This time it was against the policy of the socialist government and in Salamanca. More precisely, it was against Government decission to divide the Civil War National Archive and move some documents to Catalonia (those which had they origin in Catalonia itself).

Again, all sources say there were 100,000 persons, and the Governmnet 20,000 (they say that the demonstration was a failure and an insult).

The thing is that this government is making grave concessions to their catalonian comunist-separatist partners of ERC, concessions that should not be made.

Fernando

Fernando, what is this all about? I have been reading now for months small snippets of this decision, but could not really get a good grasp on the ramifications of this decision.

This is an issue I'm not very informed, so I don't have a good in depth knowledge.

There is a national repository of information in Salamanca called Archivo Nacional de la Guerra Civil which is the main archive of documents about the Spanish Civil War.

Those documents were compiled just after the Civil War, thus, during Franco's Dictatorship.

Catalonian nationalists argue that the documents which had their origin in Catalonia should be returned to "their true owners" (creating an archive of that documents in Barcelona and thus dividing the repository).

Those are the facts. Now the politics.
Ten years ago the socialist government studied the issue as a way of having the support of CiU (catalonian moderate nationalists, if there has even been such a nationalist :p ). Experts (from both parts, central government and catalonian government) concluded that the archive should not be divided due to technical reasons (you may now, as a librarian, that repositories must be placed in only one place) to easy documentalists and historians their studies. Point.

Now ZP is in minority in the Parlament, and needs the support (mainly) of communists and ERC. ERC is the most radical extreme-left nationalist catalonian party, and seeks openly independence from Spain. In any other country this would be a paradox (a government supported by a party that seeks the destruction of the country). Not in Spain. Not for ZP.

Therefore, with a coalition of socialists + communists + catalonian separatists both in the government of catalonian autonomy and the central government, the issue has been rised again. And this time ZP has dialogued by imposing the division of the archive and moving a part to Barcelona. Salamanca citizens see this as an offense (since the archive is one of its main cultural values) and are protesting its movement.

Of course PP has taken advantage of this and has supported Salamanca authorities against the Government.

It seems that the "ultra-tolerant" Zapatero and his political partners are not very happy to have had 100,000 persons in the demonstration:

Josep Lluis Carod-Rovira (ERC leader): "I will court PP for the insults in the demonstration to silence fascists. The franquist right of fascist culture uses menaces while we uses ideas and votes." Remember that ERC was the political wing of Terra Lliure, a terrorist band akind to ETA in Catalonia, and was the political party which supported at least two coup d'etats in 1932 and 1934 against the Republic with its armed militias.

Joan Puigcercós (ERC leader): "It is better for PP to organize demonstrations than organizing coup d'etats like they have done until now"

Carmen Calvo (PSOE Culture Minister): "We must not forget that there was a coup d'etat against the democratic Spain of the republican constitution...PP leaders don't understand Spain."

This is the kind of arguing of our governors. The thing is: who cares about an archive?

The problem is that the socialist government will give anything to ERC in exchange of its support, no matter how detrimental it is for Spain's interests.

Fernando

I have to hand it to you Fernando. That's a perfect summary of the situation. I couldn't add a thing Booklady...except for maybe that this Carod-Rovira character is also the guy who on an official visit to Israel last month allowed himself to be photographed while posing with a crown of thorns above his head. He was laughing because he obviously thought it was funny.

What was even "funnier" was who do you think was taking the picture? The President of Catalonia himself! Maragall, no less. Can you imagine what would happen to an American politician if they pulled something like that?

Carod-Rovira also secretly arranged for ETA to stop killing..in Catalonia only.

I'm getting away from the issue here, but I understand Fernando's frustration when you see that these people are having an enormous influence on Spanish politics. The checks and balances of the Spanish system seem to be failing when it comes to radical nationalism.

Thank you so much, Fernando, for your very thorough explication.

All too often politicians meddle in areas that they should not! This is too common in libraries, archives and museums.

You are right dividing an archive is not a good idea since it de-stabilizes the integrity of the information. And worse, it makes it difficult for the scholar to perform research; instead of visiting one location they now would have to go to Salamanca and Barcelona to access this information.

Archives and special collections are meant to collect and preserve for posterity materials so that scholars can access the information therein.

Now, if Sr. Rodriguez Zapatero and his government really cared about dissemination of information we are fortunate to be living in times when such documents can be converted into digital formats and made accessible via the Internet.

Universities all over the world are undertaking this task so that knowledge will be accessible regarless of place. There are many European universities that are blessing the world with such projects.

But politicians must meddle for their own private agenda regardless of party affiliation...

Apparently at the demonstration there were signs threatening the life of Carod-Rovira.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo.html?d_da...nchor=elpporesp

I can't stand it when that happens because no matter how much you may disagree with the man, we should all rise above violence. These are the same people who surely are against ETA because of its means of going about business. If you're against ETA's violence, you should be against all violence.

Still, most people at the demonstration obviously would not have supported that point of view, but what makes it worse is that Esquerra Republicana has taken advantage of the signs politically and is denouncing them as proof that the demonstrators are xenophobic thugs.

I agree that the actions were vile, but I would also like to point out that this is the same party which felt it was all right for ETA to kill in the rest of Spain as long as it stopped doing so in Catalonia. The party is also highly in favor of dialogue with ETA and Batasuna, neither of which has once shown any remorse for the hundreds of deaths over the decades. My question is: why doesn't Carod-Rovira find thes acts equally atrocious?

I thought that it wasn't just the nationalists but all the parties in Catalonia (including the PP of Catalonia) who requested the documents be returned (at least this is what I saw in El Mundo a few weeks ago). I agree that Carod is a clown, but this time I don't think he's the only one who's behind this because the Catalonian politicians have been asking for these documents for the past 30 years. I also understand the concerns about dividing an archive, but at least they're going to leave copies of the documents in Salamanca, so that anyone who is doing research there will still have access to the information.

That's a good point Meg, and to be honest I don't think it is that unreasonable to ask that they be returned to Catalonia either.

One just gets the feeling the Zapatero government has given in on a lot of issues just to get the support of the Catalans, and you have to ask is Spain going to pay to heavy a price.

Like Booklady I've read bits and pieces about this and not had a clue - Thank you guys. once again, for sharing your knowledge and educating me!

A very short article in today's English Edition of El País (to further illustrate the discrepancy among media outlets regarding those attending demonstrations) states: