The decision by Belgium's Constitutional Court declaring unconstitutional that country's law against insulting the monarchy after Spain's attempt, appealing to the crime contained in the current Belgian Penal Code, to extradite the Mallorcan rapper Valtònyc, is the umpteenth knock-back delivered to Spanish justice in Europe. Spain has seen nothing but legal defeats in Europe and when it tries to base its demands on the outdated laws of other countries - the lèse-majesté law against slandering the monarchy dated from the year 1847 - the result for Catalan exile does not change, and what happens is that the laws are adapted to the new times. For Valtònic, a nightmare is over and he now knows that he will definitely not be extradited.
Since he left Mallorca and took the path of exile, almost three and a half years ago following his sentencing by the National Audience in 2017 - ratified by the Supreme Court in 2018 - to three and a half years in prison for slander and serious insults to the former head of state because one of his songs said that Juan Carlos I was a thief, Valtònyc has shared with the Catalan pro-independence exile an important part of his actions to denounce the Spanish state. In fact, he has been present in many of their initiatives and Gonzalo Boye, Carles Puigdemont's lawyer, has also led the musician's defence.
It remains concerning that once again it is shown up that justice begins at the Pyrenees and that on the other side of the mountain range, there is a justice system from which we are absent. That Spanish insularity with regard to understanding what Europe is, its legislation and its democratic values, is so distant that what is considered freedom there ends up being years in prison here. And Spain just won't come out of this historical vicious circle that has always condemned it to be a country in black and white with few democratic values and a need for financial aid to tackle its ongoing wastefulness. When it’s not the financial crisis, it’s the coronavirus crisis. The years of economic prosperity are squandered time and time again on a crony capitalism that is so typical of Madrid while corruption also expands periodically.
The Belgian prime minister, Alexander de Croo, a liberal-leaning Flemish politician, said this week in a lecture at prestigious European studies institute the College of Europe that "the European Union is a union of values, not a cash dispenser. You can't keep the money but reject the values". He said this with reference to all those countries - Poland but also Hungary and Spain - that want to prioritize, some directly and others quietly, their domestic legislation over that of the community. Something that is as Spanish as endeavouring that the effect be achieved without the care taken being noticed* and riding roughshod over the decisions of the European Court of Justice.
The defence of European values is not negotiable for European justice and with the Valtònyc ruling, we all win, because freedom of expression is not for the benefit of one group or another. It's for everyone.
*Translator's note: In 1712, when the Spanish Bourbon king Felipe V began to put in place his campaign to replace Catalan language with Castilian in Catalonia, one of the instructions to those applying the policy was to "take the greatest care when introducing the Castilian language, employing the most temperate and concealed measures so that the effect is achieved, without the care taken being noticed".