It has emerged that Spanish judges exchanged highly-charged email messages on the Catalan independence movement, expressing hatred and antagonism towards supporters of independence, in the weeks before and after the referendum on October 1st last year. Labels such as "coup leaders" and comparisons to Nazism were used in reference to the Catalan leaders who promoted the self-determination referendum. The contents of the emails, which were shared in an internal forum within the Spanish judiciary, have been revealed by digital diaries ElDiario.es and ElMon.cat.
The forum to which the emails were sent led to chains of emails being formed, and these were then received by hundreds of judges all over the Spanish state. Anyone with a corporate email account was able to take part in the conversation.
Translation of video commentary:
Among the stronger messages, there is one that says "With the coup plotters, there can be no negotiation and no dialogue"; a second compares the situation in Catalonia with "Germany in the 1930s"; a third says that "the seditious Catalans have to go to prison just like Tejero [an armed leader of the attempted military coup of 1981]. And in a fourth message, a judge says his/her family decided to leave Catalonia so that the "virus of hatred" did not "infect" their son.
Another judge affirms, in a message from before 20th September 2017, that "a very serious situation could develop due to the extremist character of those who are taking power in Catalonia, since there are no moderates. The same as took place in Germany in far-off times".
A coup d'état with winners and losers
However, it is after the referendum on 1st October that the tone of the messages in the judicial forum rises. "The coup d'état will be ended with winners and losers, or it will not be ended", says a judge on 6th October. "The lesson that must be taught to the coup leaders and those that raise the coup flags is that freedom will be defended and those who take action will pay for it, I insist, essentially by economic means. Between the King (long live the King!) and [banks] la Caixa and Banco de Sabadell, we have got them on the ropes. Today [pro-independence campaigner] Pilar Rahola is calling for moderation", adds this judge in a long message, not devoid of ironic comments: "The coup plotters are saying: What will they do, send the Spanish Legion? Well, what do they expect, that a column of titled masseurs will arrive?"
"Long live the National Police force, long live the Civil Guard, long live Spain and long live those colleagues who are really looking after judicial order", says another judge, in this case responding to judge Federico Vidal, who had referred to the police on 1st October as "uniformed terrorists".
Sedition and rebellion —the crime which Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena has finally made the main charge against most of the pro-independence leaders — are already discussed , curiously, in another message from a judge who identifies himself as "Spanish, Catalan and a judge". According to this member of the judiciary, "what took place on 6th September [passing of laws on referendum in Catalan parliament] and 1st October was a coup d'état". "A clear crime of sedition on 6th September and close to rebellion on 1st October", he adds. "With coup leaders, whether they are called Tejero or any other current ones (you know who they are), there can be no entry into dialogue. [...] With coup leaders you can't negotiate, and you can't dialogue", concludes the judge.
In favour of article 155
“I have always been in favour of a 155 [constitutional article imposing direct rule from Madrid]” because we “do not know the intentions of certain criminals who support the extremists who are taking power”, another judge affirms, arguing that the “extremists” want “violence” and that “a great tumult is being organized in order for it to be shown on television abroad", another example of the assumptions made about the actions of the pro-independence leaders and parties.
Catalonia's exiled president, Carles Puigdemont - the leader of the Catalan government which held the referendum - responded on his Twitter account with a question: "Excuse me, but this is so serious that if no action is taken in response, the Spanish justice system under the monarchy will begin to sink once and for all. In whose hands is this structure, one of the pillars of every democratic system?"
Perdoneu, però això és tan greu que si no hi ha conseqüències, el sistema judicial espanyol de la monarquia farà aigües definitivament. En mans de qui està un dels pilars de tot sistema democràtic? https://t.co/h6Duy2qG0B
— Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) September 19, 2018