
Speaker of the House, José Bono, was:
«To record the fact that, one of the buildings of Parliament had
once been the residence of a family whose members had included
two Speakers of the Lower House, a Speaker of the Upper House
and his daughter, Maravillas de Jesús, who achieved fame as a result
of her recent canonisation.»6
PSOE and the small radical left-wing and nationalist groups that
support it, prohibited the placement of a small plaque in order to
commemorate this fact.
Gregorio Peces Barba, the former Vice-Chancellor of Universidad Carlos III, is one of the intellectuals that PSOE uses in order
to endow its attacks on the Church with a conceptual sheen:
«The passing of time means nothing to the bishops. They hold the
same doctrine as that which was promoted by the Holy See between
the 1830’s and the 1880’s. They are the enemies of modern freedom,
enemies of democracy. But now they perform an acrobatic feat and
present themselves as if they, precisely, were its only protectors.
»This confirms something I have always said: these gentlemen
have a kind of historical innocence that means that they have never
been responsible for anything that has happened throughout history. It’s quite lamentable. They are still the enemies of democracy.
»If they could, they would act like radical Islamists: obviously
not in terms of perpetrating extreme violence, but certainly in terms
of ruling over and above the legitimately elected democratic
authorities in the way the Ayatollahs do in Iran.»7
—————
6
El Mundo, 20.11.08.
Magazine, Éxodo, March 2008: http://www.exodo.org/GREGORIOPECES-BARBA.html
7
THE NEW CATACOMBS
113
One of the most active bodies throughout the time the PSOE
Government has been in power is known as the Pluralism and
Good Fellowship Foundation (Fundación Pluralismo y Convivencia), «a State public sector foundation created by agreement of the
Spanish Cabinet on 15th October 2004 upon the proposal of the
Ministry of Justice»8. Presided over by the Minister for Justice,
Francisco Caamaño, its Board includes representatives from the
following Ministries: Foreign Affairs, Defence, the Prime Minister’s
Office, the Home Office, Education and Health. The Head of the
Foundation’s Governing Board is the Head of Relations with the
Confessions at the Ministry of Justice.
Each year the Pluralism and Good Fellowship Foundation
grants subsidies for «activities that promote religious freedom».
Among its main beneficiaries in the year 2009, the year in which the
reform process for the Religious Freedom Law was set in motion,
we might mention the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals and the association, Europa Laica (“Lay
Europe”), which promotes the apostasy of Catholics and the expulsion of religious beliefs from the public arena.
In order to relativise the presence and role of the Catholic
Church still further, the Zapatero Project has found a good pretext
in the imported Muslim religion. Islam has an extreme minority
presence in Spain, but the Zapatero Project has always attempted
to convey to the public the idea that Muslim culture, including the
religion, is as important in Spain as the country’s Catholic roots and
faith. The distortion of history, based on a form of political propaganda known as «historical recollection», has been used to pull off
this swindle, whilst neo-language has also been brought into play
within the academic and cultural realms, rejecting historical expressions such as «Reconquest» when referring to the eight-hundredyear war that followed the Moorish invasion of the Peninsula and
ended with their expulsion from Spanish territory.
Through regulations passed by the State and by local councils
and regional governments, as well as through semi-public bodies
—————
8
http://www.pluralismoyconvivencia.es
114
such as foundations and associations linked to PSOE and financed
by the Socialist Government, the presence of Islam in Spain has
been praised and magnified, with a view to being able to compare
(and, perhaps, confront) Catholics and Muslims on equal terms.
The PSOE Government has endowed the Pluralism and Good
Fellowship Foundation with this aim. According to Article 8 of its
Statutes, «the Foundation has been set up to benefit the nonCatholic religious confessions». According to its own literature,
these are the Foundation’s aims:
«Its purpose is to help implement cultural, educational and social
integration programmes and projects for the minority religious confessions.»
The priority objective of the Pluralism and Good Fellowship
Foundation consists of helping to facilitate the penetration of Islam
in Spain through the support of the State, and the Foundation devotes most of its resources and public activities to this cause.
The two-faced language characteristic of the Zapatero Project acquires an especially cynical tone when it addresses questions relating
to the Catholic Church. On 4th February 2010, during the course of
the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, to which Rodríguez
Zapatero was invited, the Prime Minister of the Socialist Government
preached precisely the opposite to what he practices, recognising for
the first time that Spain is «Christian, above all Christian».
«In the past, Spain served as an example of peaceful coexistence between the three religions of the Book, Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
and today it promotes religious tolerance throughout the world.»9
Rodríguez Zapatero is accustomed to getting away with all kinds
of declarations. That is why in the United States he can acknowl-
—————
9 Speech by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the National Prayer Breakfast,
2010: http://www.abc.es/20100204/nacional-/discurso-integro-zapatero-desayuno201002041507.html
THE NEW CATACOMBS
115
edge the leading role of the Catholic Church in Spain, whilst in
Spain he implements a mobbing policy against believers. Since
2004, the policies that have been directed against the Church under
the Zapatero Project include the following:
1. Threats. The Socialist Government has questioned the
agreements between the Church and the State each time it
has found it convenient to fan the flames among its most
radical voters or when it has sought to impose laws that bring
it into confrontation with Catholics. It has also threatened to
suffocate the Church in a financial sense.
2. Division. In the same way as occurred with the victims of
terrorism, the Socialist Government has always sought to divide Catholics. It has created a new group within PSOE
known as “Socialist Christians”, a group designed for militants (many of them holding public office) who declare
themselves to be Catholics and at the same time abortionists
and enemies of the Church hierarchy. It has also used the
school subject, Citizenship Education, in order to create differences between the Church and supposedly «progressive»
movements within the Church.
