Juan Carlos Girauta has been dedicated, above all, and for a long time, to the “cultural war”. The former Ciudadanos deputy fights with total serenity and firmness the drift of the current left from the pages of ABC and at the head of the association Foot on Wall, which he founded in December of last year. A few hours before the demonstration called in Madrid by the DENAES Foundation and twenty other associations, chat with THE GAZETTE about his reasons for being present in Madrid’s Plaza de Colón this Sunday.
When in December 2022 did you found Foot on Wall, could you imagine how the situation in Spain could get worse in less than a year? Why will the association be in Colón on Sunday?
We cannot remain as if nothing is happening when A self-coup is taking place in Spain. The thing is that if the amnesty were really granted, if it were approved, constitutional democracy, the democratic rule of law, that of ’78 would be destroyed. So, faced with something like this, it is evident that there are priorities and the priority at this moment is to convey to the that they are playing with fire in this reckless way, that they think, that they think twice and three times what they want to do. An amnesty, for example. Amnesties occur in situations of regime change. That’s why ’77 happened.
How do you explain to citizens that an amnesty is not possible now?
At that time, the Constitution had not yet been approved and it was about breaking with an entire historical era. By breaking with that historical era, the amnesty, in some way was saying that all that legality under which the sentences that were imposed were illegitimate. However, In democracy, legality and legitimacy always go hand in hand. In democracy what is legal is legitimate.
What happens when a very important part of the population is convinced that everything that has enough votes in Congress is democratic? As it happens now.
When what is legal is so flagrantly illegitimate, as well as illegal, because there is a normative hierarchy and at the top is the Constitution, legality and legitimacy stop going together and then something occurs that has unforeseeable consequences. This measure means absolutely denying that speech and considering that that [el golpe de estado del 1-O] that’s what was good and that what was wrong is what the Legislative Branch did by approving 155 in the Senate, the Judicial Branch by applying the laws, by instructing and by judging and by condemning, and that the Executive Branch was also wrong and what it did was illegitimate, following 155 and executing the decisions.
What if the amnesty is approved despite everything?
The three powers of the State, plus the Crown, are delegitimized by the amnesty. This is a dictatorship. If it arrives it is a dictatorship. So here we have to get very serious, because the Spanish Constitution is what guarantees our rights and freedoms. It recognizes and guarantees them, it does not grant them: it recognizes them. That means that we, as individuals, will continue to be free. And that must be kept in mind. If the State becomes an authoritarian State, the nation, that we are the Spanish and that we have sovereignty because we are the Spanish people, we are the subject of sovereigntywe will have to act as a nation and that can take any form. Until legitimacy and legality coincide again.
What can we expect after the Columbus demonstration?
Well, first we are going to go out this Sunday. I hope that our voice is heard very loudly and that there are many of us. We are going to continue going out into the streets. We will warn by all possible means of the danger that this amnesty poses for us. That is, of the condemnation, of It will be the end of the democratic State of Law of the ’78 regime and that the rules will have been broken.
You always talk about “cultural war” instead of cultural battle. With Sánchez, is it necessary to use some more forceful term?
Me Neither Sánchez nor any other guy is going to curtail my freedoms. No. I just don’t admit it. What will that entail? We’ll see. Let’s let phases pass. To begin with, maybe civil disobedience, for example, right? And if civil disobedience passes without effect, then perhaps some powers and officials will have to be called upon to ensure that they do not obey unjust laws.
What should be the attitude of all the people who do not participate in the self-coup? Because it seems that there is a certain fear in part of the center-right of a new photo of Columbus.
For now, at this stage what What we have to do is warn people that Sánchez is about to throw us all into the abyss. The PP made its act against Amnesty and decided to present it as a party act. Well, this is an act of civil society associations.
Do you think that a part of the Popular Party voters would like to see their leaders at the demonstration? I am referring, for example, to Feijóo, to faces beyond Esperanza Aguirre or Jaime Mayor Oreja.
If they [el PP] They believe that those who oppose the coup d’état, which are only the PP and VOX, can indulge in the little games of “oh, if you call it, I won’t go.” They will be putting the cherry on top of the disaster. And I say this for the PP, because VOX has attended the events that others have called.
