Ramón Tamames Gómez (Madrid, 1933) will next Tuesday lead a motion of censure against the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, sponsored by the Vox party. The economist Tamames, former leader of the Communist Party of Spain, which he left in 1981, appears as an independent, after having served in Esquerra Unida and Adolfo Suárez’s CDS. For years, his main focus of public activity was on radio talk shows (Antena 3 Radio and Cope channel). He is the author, among other works, of the book Estructura económica de España (1960), a reference essay for decades, widely read by university students, with 26 reprints. Ramón Tamames received La Vanguardia last Tuesday at his home in the Chamartin neighborhood of Madrid. The interview was completed on Friday.
Ready to speak to Congress?
Yes, very willing.
Do you have your speech completely prepared?
Yes, and I review it every day. An exhibition of one hour.
A version of his speech [published by elDiario.es last Wednesday] has been leaked. Will the text change?
I prefer not to talk about this matter. Who benefits? I already told him that I check my speech every day.
The party presenting the no-confidence motion spreads a catastrophic view of Spain on a daily basis. Do you share the blackness of your diagnosis?
Spain is a very complex country. A very negative view of Spain? Well, that will have to be said by the people who listen to my speech. Spain is a very complex and at the same time extraordinary country. I would say that we are in a moment of transition. To where? It is not known
Do you consider yourself a Spanish nationalist?
No, no, I don’t consider myself a Spanish nationalist. A nationalist is one who invests when he sees a red cloth. I don’t believe in the nationalism that invests, but I do believe that Spain is an extraordinary country. I have read more Spanish history in recent years than in my entire life.
what have you read
I have read Elvira Roca Barea, for example, demystifying the black legend. [Elvira Roca Barea is the author of the book Imperiofobia y leyenda negra]. They can’t teach us lessons. England deindustrialized India for its own benefit and the admired Churchill caused a wave of terrible hunger in Bengal with three million deaths. And he said: “Let Gandhi feed them.” Spain never did these things.
Is the current Government of Spain illegitimate?
No. It is a government that comes out of a legitimate investiture, with the necessary votes. The problem of the Government is its composition and its program. A composition that gave Pedro Sánchez sleep, as he himself revealed in 2019.
What is your opinion of Pedro Sánchez?
Sánchez proved to have great political courage when he fought to regain the general secretary of the PSOE. He then won a motion of no confidence. I will criticize the work of the Government. I think the Government doesn’t work because it’s Frankenstein. It is a Frankenstein Government. He already predicted this…
…Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.
indeed This is the problem: the composition of the Government.
Can we, guilty?
They have made a lot of noise. And the problem is also the separatists.
You have just reaffirmed these days that Spain is a nation of nations, an idea you already defended during the height of the crisis in Catalonia, in 2017, in an interview with La Vanguardia. Nation of nations was the approach of the PCE in 1977.
I wouldn’t go to civil war because of a semantic issue. From Pi and Margall we talk about nationalities. What is the difference between nationality and nation?
“Where there is nationality there is nation”, said Manuel Fraga during the constitutional debate. The concept of nationality is inscribed in the Constitution.
Nationalities and regions, indeed. This is what article two says.
He does not consider himself a Spanish nationalist, he denies that the current Government is illegitimate contrary to what Vox says, he refuses to describe the country’s situation as catastrophic, he accepts Catalan nationality, he believes that Sánchez is a brave politician and circumscribes the problem of Spain in Podemos…
The problem, as I told him, is Frankenstein. It is one thing to accept nationalities and another to accept the disintegration of Spain. I voted against the right to self-determination in 1977.
How do you fit in with Vox?
Vox has had the courage to trust an independent and I thank him for that. My old friend Fernando Sánchez Dragó put my name on the table and they have had the courage to break the usual molds.
Has Vox asked him to speak less during these days before the censure motion?
No.
Is the assignment to sweeten the image of Vox?
I do not intend to whitewash Vox. What’s more, this expression would seem completely inappropriate to me. I have friends at Vox, and even some relatives.
The mission of the no-confidence motion, if successful, would be to call general elections for May 28. What would be your vote in this early general election?
The vote is secret.
Would you like a Popular Party-Vox coalition government?
I would like a coalition Government of the national parties that defend the Constitution and the Parliamentary Monarchy.
A government of national unity?
I would like, at least, a joint declaration to respect these cardinal points: Constitution and Monarchy. I would like the Basque Nationalist Party to stay on the autonomist path. And I would like Artur Mas, with whom I corresponded a few years ago, to say: “I was wrong”.
What is left of Ramón Tamames of the PCE?
Well, what remains is the critical sense, the taste for work. And the controversy remains. I have always been in controversy.
The political prisoners were the great moral force of the PCE at the table of the transition. How would you explain the step you have just taken to the communist prisoners of the Burgos prison?
They are all dead.