3. Marginalisation. The Zapatero Project has taken particular
care to marginalise the subject of Religion at State schools,
demoting its importance from an academic point of view, in
spite of the fact that the vast majority of families are calling
for religion classes for their children.
4. Verbal aggression. The daily forms of mobbing that the
Zapatero Project directs against the Church include mocking
and contemptuous comments and more or less veiled insults
on the part of both politicians and the media. Among the latter, aggressive assaults form part of their daily work. In this
respect, we might mention the daily newspaper, Público, for
example. Few newspapers devote as much attention to the
Church as this organ does, which identifies most closely with
Zapatero’s ideas. However, it never simply disseminates
news, but uses events to distort reality and undermine and
116
attack the Church and its hierarchy. The news headlines of
this newspaper when referring to the Church are extremely
illustrative in this respect:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
«De la Vega Takes the Bishops to Task» (28.11.09)
«We Are Fed Up of Being Saved by the Bishops» (8.1.08)
«Bono Calls on the Bishops to Confine Themselves to Filling
Their Churches» (2.2.10)
«The Episcopal Church of the USA Appoints a Gay and a Lesbian As Bishops» (3.8.09)
«The Government Demands Respect from the Bishops» (1.2.08)
«Zapatero Stands Up to Rouco» (6.1.08)
«Bishops Attempt to Cash In» (5.11.07)
«Some Bishops Have National-Catholic Fantasies» (28.11.08)
«The Government and PSOE Are Fed Up with the Bishops»
(1.2.08)
5. Laws to implement a “Final Solution” for the religious problem. Ongoing threats, division, marginalisation and ridiculing
help to cultivate a climate in which Catholics can be sidelined,
effectively turning public opinion against the Church. However,
these are not enough when it comes to eliminating the Church
from the collective imagination. Families continue to bring their
children to religion classes and public expressions of religious
faith are commonplace. The Zapatero Project has felt obliged
to take the matter a step further, a dangerous step further: that
of marginalising the Faith and members of the public through
the law. In this respect, it tried out an initial measure through
the always-willing social experimental laboratory known as the
Catalonian Regional Government: the Law on Centres for Worship in Catalonia,10 which opens the door for political interference on the part of political parties at churches and within the
realm of worship. After the testing-ground represented by this
law, the Socialist Government then embarked on its reform of
the Religious Freedom Law, openly seeking to restrict the right
to freedom of conscience, as announced by the Minister for Justice, whose department is responsible for the drafting of the
new legislation.
—————
10
Llei dels centres de culte: http://goo.gl/6Aabl
IX
The Deconstruction of a Nation
Subverting the values on which Spanish society has been
founded and has progressed can be achieved by subverting its
very essence, that which binds it together and turns the country
into a nation. As one of its main ideas, the Zapatero Project contemplates the transformation of the very idea of Spain, which is
to say its unity and the bonds that structure and articulate the
country. The aim is to create a kind of container that holds different fully-autonomous nations, all of different characteristics
and all strangers to one another. This container is meant to cater
for all possible combinations, except for one, the current arrangement, namely the existence of a single nation. Paradoxically,
in this new order there will be no place for what is Spanish.
The only way of implementing the Zapatero Project is to bind its
progress to a series of small radical secessionists groups in all of the regions where PSOE has come across them. And in those regions where
it has not found any or where their influence is not especially decisive,
it has created the conditions for such groups to prosper. In this respect,
whereas before there were nationalist groups that only contested the
idea of the nation at certain times and in a rhetorical manner, now secessionist acronyms abound and even the formerly moderate nationalist
movements have now permitted themselves the extravagant indulgence
of calling for referendums of self-determination.
118
National unity presents a grave added threat to the Zapatero
Project: Spain cannot be disassociated from its Catholic roots. The
country’s history has been profoundly influenced by the Catholic
religion, an impact made more evident through events such as the
Councils of Toledo, the defence of Europe against Islam, the Salamanca School and the founding of international public law. It is not
possible to understand the last one thousand seven hundred years
of collective life in Spain without taking into consideration its
Christian foundations. In this respect, we cannot understand the
culture, art, world of thought and international role of our country
without this Christian backbone, an aspect that has given sense to
all manifestations of what is considered “Spanish”, whatever region
they have originated from.
In this sense, when Rodríguez Zapatero seeks to deconstruct the
Spanish nation, going above the interests of society, he is attempting
to eliminate the country’s Christian roots:
«The role of the Catholic religion is one of the great issues. Because, in the end, in the absence of other developments that may
have helped define our historical identity as a country, it is the
strong impact made by Catholicism that has shaped the country’s
identity
»And this has also generated significant gaps in our collective
being [...] Catholicism in Spain has conditioned and generated
enormous gaps.»1
There is nothing more contrary, therefore, to the vision of the
world proposed by the Zapatero Project than the idea of nation and
national unity. To fight it, destroy it and replace it with something
else has been Rodríguez Zapatero’s goal since he came to power,
and in order to achieve this aim he has made use of an effective instrument: the renewal of the Statutes of Autonomy of the Spanish
Regions.
—————
1
THE DECONSTRUCTION OF A NATION
119
Our electoral system gives precedence to the interests of small
local groups compared to nationwide groups. In Spain it is relatively easy to consolidate a regional party because much less electoral support is required in order to present candidates throughout
the entire nation. Izquierda Unida (IU) is a classic example of this.
