We have entered the final stages of this election process as we near our impending rendezvous with the polling booths on March 9. It is evident that general elections are always important because they decide who will be at the helm of Spain’s common project for the next four years. However, I am under the impression that these elections are of particular importance because there is more at stake this time: our Constitutional Model’s own survival, the victory of freedom over terror, and our families’ prosperity.

 

Rodríguez Zapatero has tried – through his pact with radical Nationalism and historical revisionism – to demolish the pillars on which our democratic Transition rested: unity, solidarity and harmony among all Spaniards. The Law of Historical Memory promoted by this administration meant the end of the harmony pact that all Spaniards had agreed upon; to look ahead thinking of the future and to avoid a return to a past full of confrontation and revenge. The Catalonian Statute’s Reform, pushed by Zapatero, resulted in a concealed reform of our Constitution, transforming the State of Autonomies – as agreed upon in 1978 – in a confederal state that can ultimately lead only to the liquidation of the nation.  

 

In contrast to this Socialist proposal of reviewing the basic consensus sustaining our democracy, nation, and state, Mariano Rajoy presents a proposal to recover the Transition spirit. He seeks to reaffirm the principles of freedom, harmony and solidarity among all Spaniards – something that made possible three decades of peace and prosperity unknown in our history. A consensus forged around the idea of a great nation made up of free and equal citizens, willing to play a more relevant role in the world, and with a will to look to the future, breaking away from the darkest pages of our history.

 

The second crucial issue at stake next March is the definitive triumph of freedom over terror. Throughout this already finished legislative term, Zapatero has negotiated with the terrorists, accepted his accomplices as indispensable political partners, and morally rehabilitated the assassins by considering them men of peace. Furthermore, he has allowed the return of these criminals to our democratic institutions, and has given into their blackmail as in the De Juana Chaos’s case.

 

But worst of all, although his policy was a failure, Zapatero regrets nothing. He refused until recently to ban the terrorists’ whitewashed brands, to expel them from our democratic institutions and to end the negotiation avenue. On the other side of the issue is Mariano Rajoy, proposing to all Spaniards the utter defeat of terrorism using the resources of the Law, as well as the complete political and social isolation of these assassins. This follows suit with the policies the Popular Party had previously employed during its years in power, which inexorably lead to terrorism’s ultimate defeat.

 

In the end, our prosperity and our welfare are at stake. Zapatero’s inability to carry out the necessary economic reforms and his tendency to use taxpayers’ money on his partisan interests has taken our economy to an incipient crisis. A crisis in which heavily indebted families are being hit hardest. It is unlikely that he could remove us from this crisis when he refuses to acknowledge its existence. Therefore, voters will have to choose between the policies of tax cuts, and increasing competition proposed by Rajoy, or the policy of doing nothing sponsored by Zapatero. Spaniards will have to choose between the economic success reached by the Popular Party’s former administrations, or the crisis that the present Socialist government is headed for.

 

It is important to understand what is at stake in the Spanish general elections next March. It means more than just choosing between two teams, and seeing who is more able to manage the country. We are talking about two alternative models of society, state and economy. On March 9, Spain must decide if it wants to continue on the road to freedom and progress – started thirty years ago now with our transition to democracy. Alternatively, if Spain decides to continue betting for an aimless change as Zapatero proposes. Spaniards will have to choose between looking to the future and going back to the past; between victory and giving in to terror; between prosperity and unemployment. I have few doubts about what Spaniards will ultimately choose.

 

©2008 Translated by Miryam Lindberg