The president of the Council of State, Carmen Calvo, has rejected this Tuesday in Gijón using the concept of polarization to describe the current situation of the country. In her view, to polarize is simply "to disagree," even to do it "strongly."
"Here the thing is about democracy or fascism," emphasized the former vice president of the Government and former leader of the PSOE, a circumstance she lamented and for which she has asked that words be used "with great precision."
"I believe that what has happened is that fascism has appeared in our lives, which is something else," she pointed out in statements to the media during her institutional visit to the Advisory Council of the Principality of Asturias in Gijón, headed by Pablo Baquero.
The current president of the Council of State has recalled that "I have strongly disagreed throughout my life in the public positions I have held with many people, without ever crossing either the personal, nor the insult, nor the bad manners."
In her opinion, what is observed today in numerous countries is "authoritarianism that returns, neofascism that returns with all its forms," she warned. She insisted that this is not polarization, but a fracture between those who consider themselves democrats, like her, with different projects and ideologies but democratic, "trying to stop fascism," she emphasized.
For this reason, she has considered that when what happens in Spain is labeled as polarization, that reality is being "whitewashed."
"We cannot whitewash those who insult, we cannot whitewash those who get personal, we cannot whitewash those who tell lies and absurdities because that is not to polarize, that is to gradually whitewash fascists and those who believe that authoritarianism is a formula we can accept in the 21st century," she stated, expressing her concern about this drift.
The role of the Council of State in the democratic system
Regarding the Council of State, Calvo has claimed its mission as an advisory body, which she has described as one of those "discreet, but enormously important bodies to sustain the structures of our legal and political system."
She has also explained that she set as a goal, upon assuming the presidency, to visit all territories and hold meetings with the regional advisory councils, "the result of our Constitution and, the result of our brilliant Democracy," she highlighted. She only has the Canary Islands and the Basque Country left to visit.
The president has defended that equality among Spaniards is the essential value that must be preserved. "We are diverse and that diversity is good for the history of our country and is also good for this future that we all have to move forward," she has stated.
She has emphasized that "no one celebrates 500 years in any place in the world with an institution as important as the Council of State," which she has described as the oldest in the world in its field, capable of crossing different political regimes and reigns.
In this line, she has announced that next November all the Councils of State from Europe and other continents will come to Spain "to somehow share with us a history that is truly a brilliant history of the overall history of Spain." "The consultative function is as important to human life as it is to political and institutional life," she has defended.
She has pointed out, however, that this body does not replace governments, but rather limits itself to guiding them so that they make their decisions in accordance with the rule of law and the Constitution.
"That an institution has remained for 500 years is to be admired," she has reiterated, emphasizing the honor it represents for her to hold the presidency in this 500th anniversary.
Regarding the Advisory Council of the Principality of Asturias, she has highlighted that it has 21 years of history and its own path in which it issues opinions and advises on the legislative development of the regional executives.
Among the common issues faced by these bodies, she has mentioned the state liability, which refers to the situations in which the functioning of public powers violates the rights of citizens.
"And citizens have the right to complain and to seek restitution for what has been violated through economic compensation," she has explained in relation to the competencies of both the Asturian Advisory Council and the Council of State.
She has also commented that, as she has discussed with Baquero in their meeting, these bodies inform and advise on draft laws, but not on the regulations that arise directly from the Chambers when they choose to legislate through initiatives from the sovereign Parliament, "where the Asturian ballots and the Spanish ballots are."
"There the consultatives should not enter and this is an idea that both of us share and that perhaps others do not share," he specified. "We think that the sovereign people can only be stopped after the polls by the high courts," he added. "To the Government yes, to the Parliament no, because the Parliament is the heart that pumps the blood of Democracy," he opined.
He also emphasized that the Executive cannot legislate "never" alone, but only with the support of the Chamber. He detailed that the Government can only approve legal norms when the Parliament endorses them; otherwise, they lapse. "Without the Chamber, no Spanish government can legislate, absolutely none, neither this one nor any other," he insisted.
Regarding the royal decrees, he recalled that they must be validated and, if they are not, they become ineffective. "They can then be processed as laws, but they are legal norms," he clarified, before emphasizing that stating that the Government legislates alone "besides not being true, is serious," he stressed.
The Grandchildren's Law and the role of the courts
When asked about the Grandchildren's Law, he specified that the Council of State has not had to pronounce on it, and he recalled that the norm is currently pending a final pronouncement from the Constitutional Court.
In this context, he pointed out that, for jurists like her, the decision has been made that the prior route must be exhausted, so the Supreme Court still has a final resolution to issue on this matter.
He added that, in case the Council of State had to intervene, the counselors and lawyers of the body could not comment on the ongoing files until they were public, as their functioning dictates.