08/07/2011
Ignacio Astarloa: “The Constitution of 1978 achieved very important successes for Spain. It institutionalised a reliable Rule of Law with solid foundations. It showed, for the very first time in Spanish constitutional history, the faith of society in submitting itself to the Law to regulate coexistence, and it represented the hope of ending the arbitrariness we had so much endured in the past”
“The legal superiority of the Spanish Constitution is not only based on formal instruments, but also on material reasons, as that rule holds the basic agreement of the Spanish people. Whoever risks that essential consensus, risks citizen coexistence”
“Thirty years later we are seeing that the Constitutional building is getting full of cracks and runs the risk of collapsing. Not because it has gotten old, but because in recent years some of the foundations of the Rule of Law comprised in our Magna Carta have been questioned”
“Such an institution as the Constitutional Court has been discredited more than ever before. It is very difficult to explain to citizens how a body whose members are appointed by politicians can refute what has been previously decided by the Supreme Court”
“The normative value of the Constitution has been questioned by accepting that through ordinary legislation (regional charters) the contents of the Constitution can be modified. If we accept that the Constitution can be changed through this means, we will be altering the foundations of the Rule of Law”
“In recent years we have also accepted that the exceptional substitute normality. The law has been replaced by the constant use of the Decree-Law; likewise, by applying article 116 EC regarding states of alert, emergency and siege to a demonstration of air traffic controllers”
“The instrumental use of the law is another of the problems of the last terms of office both with regard to its elaboration as to its application. General and universal laws have been replaced by opportunity laws”
“We are facing a legal issue in Spain: the left has insisted on building a new separation of powers in such a way that whoever wins the legislative also wins the executive and judiciary”
“It has also been sought that judges stop complying with what Montesquieu prescribed: ‘being the mouth that pronounces the words of the law’ in order to become a figure interpreting the laws according to progressive idealism”
“Al this has been coupled with an anti-terrorist policy which has, once again, disregarded any respect for the law. The Political Parties Act that was putting and end to terrorism has been neutralised. As a result, ETA has never enjoyed such a good starting point to impose its conditions”
“Strengthening the Rule of Law entails facing all these problems and confronting the concepts that destroy the Rule of Law devised by the Constitution of 1978”