In the legislative elections of 2008, IU obtained 963,040 votes
and two Members of Parliament. The nationalist party with the
largest number of votes was CiU, which achieved 774,317 votes.
However, it achieved eleven seats.
Party
CiU
PNV
ERC
IU
BNG
CC-PNC
Seats
11
6
3
2
2
2
Votes
774,317
303,246
296,473
963,040
209,042
164,255
3.05 %
1.20 %
1.17 %
3.80 %
0.82 %
0.65 %
In addition to the unfair advantage created by the lamentable
electoral system that is currently in force, the cantonal discourse of
the nationalist groups is, like that of the parties of the European far
Right, essentially primary, victim-based, exclusivist and xenophobic,
and given that it appeals to the primary instincts, it is strongly
rooted, although only in an extreme minority sense, thus ensuring
the groups’ survival.
When in 2004, in the midst of its protest campaign against the
policies of the Government, headed at that time by the Partido
Popular, PSOE proposed a programme of maximums regarding
territorial policy with a view to undermining the Aznar Government
and, at the same time, guaranteeing the support of the regional nationalist groups, Rodríguez Zapatero was convinced that his moment had yet to come. The Socialists knew, because all the polls
indicated as much, that the PP would once again win the general
elections, so they resorted to stirring up nationalist feeling, increasing the role played by their regional franchises and offering maximalist commitments to different regional nationalist groups.
120
The tragic events of 11th March 2004 altered the voting intention
of a suddenly-cowered section of Spanish society, who switched
their vote and granted victory to Rodríguez Zapatero. In order to
ensure his grip on power, the PSOE leader then began to fulfil the
promises he had made to the nationalists. The Socialists knew that
their commitments entailed turning the articles enshrined in the
Constitution regarding territorial organisation on their head, but
they found a way of strengthening their pact with the ethnic-based
nationalists without having to risk constitutional reform.
The renewal of the Statutes of Autonomy of the Spanish Regions
was the path chosen by the Zapatero Project to turn the Constitution into pulp without having to consult the country’s citizens. This
false direction was a trap that the Opposition fell into, being
dragged along by a process that eroded its own interests.
The preambles and long-winded articles that make up these new
texts are packed with supposedly new rights, rights that are not
contemplated in the Constitution and that make the exclusive powers of the State meaningless. By means of statutory reform, the regions become nations; relations between the regions and the State
take on a guise that is typical of foreign politics, given that the Region-State relationship is founded on an equal footing; foreign affairs «ministries» emerge and the number of foreign service departments abound in the form of «embassies»; legal unity is broken, as
is the single market; Spanish disappears, replaced by regional languages, which are only spoken by a minority even in their regions
of origin; the education system and the public taxation system are
blown up.
Through the new Statutes of Autonomy, the Zapatero Project destroys the decentralised system of autonomous regions within a State
in order to create a de facto Confederation of States that simply multiplies costs and client networks. When the economic crisis hit the
country in 2008, this artificial State, which nobody had asked for and
which was created behind the backs of the country’s citizens, threw
Spain’s public accounts into freefall.
The arguments employed by the Zapatero Project in order to
bring about such a dangerous state of affairs are based on the idea
121
of negating the history of Spain itself. According to the Zapatero
view, the Nation is the result of an historical process that was imposed at all times, over more than twenty centuries of shared history, one that was not accepted by the country’s inhabitants. By
confusing the only-recent declarations of various hardly representative groups with the collective will of the country, as expressed over
two thousand years of shared history, the Zapatero Project concludes that it is necessary to overcome the idea of Spain.
Rodríguez Zapatero shares the self-interested theory espoused
by the spokesmen of radical nationalism that our country is merely
a container of nations in which there is nothing essential about what
we have understood as Spain up until now, which should not even
have existed in the first place. On the contrary, the important thing
is the old regions, which have become nations thanks to statutory
texts that the voters have backed in all of the autonomous regions.
J. L. Carod-Rovira: «Their greatest problem is not stating what we
are, but exactly what they are. When we state that we are a nation,
and the Basques and the Galicians declare the same, the question
then emerges as to what and who they are.»2
«Journalist. – I’m not clear exactly what Spain is. But I imagine that
you can tell me.
Pasqual Maragall. – If there is someone who is clear about it, let
them raise their hand. [...] Names are handed down to us by history
and there is the Catalan Nation.»3
J. L. Carod-Rovira: «Thirty years of autonomy-based democracy
has coincided with a process whereby the notion of Spain has been
reduced simply to Madrid, to its municipal boundaries and, at the
most, to the autonomous province. Madrid has become Spain and
Spain has ended up being only Madrid.»4
—————
2
3
4
Deia, 17.10.05.
El Periódico, 14.11.04.
El Periódico, 22.4.07.
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The reform of the Statutes of the Region of Catalonia, the attempt to subjugate the Constitutional Court, successive editions of
the PSC/PSOE-ERC-IU Tri-Partite Pact in the Catalonian Regional
Government and the imitation effect encouraged by PSOE in regions that had formerly been free of the nationalist virus, have all
marked out the path whereby the Zapatero Project has sought to
deconstruct the Nation.
Changing History
Subverting the idea of the nation involves altering the history of
Spain itself in order to adapt it to the goals of the Zapatero Project.
