Tuesday, December 12, 2017

CATALONIA: Art repatriated, Puigdemont loses his marbles, by JD

News from Spain includes a story about the removal of art works from a museum in Lerida and returning them to Huesca in Aragon.* 

Background of the story is towards the end of this Wiki entry- 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_Santa_Mar%C3%ADa_de_Sigena 

Of course Puigdemont is 'outraged' and this was his tweet yesterday- 

Carles Puigdemont@KRLS
Amb nocturnitat i utilitzant una policia militaritzada, com sempre, tot aprofitant un cop d'estat per espoliar Catalunya amb absoluta impunitat. Aquest és el model de país que defensen Ciudadanos, PSC i PP. 

https://twitter.com/rac1/status/940091511940644864 
As you can see he is still accusing the Government of a "coup d'etat" against Catalonia. I recall very well a genuine attempt at a "coup d'etat" on 23rd February 1981 which was ended by King Juan Carlos when he appeared on TV, dressed in his army uniform, and ordered the rebels to surrender. This was just four years after the Atocha Massacre and with the end of that 1981 coup attempt the ghost of Franco was well and truly exorcised from Spanish life.

Puigdemont's constant hyperbole diminishes his case and he is too stupid to see it.

I mentioned Puigdemont's name last night in a phone call to a friend in Spain; it is now a name which produces a furious reaction, a mixture of scorn and contempt; not least because he is still hiding in Brussels frightened to come back despite the fact that his Euro Arrest warrant has now been withdrawn. 
_______________________________________________________________

*Following a court order a month ago: 
http://www.catalannews.com/culture/item/aragon-judge-orders-return-of-disputed-artworks-from-catalan-museum

- but JD has these observations to make about this link to Catalan News:

The link you added is from Catalan News and is not exactly impartial. The court first ordered the return of the artefacts in 2015 and again in 2016. The suggestion that the Monastery was 'sacked' by Anarchists is disingenuous because they were fighting on the Republican side. The wholesale slaughter of priests and nuns by the Republicans is well documented.

http://www.academia.edu/4065314/Religious_Persecution_Anticlerical_Tradition_and_Revolution_On_Atrocities_against_the_Clergy_during_the_Spanish_Civil_War

And then there were the 'checas' which were basically Soviet run torture chambers. There is very little information on this in English but this is the background to it -

In Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, the detention and torture centers operated by the Communists were named "checas" after the Soviet organization.[42] Alfonso Laurencic was their promoter, ideologist and builder.[43]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheka

I am not defending or endorsing Franco. He was the lesser of two evils in that conflict. As I have mentioned previously, I visited the abandoned village of Belchite while I was working in Zaragoza. It is a reminder of the stupidity of both sides but, unfortunately, there remain too many stupid politicians who wallow in the false glory of past conflicts and wish to renew them.

"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori."

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