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| Chavez and Griñán |
In this week's Camino a Ítaca we look at the pardons that lie around the corner for two prominent Socialist executives who have been charged with serious financial crimes. Click over to read the original version published in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo)
When you open a Monopoly
board in different countries, everything at first seems the same. You’ve got
the different colored boxes that get more expensive as you go around the board.
That is until you look closer and realize that they aren’t the same.
In the American version everyone
lusts after Boardwalk and Park Place, but just across the border in Canada
these become places like Yonge Street and Jasper Avenue. In France it’s the
Champs Elysée and everyone here knows that in the Spanish version that la
Castellana and El Prado.
Even the cards that you
pick up while you play are similar. One that seems to repeat everywhere is the
‘get out of jail free’ card. It’s so popular that in English it’s now a set
phrase you use when you do something wrong but know you have an ace up your
sleeve.
The Americans do it often. They were
doing it long before President Ford did it when he granted a full and
unconditional pardon to Richard Nixon, his predecessor, for any crimes that he
might have committed. Bill Clinton pardoned his own brother for drug charges
and Trump even tried to pardon himself before being shuffled out of office.
But like Monopoly, it’s not a solely
American phenomenon. Most countries have some sort of mechanism like it and usually
present it as a form of clemency, even if it isn’t always used for solely
humanitarian reasons.
The putrid smell of pardons is in the
air once again here in Spain. This time for the 76-year-old ex-president of
Andalusia, José Antonio Gríñan. And like the Americans, it’s his own party that
has the power to give him the much sought after card.
The reasoning has been heard before.
Thanks to the fact that judicial system in Spain makes the movement of glaciers
seem fast, it’s been more than a decade since the process began and who knows
how long since the crimes were committed. Added to this, he wouldn’t be able to
reoffend even if he wanted. Perhaps the only risk he may pose to society is if
he joined the tertuliano circuit.
But we’re not talking about an eye
for an eye or a tooth for a tooth here. It would be impossible for him to repay
the money, even if he wanted to. Because this case of Robin Hood in reverse might
just possibly be the biggest fraud scandal in the history of the European
Union. We’re talking about the man in charge of the arbitrary and fraudulent
use of up to 700 million euros of public funds. That’s a lot of trips to both the
ophthalmologist and dentist.
Even if these factors were
considered, there is one essential condition that is missing: repentance. Both
the Government and the PSOE have been silent about Griñán's guilt, directly
contradicting the Judiciary. This is where the danger lies, their justification
of the pardon has nothing to do with his circumstances, but that they believe
he did nothing wrong.
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