The aim is to replace facts and transform their meaning in order to
discover a new form of legitimacy that makes the Project’s proposals presentable. In this respect, the Project casts its eye back to the
Second Republic, a period of unhappy recollection, which is first
presented as the immediate precedent for democracy and then as a
source of legitimacy. The left-wing imagination works along these
lines, as if Azaña had been succeeded by Zapatero.
«As far as the history of the Second Republic is concerned, we can
say that it was an extremely advanced project for a Spain that had
been subject to the ideological decadence of the entire dominant
sector, the entire Right, all of the dominant powers. Crisis after crisis had taken place. And then, suddenly, a new popular, political
and ideological force was born, one that was quite spectacular.
Then that part of the country that had been traditionally dominant,
that had held much of the power, whose identity, being and raison
d’être had crumbled entirely, that part of the country refused to
agree to the change, failed to accept it. And that led us to war.»5
The Zapatero Project proposes to go beyond the Constitution of
1978 and search for its roots and its legitimacy in the Second Re-
—————
5
123
public. With this purpose in mind it has passed an Historical Recollection Law6, whose objective is two-fold: to change the meaning
of the Republic, turning it into a fountain of freedoms; to embark
on a kind of witch-hunt encompassing the past and the present, in
search of unrepentant Francoists. However, over and above both of
these goals stands the overriding objective of the Zapatero Project:
to segregate a part of the public.
Here the Zapatero Project turns to the use of symbols. By means
of symbolic acts it acquires a revolutionary left-wing rhetoric that
is anachronistic but highly effective within the intellectually impoverished Spanish Left, which, thirty-five years later, is suddenly anxious to play a leading role in the assault on the Palace of El Pardo,
the official residence of Francisco Franco.
The Left failed in its battle against Francoism and Franco died in
his own bed, which is why the Zapatero Project has taken hold of the
history books, determined to rewrite the story. In this respect, it alters
the meaning of the Transition, which it describes as a period of failure, and situates itself in an imaginary time shortly before Franco’s
death. From this point it rewrites the events in order to present a triumphant Left that has pulled down all of the dictator’s statues.
Marx stated that history repeats itself, first as a tragedy, then as
a comedy. The rhetoric of the Historical Recollection Law reveals
the profoundly anachronistic nature of the Zapatero Project:
Franco’s statues are falling, but more than three decades have
passed since he died.
The logical consequence of this manipulation of history is the
revision of the present. According to the Zapatero Project, today’s
Spain should not be the consequence of the Transition, even if this
goes against all logic, in which respect it proposes a second period
of historical adjustment, a Second Transition that is liable to lead to
a reality that fits in with its intentions.
—————
6 Law 52/2007, dated 26th December, By Which Rights Are Recognised
and Extended and Measures Are Established in Favour of Those Who Suffered
Persecution or Violence during the Civil War and the Dictatorship:
http://noticias.juridicas.com/ base_datos/Admin/l52-2007.html
124
This new, invented period, which is not a product of the past but
a self-interested artifice, a reflection of the interests of those in
power, seeks to break the constitutional consensus that led to a
peaceful exit from Francoism towards democracy. The Zapatero
Project is not interested in the outcome of the Transition, which is
democracy as we know it today in Spain, nor the constitutional order that was created. Both are obstacles to be overcome as the Project seeks to subvert our national values. Appeals to the legality of
the Republic, indirect attacks on the Constitution through the renewal of the Regional Statutes, manipulation of the past and the
constant search for direct confrontation – nothing more and nothing less – with those who oppose its objectives, can all be explained
by the need to overcome the historical period which the Transition
led to and replace it with a new political system subordinated to the
goals set out by Rodríguez Zapatero.
George Orwell’s assertion, «He who controls the past, controls
the future. He who controls the present, controls the past»7, takes on
a disturbing meaning in this respect. The Historical Recollection
Law offers us an oversimplified reading of the extremely complex
history of our recent past, issuing a series of single-minded and unanswerable condemnations. Thus, the Project offers us (through
the force of the law) a past that has been conveniently packaged and
labelled, one ready to be manipulated and used, a past that is approachable and controllable. Pure Orwell.
—————
7
George Orwell, 1984.
X
From Change to Destruction
In 1980 Felipe González proposed a change to the public. And in
many fields this change led to a more modern and more profoundly
democratic Spain. Rodríguez Zapatero has taken a step in the opposite direction. It is not enough to change. What he proposes to do
is to replace the society we know, that which has enabled us to get
where we are today, or rather, to where we were back in 2004. His
is not a project of change: it is a project of destruction.
The Zapatero Project seeks to destroy our values, the things we
hold in common, inter-generational bridges, the bond between the
citizens of today and those of yesteryear, our cultural roots, our
identity.
Between 2004 and 2008, the Zapatero Project focused on undermining the family institution, national unity and the education
system, through legislation such as the Education Act, various laws
based on gender ideology and the new Regional Government Statutes.
As of the year 2008, the aim has been to consolidate this project,
to secure its victories, by means of legislation such as the Abortion
Law and various forms of assault such as that regarding religious
freedom. During this period, the Government has also resumed its
creation of supposedly new rights, based on initiatives such as the
National Strategy for Sexual and Reproductive Health, whilst it has
126
begun to prepare the ground for new limits on citizens’ freedoms,
introducing restrictions regarding freedom of education and freedom of conscience.
