Spanish General justifies military intervention in Catalonia:“Fatherland Worth More Than Democracy”

 

According to the El País newspaper, Spanish army General Juan-Antonio Chicharro said on February 6 at a conference in Madrid, Spain that he considers that “the Fatherland is prior to and more important than democracy” and that “there is a generalised feeling of concern, fear, uncertainty and confusion” among the military due to “the current separatist-secessionist offensive” in Catalonia.

 

El País reports that General Chicharro, commanding the Marine Infantry until December 2010, made these statements speaking at an event in Madrid last February 6 before an audience of about one hundred. As well as the General, the speakers at the round-table, the title of which was “The Armed Forces and Constitutional Order”, were the President of the Military Section of the Spanish High Court, Ángel Calderón, and the Rector of the King Juan Carlos University, Pedro González-Trevijano, and was chaired by the magistrate and director of the Military Law Journal, José-Antonio Fernández Rodera.

 

The newspaper reports that according to witnesses at the event, Gen. Chicharro stated that “in normal circumstances, I would have declined to take part” but that the “current separatist-secessionist offensive” obliged him to “speak out”. “Patriotism is a sentiment and the Constitution is no more than a law”, he said. Even more surprising was the audience's reaction, which cheered the General shouting “Bravo! Bravo!”

 

The officer made a personal interpretation of the Constitution and implied that, given a situation that might jeopardise “the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation”, the military would have to act, even if not required to do so by the government: “One thing is precept, and another is practice”. The event evolved normally until General Chicharro, who till three years ago had commanded a corps of over 4,000 men, intervened making it clear that that his address had not been improvised. Indeed, he even dared to go so far as offer his own version of the Constitution, saying that “Article 8.1 does not imply autonomy of the Armed Forces” alluding to the mandate “to defend the territorial integrity and Constitutional order”. Gen. Chicharro asked of the Constitutional Tribunal and the government the defence of the Constitution, as according to him, Article 97 of the Constitution attributes them with “the civilian and military administration”.

 

The only military officer at the event spoke in the conditional and suggested questions in reply. Later however, he framed a theory to justify a coup. The problem would arise, he said, "if those responsible for the defence of the Constitution do not do their duty as required." This led him to wonder "what the regulatory status of the preliminary title of the Constitution is." He did not say, but hinted: Article 8.1 makes up part of the core of the Constitution, which is not the case of Article 97, which determines the subordination of the armed forces to the government, by which its imperative force would be inferior.

 

The General went on with his hypotheses, imagining what would happen if the governing Popular Party were to lose its absolute majority in the next elections and the nationalists demanded, in return for their support, the amendment of Article 2 of the Constitution which enshrines the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation. “What should the armed forces do then?” The only authority which seemed able to stand his constitutional revisionism was the figure of the King, converted, as in the attempted coup d'etat of 23 of February, 1981, effectively taking command of the army.

 

When it came to opening the floor, most questions went further still than the General. “The alternative to the Constitution is collective suicide” warned Professor González-Trevijano.

General Chicharro is in the reserve, but has not yet retired.