Tamames asks that "at least" the "overrepresentation" of the independence movement be corrected

At the last minute of his speech, the economist Ramón Tamames, taking for granted that the motion would not progress, asked that "at least" the supposed "overrepresentation" of the pro-independence forces - and the regional or regionalist parties - be ended, which in strict sense, would enjoy the same presumed advantage, as a way of correcting the course of the country.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
21 March 2023 Tuesday 06:24
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Tamames asks that "at least" the "overrepresentation" of the independence movement be corrected

At the last minute of his speech, the economist Ramón Tamames, taking for granted that the motion would not progress, asked that "at least" the supposed "overrepresentation" of the pro-independence forces - and the regional or regionalist parties - be ended, which in strict sense, would enjoy the same presumed advantage, as a way of correcting the course of the country. This is not the case: the Spanish constituency system overrepresents the two large parties, which collect the seats that the less established state parties do not reach, and it is the regional forces that experience the least upward or downward deviation in seats with respect to their percentage of votes over the total of the State.

Tamames showed so much interest in this issue, to which he referred at the beginning and at the end of his speech, that he forgot, in the final stretch, to commit to calling early general elections, which was the supposed purpose of the motion of no confidence.

But it was not the only hoax or the only myth that appeared in his speech. He spoke of "the humiliation and aversion shown to our language, which cannot be spoken in Spain itself", he assured that the war in Ukraine was started by the United States and China will have to end it, given the impotence of the EU, on the who barely spoke. In fact, the European issue to which he devoted the most time was the Spanishness of Gibraltar.

He dedicated a space to demography, claiming an increase in the birth rate at least until reaching the replacement rate of 2.1 children per couple, because the current rates make Spain a "poble decadent", he said, expressly citing the racist demographer José Antonio Vandellós, whose postulates, collected in the book cited by Tamames, Catalunya, un poble decadent, warned of the decline of the Catalan race that would cause the flood of “charnega” migration.

He assured that the Democratic Memory law is not fair to the "atrocities committed by both sides" during the Civil War, harshly criticized the Second Republic and accused its defenders and leaders of "Adamism", he subscribed to the theory that the Asturian revolution of 1934 was the beginning of the Civil War and also the interpretation that the Spanish invasion of America was incomparably more humanitarian than that of the British Empire in its colonies, and ensured that the arrival of Hernán Cortés in Tenochtitlán was the genesis of a mestizo Mexico, "a unique twinning in the history of humanity."

He talked a lot about the economy, recalling his status as a State commerce technician, an occupation that he himself defined – and thus reminded the camera – as “the watchtower of the Spanish economy”. To the surprise of the chamber, he called for an ambitious public industrial policy while disregarding the ability of SMEs to boost the economy and put their future in question. He criticized the current government's public spending figures and a public housing construction policy.

He accused Pedro Sánchez of "buying votes" for having announced an unprecedented increase in student scholarships, and criticized both the labor reform, also echoing the hoax that discontinuous permanent workers are unemployed, and the claim to extend severance pay. , a measure that he described as Francoist.

But above all, he had an impact on the Government's agreements with Catalan and Basque independentists, which in his opinion put the integrity of the nation at risk, and recalled that self-determination was rejected when it was postulated, in 1977, by the deputy of Euskadiko Eskerra Francisco Letamendía in The deputies congress.