«Politics means creating law in order to create rights. But what is
law? Above all, it is an axiological and regulatory matter. A good
part of our laws are imbued with the way we understand life. There
is a part that is purely organisational, regulatory. But great laws,
great decisions, which are few and far between, those that really
make an impact on society, on our way of understanding culture,
truly determine the life you live.»1
Since the Zapatero Project was set in motion back in 2004, a
number of laws of considerable import have been passed in Spain,
laws whose sole purpose is to destroy the values of society as we
know it. The subversion of these values and the introduction of aspects designed to undermine the roots and identity of Spanish society have been enshrined in legislation that seeks to «make an impact
on society, on our way of understanding culture» and on «the life
you live». The following are the most significant pieces of legislation
in this respect:
3 Law for Integral Protection Against Gender Violence, the
first law in which gender ideology was introduced. This law
was passed in December 2004, just eight months after Rodríguez Zapatero assumed the reins of power.
3 Reform of the Divorce Law, known as the Express Divorce
Law, passed in July 2005.
3 Reform of the Civil Code of July 2005, which permitted homosexual «marriage» and enabled same-sex couples to
adopt.
3 Law on Assisted Human Reproduction Techniques, which
permitted the selection of embryos and the creation of «saviour babies», passed in May 2006.
—————
1
FROM CHANGE TO DESTRUCTION
127
3 Education Act of May 2006, which introduced indoctrination
and promoted a form of equality that worked against excellence.
3 Act for the Effective Equality of Men and Women, passed in
March 2007.
3 Biomedical Research Law, which opened the door to human
cloning, passed in June 2007.
3 Prime Minister’s Decree for the Creation of a National Plan
for the Alliance of Civilisations, issued in January 2008.
3 Law on Gender Identity, passed in March 2008.
3 Authorisation of the «five-day-after pill» in August 2008.
3 National Human Rights Plan (2008), which included abortion, the right to choose «sexual orientation» and the right to
homosexual «marriage».
3 Authorisation of the free sale of the «morning-after pill» in
September 2009.
3 Act for Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Voluntary
Interruption of Pregnancy, passed in March 2010.
However, the Zapatero Project has not halted its programme
after these reforms that entail far-reaching implications. It is now set
to take further step. The Prime Minister of the Government and his
Ministers plan to develop new legislative projects, such as the Equal
Treatment and Anti-Discrimination Law, which will penalise any
criticism of gender ideology dogmas or the ideas of the homosexual
lobby, or the merely half-halted project for the reform of the Religious
Freedom Law, which will restrict the freedom of believers to express our faith in the public realm. In the background, we might
also mention the Euthanasia Law, a piece of legislation that has already been introduced in Andalusia under the title of the “Law for
Promoting the Rights and Guaranteeing the Dignity of Persons in
the Process of Dying”.
128
A Project in a Hurry
During Rodríguez Zapatero’s second term in office, his project to
subvert our values is gaining pace. The process to pass the Abortion
Law is illustrative in this respect. In its hurry to pass this legislation,
the Socialist Party will clearly stop at nothing. A few hours before
the vote was held regarding the Act for Sexual and Reproductive
Health and the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy in the Upper
House of Spain’s Parliament, various Members of the House received news of strong investment commitments in their areas of
influence in exchange for their vote in favour of the Government’s
proposal or, at the very least, their abstention. This was how, for
example, a new landing-strip at an airport on the Canary Islands
came about, as if by magic.
«We are not going to stop, we are going to press the accelerator for
change, we are going to continue promoting our project with enthusiasm, with ideas, with effort and with coherence.»2
The accelerated pace of the Zapatero Project as of 2008 can be
explained by various factors. First of all, the cultural transformation
project must progress as rapidly as possible in order to destroy the
«perverse» effects (in Rodríguez Zapatero’s view) of almost 2000
years of Church influence on Spanish history as soon as possible.
Second, in the face of the increasingly serious economic crisis,
this constitutes an excellent means of distracting public opinion.
Introducing aspects such as the removal of crucifixes into political
life constitutes the best smokescreen regarding the economic problems that the country is currently witnessing.
Third, the results of the legislative elections in March 2008 show
the profitable nature of the proposals that make up the Zapatero
Project in terms of votes: PSOE is winning the support of sectors
of society that formerly voted for Izquierda Unida and also the nationalists. The Socialists are not moving towards the Centre or the
—————
2
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, speech at the 37th PSOE Congress, 2008.
FROM CHANGE TO DESTRUCTION
129
Right. Quite the contrary, in fact; the more radical their discourse,
the more they are able to bring together the often erratic and abstentionist voters of the Left and the far Left. Meanwhile, PSOE’s
main opponent, the Partido Popular, is still pondering about which
way to look.
In this respect, the fourth factor that has determined the acceleration of the Zapatero Project consists precisely of the ideological
weakness of its political opponent. Rodríguez Zapatero has managed to throw the navigation needle of Mariano Rajoy’s PP off
course. When faced with the Zapatero Project’s discourse of extending rights to the public, the PP has been incapable of formulating an alternative proposal based on principles that ensure the
development of contemporary democratic societies. Timid and often fainthearted, the Partido Popular has gradually lost its solid
principles and its trust and confidence in its own roots when tackling the Zapatero Project.
Members of the Partido Popular often direct harsh criticisms at
the proposals made by Rodríguez Zapatero, but they do not reply
with a clear and firm alternative, simply with threats of appealing to
the Constitutional Court or general dismissals, never daring to take
to the battlefield of ideas in order to wave the flag of a solid and
complex-free alternative. Rodríguez Zapatero knows this is the case
and that is why he is in a hurry. He is conscious of the fact that he
must make the most of the present moment. The clock is ticking in
his favour:
«Problems, when they are serious, must be prioritised. And in the
world of politics there is one fundamental factor and that is time.
