Sir Winston Churchill is credited with the phrase: “If you don’t want something known, create a commission of inquiry”. If so, it is possible that he was inspired by Napoleon, who declared that “if you want something done, appoint someone in charge, but if you want it postponed forever, create a commission”. In Spain, the Constitution includes commissions of inquiry in article 76, something that had never before been reflected in a Magna Carta of the country, and is considered an instrument of political control. Another thing is that the result is disappointing, since, since they are designed to seek political responsibilities, they end up being used as a public spectacle.
Tomorrow, the investigation commission of the Catalonia operation must hold the first meeting to set the calendar, before proceeding to negotiate the appearances. It does not seem that neither the PSOE nor the PP have a great interest in it, to the point that it had been frozen in Congress for six months, but the news that a court of inquiry in Madrid had opened a criminal case for the first time following the complaint by former Barça president Sandro Rosell, who spent two years in prison before being declared innocent, unblocked the commission.
The Socialists have proposed Ferran Bel (PDECat) to preside over it in a clear nod to moderate Catalanism, but it remains to be seen if the PSOE ends up accepting Mariano Rajoy’s appointment.
Congressional commissions of inquiry, even if they are not binding in the judicial field, have the advantage that the witnesses cannot lie. Although in fascicles, we have been learning about the atrocities committed by those in power to slow down the process, which led to the collapse of banks, companies and the respectability of people. What remains to be determined is who authorized this attack on democracy from the Spanish Government.
The feeling is that the inability to find political solutions to the pulse of independenceists with the State led high officials of the Executive to skip the rules of the game of democracy. And the stain on the dress is still there. Democracy needs this commission to be its Cebralín.
