BY LLUIS DE YZAGUIRRE I MAURA
In the last few weeks, academics from all over the world have expressed their deep concern about the decision by the Spanish judiciary to prosecute two political science scholars and two law scholars based at three different universities in Barcelona. To draw attention to this fact they have published a letter of support in media outlets like the Guardian (UK) and Eldiario.es (Spain).
The four academics, (Jordi Matas, Tània Verge, Marc Marsal and Josep Pagès) along with a lawyer (Marta Alsina) were appointed members of the electoral commission in September 2017 by the parliament of Catalonia to monitor the 1 October 2017 referendum. Even though the Spanish constitutional court forced them to resign through fines of €12,000 per person for each day that they remained in their position, the Spanish judiciary has charged the electoral monitors with the offences of “disobedience” and “usurpation of functions” and they are facing the very real possibility of up to two years and nine months in prison.
It is probably the first time in the history of the EU that political scientists and lawyers are being threatened with a prison sentence for using their expertise to guarantee that a referendum is held in a fair and impartial way. In doing so, they acted at the request of the parliament of Catalonia, which had a valid legal mandate at the time.
While we do not take a position on the question of Catalonia’s independence in this letter, we are indignant over the prosecution of our colleagues and demand the immediate removal of the threat of a prison sentence and the dropping of all criminal charges against them.
As of December 7, over 400 professors of political science, law, and other disciplines from all around the world had signed on to the letter in the Guardian. As of that same date, over 700 professors of political science, law, and other disciplines based in Spain and Catalonia had signed on to the letter in Eldiario.es.
Additionally, the largest political science associations have issued public statements denouncing such prosecution, framing it as a violation of academic freedom.
On November 26, the UK Political Studies Association not only adhered collectively to the letter of support but also included this case in its recently published statement “Speaking out for academic freedom.”
While we do not seek to take a position on Catalonia’s independence in this letter, we firmly condemn the illegality of imprisoning someone because of her or his political beliefs.
On November 30, the American Political Science Association showed its support through a letter addressed to the Spanish Prime Minister.
Levying criminal charges against impartial election observers severely undermines the Spanish government’s commitment to democratic processes and the rule of law as well as free expression. It also violates the freedom of political scientists and all scholars to meaningfully engage with the institutions, processes, and people they study. We strongly urge the Spanish government to end the intimidation of these scholars and to drop the charges immediately.
On December 4, the Canadian Political Science Association published an open letter about the Spanish government’s decision to prosecute the scholars.
Généralement, les pays démocratiques prennent des mesures pour veiller à ce que les élections et les référendums se déroulent de manière équitable. (…) Pourtant, le gouvernement espagnol menace d’intenter des poursuites contre des universitaires dans son propre pays pour des délits allégués de « désobéissance » et d’« usurpation de fonctions » en lien avec le rôle important d’observateurs électoraux qu’ils ont joué en acceptant leur nomination à la Commission électorale. En portant des accusations criminelles contre des observateurs électoraux impartiaux, votre gouvernement sape l’engagement de l’Espagne en faveur des processus démocratiques, de la primauté du droit et de la liberté d’expression.
On December 8, the Société québécoise de science politique published an open letter of to the Spanish government.
The Québec Society of Political Science wishes to express its gravest concerns about this manifest infringement on the values and principles that are at the heart of liberal democracy. In effect, the charges of “disobedience” and “usurpation of functions” against Professor Jordi Matas (Universitat de Barcelona); Associate Professor Tània Verge (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelone); and the jurists Marc Marsal (Universitat de Barcelona) and Josep Pagès (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) run contrary to freedom of expression and the rule of law, which a fortiori undermines academic freedom.
Lluís de Yzaguirre i Maura is the director of the Linguistic Technologies Lab at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and the president of the university’s “Junta de Personal Docent i Investigador,” a governance body similar to a faculty senate.
An important story in the news cycle generally unreported. Having lived and studied in Barcelona when I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago (we used to have a campus there before it was relocated to London), this heavy hand from government is not terribly surprising given Spain’s rather unstable political culture. But this shouldn’t be seen as necessarily unique of course to Iberia. For example UK universities have effectively been deputized by Parliament and the MI institutions, to report “subversive” academic behavior or such reputed campus behavior. In the US, the DOD has issued a several hundred page memorandum threatening prosecution of “non combative belligerents” which can include university researchers in reputed war zones which the US has effectively reserved the right to identify, in an ex post facto assertion. Israel asserts the same threat. In Canada university ideology is explicitly monitored in various media and in civil law enforcement, drones are now equipped with chemical aerosol agents for use in apprehending or in crowd control including on campus. Spain was a powerful empire from the 15th to 19th century but now merely captured, like France and others, by political special interests not necessarily indigenous. Regards.