Nobody can do politics and be successful without having a sense
of time.»3
—————
3
XI
Who Is Going to Bell the Cat?
If the alternative to the Zapatero Project does not emerge from
where it should, which is to say, from the political Opposition, or if
the alternative is insufficient and wracked with complexes, how
should we go about confronting the attempt to subvert our society?
Where should the alternative come from?
The current political scene in Spain does not offer us much
hope. It is paradoxical and somewhat worrying that, at this most
delicate and dangerous moment since the advent of democracy, our
country should have what is probably the most mediocre political
class since the 1930’s. An urgent regeneration of democratic values;
the cleansing and dignifying of our institutions, whose prestige has
been deteriorated; the eradication of corruption, which impregnates
all spheres of public life and not only the economy; the promotion
of excellence in public life; the recovery of our values and defence
of fundamental rights and freedoms … none of this is likely to be
carried out by a group of politicians that has largely turned its back
on the public and is becoming increasingly out of touch with it.
Nevertheless, an alternative does exist. The deterioration of the
Socialist Government’s image in the eye of the public, setbacks regarding the voting intention for PSOE and the feeling of extremism
and ineffectiveness conveyed by Zapatero’s Cabinet, mark a turning-point regarding his project. The combined effect of all these
132
aspects has led to a public reaction that Rodríguez Zapatero never
imagined: first, a sense of alienation; then irritation and rejection.
Suddenly, the public has turned its back on a charming Prime
Minister who has bet everything on a smile and the soporific effect
produced by his do-gooding discourse. His neo-language has
stopped working and Rodríguez Zapatero has become a caricature
of Mister Bean on the web page of Spain’s Presidency of the European Union. In just a few weeks, the entire symbolic edifice of
Zapateroism, built as it is on propaganda, seemed to waver.
Somewhat desperately, on 1st January 2010 Rodríguez Zapatero
hung on to Spain’s Presidency of the EU as a pretext to recover the
initiative and boost his image vis-à-vis the public. However, the
leading player in the Zapatero Project can no longer stand up to the
prolonged media exposure that such an operation requires. His increasingly extravagant off-the-cuff ideas and the obvious discoordination of his Government were derided in the international press
and reached Spain in the form of media time-bombs that go off
with every new opinion poll.
The public began to steal the initiative in autumn 2009. More
than one million people took to the streets in October of that year
in order to reject the abortionist plans of the Zapatero Project. And
just a few months later the protest was repeated with the March for
Life 2010, which again filled the streets with protests against
Zapatero’s attempts to destroy the country.
On this occasion, the call to march in the streets brought together the largest number of civil associations and platforms that a
demonstration has ever witnessed in the history of our country. And
the protest also spread. In almost one hundred towns and cities
throughout Spain, members of society took to the streets to express
their opposition to the Zapatero Project. Ranging from Europe to
even Australia, Spaniards joined the protest outside Spain’s embassies and consulates.
We, the public, are the ones who can bell the cat. And only we
can offer a real alternative to the Zapatero Project. Only civil pressure can dismantle this radical and destructive sociological experiment. We can do so through the vote, but also through constant and
WHO IS GOING TO BELL THE CAT?
133
firm pressure on the parties, whether they represent the Government or the Opposition. However, above all, we must work together as conscious citizens in order to have our say and, without
any kind of complex, raise our voices, influencing our immediate
environment, creating discussions, addressing our representatives,
writing letters to the editor, protesting on the streets and, in short,
swaying public opinion.
Experience has demonstrated that in Spanish democracy the
political groups tend to distance themselves from the people they
represent. That is why defeating the Zapatero Project and winning
a true democracy can only be achieved by us, the country’s citizens.
If the passivity of Spanish society prevails today, then tomorrow, at
the end of the tunnel, we will only have the «freedom» left that the
Zapatero Project proposes:
«The only order we must establish is the order that grants freedom
to all, not that which grants freedom to each individual. It is freedom that makes us true, not truth that makes us free.»1
—————
1
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in conversation with Suso de Toro. Madera
XII
The Zapatero Project without Zapatero
On 20th October 2010, overwhelmed by the darkening clouds of public opinion and growing public opposition, José Luis Rodríguez
Zapatero reshuffled his Government. He got rid of the minister (and
the ministry) that had been in charge of one of the main pillars of the
project, Bibiana Aído, and created an apparently different Cabinet
compared to those he had presided over previously.
Whilst Rodríguez Zapatero reshuffled his Cabinet, Suso de Toro,
after having sold five editions of his book and having translated it into
the Galician language, Madeira de Zapatero, declared that he detested
the figure who had given him influence and made him a fortune over
six years, accusing him of having damaged his literary career. In
autumn 2010, the celebrities of the cultural Left began to prepare
themselves to abandon ship, without even waiting for the orchestra to
start playing up on the deck. The idea was to reach the life-boats before their other colleagues on the political and journalistic Left jumped
ship. Believing their leader to have used up all his credit, they got ready
to ensure the future of the project by dressing it up in new clothes.
Without the slightest concealment, El País declared the continuity of
the Zapatero Project without Rodríguez Zapatero:
«Zapatero Places Rubalcaba in Charge in Order to Rescue the Socialist Project»1
—————
1
http://www.elpais.com/static/misc/portada20101021.pdf
136
Of course, the Zapatero Project is also present in a faction of the
Partido Popular, as well as in the rest of the parties that make up
the parliamentary spectrum. And yet, the Spanish political party
that has placed itself at the head of this Project, the one that has
presented itself as its champion and that has promoted it most effectively in recent decades, is undoubtedly PSOE.
