A group of academics from all over Spain has just published a manifesto in support of the Carlos III University professor, Antonio Cabrales, who was forced to resign from his position as director of the Banco de Español by the Popular Party after having promoted his appointment. The economist's resignation came after he revealed that he had supported two manifestos of support for the former Minister of the Generalitat, Clara Ponsatí, and former Minister Andreu Mas-Colell.
In the manifesto, the signatories warn that after his forced resignation the Bank of Spain "is deprived of the support of one of the best economists in this country, and that of the country itself, which is suffering a new successful assault on its necessary social cohesion". For academics, the only ones who gain from Cabrales' departure are those who "maintain a continuous effort to increase an undesirable polarization that, they believe, benefits them."
The consequences of what happened this week are that "it is increasingly difficult to find meeting points, not even contact, among those who do not think alike about many things but must seek coexistence." With regard to public organizations, the signatories think that "our public institutions will find it increasingly difficult to have honest and competent people. Frontline dynamics end up making a minimum of social cohesion impossible."
The signatories conclude that "the social life of this country will have suffered another wound in the battered anatomy of its social cohesion and in the hope of more desirable modes of political action."
Among the promoters and signatories are Guillem López-Casasnovas, former director of the Bank of Spain and professor at UPF; Rosa Urbanos (Complutense University of Madrid); Felix Lobo (Carlos III University); Ignacio Abasolo (University of La Laguna); José‐Jesús Martín Martín (University of Granada); Juan Oliva Moreno (UCLM) or Marisol Rodríguez (University of Barcelona).
The full manifesto is as follows along with its promoters:
