Recently, the Minister of Finance Cristobal Montoro has pointed out, in relation to the independence referendum sought by the government of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, the following: civil servants must comply with the law over and above any orders they receive contrary to it.
According to this reasoning, an autonomous police officer should not obey orders from President Puigdemont that were in the direction of promoting or enabling the holding of the referendum.
So far, nothing to object to, except for the sadness of having to reach this point as a result of the inaction and political laziness demonstrated by the various central governments to date, more concerned with the investiture of their president than with stopping a drift towards independence that the honest citizens of Catalonia suffer when it comes to attending their classes, advertising their business or trying to pass a competitive examination.
The defense of the Nation is not a whim. On the contrary, it is the only guarantee of equality of its citizens. Whoever pretends to become a nation apart from the one to which it belongs, is to treat differently those who live in its territory with respect to those who live in the rest of it. Thus, they can impose (as it does not happen in the rest of Spain) in what language the stores are labeled, what history the children learn, and even an alternative reality that is part of the pro-independence ideology (which, like any kind of totalitarianism, incorporates its own mythology).
Having said the above, let us return to the reason for this blog: It would be good if that same respect for the law over and above the orders they receive from their superiors were preached by the Minister with respect to the actions of tax officials throughout Spain. There are numerous tax inspections in which the official acknowledges to the taxpayer that he agrees with his explanations and that he knows that the law or jurisprudence supports them, but that he must obey orders to initiate the act and impose the debt. In these cases, the most common phrase is: “Don’t worry, you’ll win it“…