The Zapatero Project is PSOE’s Project. Throughout history,
Spain’s Socialists have dressed it up in the clothing that best befits
the age. And in this manner, by varying its intensity and expression,
by adapting to the terrain, by establishing the goals that were possible at any one time, they have preserved its identity over time. The
Zapatero Project is the project of Felipe González, but also the
project of the PSOE that signed the Pact of San Sebastián back in
1930, the project of José Bono and that of Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba.
Since the Civil War, Rodríguez Zapatero is the Socialist leader
who has dared to take the Project the furthest. However, his successors will not be able to fall behind. At the most, they will proceed
to applying a new lick of paint to camouflage the party’s intentions
when the electorate go to the polls. But like the sharks portrayed in
films, one they have tasted blood they cannot do without it.
Nevertheless, the public has learnt a great deal after Rodríguez
Zapatero’s time as Head of the Nation: all Spaniards know that the
electoral programmes and promises of PSOE’s candidates are not
worth the paper they are written on. They contain precisely what
they conceal: that is to say, in the end, the imposition of their project justifies all and any means.
«My entire life story is PSOE. I shall die defending and exalting the
Spanish Socialist Workers Party. I love PSOE deeply.
»I perfectly recall the last moments in which I saw my mother
alive. The last thing I said to her was: “Mum, do you think I’m going to be Prime Minister of the Government?” Those were the last
words I said to her.»2
—————
2
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in conversation with Suso de Toro. Madera
Will You Join Us?
“Derecho a Vivir” (“Right to Live”) is, perhaps, the initiative promoted by HazteOir.org that has made the biggest impact on public
opinion in Spain. In 2009 we launched a signature campaign to protest against Zapatero’s draft «abortion free-for-all» law. Each signature we gathered produced a conversation between a “Right to
Life” volunteer and the individual being invited to sign our petition.
We volunteers who collect signatures (more than one million)
were surprised to discover that the majority of the public are prepared to defend the right of the unborn foetus to live. And yet,
some members of the public commented that they did not dare to
express their opinion regarding abortion within their own circles.
Conversely, those who are in favour of abortion seem to have no
problem when it comes to making it public.
In spite of the attacks that have been perpetrated against life,
family and our freedoms, our experience and the figures we have
gained access to reveal that the majority of people in Spain, as
throughout the rest of the world, want to protect and preserve family, marriage and the right to live. The problem we face is very simple: although we are a majority, too many people keep silent.
At the present time we would like to ask you this: will you raise
your voice against injustice and the outrages that they are seeking to
impose on us?
138
Why don’t you add your voice to ours and to that of so many
other good people throughout the world who are working to protect the family, our freedom and fundamental rights? We hope you
will, because we need you.
We Can — and Must — Win This Battle
If each one of us, we who share these values, stands up to be
counted in our own circles, in our homes, in our neighbourhoods
and at work, we can turn the Zapatero Project around and stop the
tsunami that is approaching and threatens to destroy our families.
Victory will require the sum of our very best efforts.
If you haven’t got involved yet, please join our fight to protect
life and family, because ... we can’t do it on our own! Please help us
to protect our freedoms and our human rights in one or various of
the following ways.
1. Join HazteOir.org. Enter www.hazteoir.org and sign up for our
bulletin in order to receive our alerts and action proposals in your email box. On the same web page you will be able to sign and join the
campaigns we promote through our forum. Invite others to join our
web site and take part in our campaigns. The more numerous we are,
the stronger our voice will be.
2. Become a member or make a generous donation to HazteOir.org or any other body that defends the same values. We cannot continue our work without the financial support of people like
you. We are grateful for donations of any amount. You can become
a member or make your contribution by logging on to
www.haztesocio.org. You can also call us at 91 554 71 89 or send a
message to [email protected] in order to receive further information about how you can support our work.
3. Help us to spread the message. Lend or give a copy of this book
to your friends and relatives so that they can join the fight. In order
WILL YOU JOIN US?
139
to obtain further copies or download a free copy (in electronic format) of this book, visit the web site we have created:
www.proyectozapatero.org. Re-send this web address to your
friends, relatives and colleagues at work.
4. Become a volunteer at HazteOir.org. Take part in the meetings
and activities organised by the local HazteOir.org or “Derecho a
Vivir” network in your town or city. At this very moment, active
groups of citizens in 70 towns and cities across Spain are working
in order to promote life and the family.
And if there is no organised group in your town or city, why don’t
you lead a local network? Organise monthly meetings at your home or
at some other venue and invite other active citizens to help identify the
threats to the family in your local area. Work together to face these
threats. Design and implement plans to promote and protect life, family and freedom. Please contact us for further information.
We Can Do It
We call on all citizens throughout the world to work together to
achieve the following aims:
• The day in which the right to live of all human beings is respected and protected, starting with conception and ending
with natural death.
• The day in which any law that is contemplated is first analysed in order to assess its impact on the natural family, so
that only measures are promoted that strengthen or, at least,
do no harm to the family.
• The day in which politicians throughout the world understand the essential role played by marriage, understood as a
stable relationship between a man and a woman, within our
society and do everything in their power to protect it.
• The day in which institutions respect the rights of us parents
to bring up our children in accordance with our values.
140
• The day in which all members of society, believers and nonbelievers, can freely express our faith (or our lack of it)
within the public realm, without illegitimate interference on
the part of the political authorities.
• The day in which all citizens are regularly taken into account
by our representatives in Parliament, and not just during
election periods.
Please join us and many others like us around the world who are
working to make that day a reality.
Because, as Margaret Mead once declared, «Never doubt that a
small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has».
We hope that this book will help you to get involved in some
way in this exciting task of defending life and family.
Please contact us via the following address:
http://hazteoir.org/contacto
and tell us how this book may have influenced you. We want to hear
from you!
About HazteOir.org
HazteOir.org is a civil association that is duly entered on the Register of the Spanish Ministry for Home Affairs under number
167.805 and featuring fiscal identification number (N.I.F.)
G83068403.
The mission of HazteOir.org is to promote the participation of citizens within the field of politics. We believe that this is the best way of
recovering the dignity of the public realm and of ensuring that our
democracy becomes something real and participative throughout the
four years that elapse between general elections.
We believe that society comes before the State, that politics
should essentially be based on a vocation to serve, that those who
govern have the duty to listen to the governed.
Based on a Christian conception of Man and society, we affirm
the dignity of the individual and the importance of values such as
freedom, justice and solidarity. We want to contribute to the building of a more just society, one that favours the integral fulfilment of
individuals.
Our project aims to affirm and promote political participation, the
dignity of the individual and the value of life.
HazteOir.org
www.hazteoir.org
+34-91 554 71 89
[email protected]
142
Help us to reach others by sharing the “Zapatero Project”
If you like this book and wish to share it with others, there are various ways of obtaining further copies.
Enter the following web site and place your orders:
www.proyectozapatero.org
For further information about HazteOir.org, to keep up to date
with the news of greatest importance to you and to take part in the
change required by our society, please visit:
www.hazteoir.org
An excellent analysis of Rodríguez Zapatero’s policies. Over the last few years, HazteOir.org has known how to defend life, freedom and human rights. Ignacio Arsuaga
and Miguel Vidal, for their part, formulate and present a moral argument that helps
us to keep in touch with the meaning of dignity.
JOSÉ MARÍA MARCO, writer
The social engineering project embodied by the Zapatero Agenda is the result of a
deep-running current in European culture that has existed since 1968. It is important
to describe its determining factors and its roots, as this book does. It is also essential
to begin a patient cultural and moral reconstruction process, one that will require our
very best efforts. The power that seeks to attack our society will only come up against
a barrier: free individuals and communities prepared to embark on the adventure of
a testimony packed with reason and human beauty.
JOSÉ LUIS RESTÁN, Editorial Director of the Radio Channel, COPE
We are living at a time that demands two things: society must be aware of its nakedness and must wake up in order recover what is its own, both from the State and
from its inbred politicians. We need voices to protest, to awaken our consciences.
The platform, Hazte Oir, responds to this need. The book that readers have in their
hands, irrespective of any specific ideology, denounces the encroachment of political
power into spheres of society that should be private. Both one and the other, the
platform and the book, are highly positive initiatives in terms of enabling civil society to reclaim what is rightfully its own.
MARIO CONDE, businessman
Arsuaga and Vidal Santos offer us a detailed description of the objectives and
mechanisms of a policy that seeks to end our freedom; they provide the key insights and the impetus to resist and overcome the effects of the policy, based on
the purest civil tradition that recalls the work of the admirable Tea Party in the
United States. This book is essential in terms of both understanding Zapateroism
and facing the challenge of post-Zapateroism.
ÓSCAR ELÍA MAÑU, an analyst at Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos
Only by means of an accurate diagnosis can the mobilisation and renewal process
begin regarding Spanish civil society. This book achieves this with considerable
clarity and rigour.
JAIME URCELAY, President of Profesionales por la Ética
Each generation has its Goliath, which uses its power to destroy all that is good
around it. But some David also tends to appear, managing to defeat what appears
undefeatable with bravery and wit. Today, in Spain, the most powerful Goliath
is the «Zapatero Project» discussed in this book ... and our David, HazteOir.org.
ÁLEX ROSAL, President of Grupo Libres
It is essential to know what we are up against, and this book has the virtue of
being simple, clear and rigorous. Those who say they are just laws designed to
distract our attention from bigger problems understand nothing. The Left has an
agenda for our country, one designed to change our society and to mould our children and our consciences. If we fail to understand this, there will be nothing we
can do. For this reason, this initiative on the part of Hazte Oír is extremely important.
ANTONIO ARCONES, President of Criteria Club de Lectores
An accurate, far-sighted and rigorous book, a reading of which is essential in order
to understand the origins of the cultural transformation that is taking place in
Spain. Only with an analysis such as this is it possible to stand up to and defeat
this sudden attack on the part of death culture. And it can be defeated with the
overabundant virtues of an infinitely more attractive and constructive set of proposals, which are on a par with human dignity, such as the project promoted by
HazteOir.org.
LOLA VELARDE, President of the IPF European Network and
Member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity
A reading of this far-reaching analysis of the social and political project undertaken by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero inevitably leads the free and responsible
citizen to one unavoidable conclusion: it is becoming increasingly important for
us to fully involve ourselves in building a civil barrier against the steamrolling
effects of pseudo-democratic despotism.
GÁDOR JOYA, Spokesman for “Derecho a Vivir”
Zapatero has profoundly changed Spanish culture. The authors of this book dispel
any doubts in this respect.
CRISTINA LÓPEZ SCHLICHTING, journalist at the radio station, COPE.

the zapatero project - Proyecto Zapatero. Crónica de un asalto a la

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