‘26 million sons of bitches’

Standing navies, as well as standing armies, serve to keep alive the spirit of war even in the meek heart of peace. In its very embers and smoulderings, they nourish that fatal fire, and half-pay officers, as the priests of Mars, yet guard the temple, though no god be there.

—

Herman Melville 1819-1891

Perhaps a ‘nobody’ – a person who doesn’t run a company or have a high position or is not a teacher, a priest or an ‘influencer’ – can get away with making outrageous claims in public or on the Social Media, but can a retired Air force brigadier?

On the one side, we have two open letters sent to King Felipe VI by a number of senior retired members of the military (112 of them in all) complaining about the ‘social-communist’ government and the threat to national unity, on the other, there’s the WhatsApp chat of their circle which includes some over-the-top suggestions, like ‘executing 26 million Spaniards’ (i.e., those who support the current Government).

‘Spain’s Defence Minister, Margarita Robles, has sent prosecutors at the Madrid regional High Court information about the chat group that supports military uprisings and mass executions’. El País in English has the story here. No doubt it’s all just a jocular and high-spirited discussion without any evil intent. The problem being that the subscribers are all senior military, retired perhaps, but certainly influencers.

While this might be a storm in a tea-cup, it has certainly attracted a lot of interest from the media.

The Guardian, commenting on Sunday’s Constitution Day celebrations, leads with ‘Spain marks 42 years since return of democracy as retired officers dissent’. The subheading says ‘…Some former armed forces members rue the demise of Franco dictatorship’.

Again, influencers, by their very nature, influence (especially those who naturally tend towards this kind of talk).

InfoLibre broke the WhatsApp story last week. Quotes from their article include the comment from an air-force general ‘There's no alternative but to start shooting these 26 million sons of bitches’ and another says ‘I woke up this morning totally convinced. I don't want these scoundrels to lose an election. No. I want them all and their descendents to die. That is what I want. Is it too much to ask?’ and another ‘Just give me the order… and that’s what I want to say to the king’ then there’s an audio from Santiago Abascal: ‘They tell me that it is mandatory to greet this group. A hug to all and Long live Spain!’.

How about this: ‘I prefer the Republic because we would have more opportunities to repeat the manoeuvres of 1936’?

The RTVE, leading with ‘The retired servicemen had called to "join forces with Abascal" against that "son of a bitch with pigtails" (Pablo Iglesias) and "that Sánchez bastard", has a video and more clips from the conversation here.

LaSer has a copy of a manifesto signed by 400 retired senior servicemen which begins ‘Declaration of Retired Military Figures Facing the Current Situation in Spain’.

This is what happens when you move General Franco’s remains from the Valle de los Caídos (Wiki).   

The first letter to the king – who hasn’t either answered or apparently reacted to date – warns of the annihilation of democracy (we must thank Okdiario for this) with the explanation that ‘The latest government attacks on the pillars of Spanish democracy have mobilized a large group of soldiers in the reserve…’.

Something called Brave New Europe has an article called: ‘Proud Fascists of the Spanish Army’s Officers Corp’. As one might expect from the headline, it pulls no punches.

El Español on the other hand, considers the events as ‘sabre rattling’ and without more importance (while introducing the general reader to two of the ringleaders). We read that ‘The Defence Minister Margarita Robles indicated this Friday that the members of these groups "are not active in the military, [but] they want to sow hatred and endanger the monarchy."’. The Spanish Chief of Staff (JEMAD), General Miguel Ángel Villarroya, also spoke on Friday, saying "the opinions of these people cannot be considered representative of the military community".

A radio editorial from Àngels Barceló (LaSer) says that ‘They are not military nostalgics, they are supporters of the extreme right. There’s no joking with this. Neither with flirting with executions, bombings or military coups nor with encouraging these calls or identifying these soldiers as “our people”, as a Vox politician did’.

‘Pablo Casado: "The function of the king is a function of absolute impartiality as a symbol of the State and in the case of Don Felipe that impartiality has been absolutely scrupulous", says the leader of the PP’ here.

(El País in English again): ‘…Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias has played down the relevance of the statements. “What a few retired gentlemen might say in a chat group after too many drinks does not pose any kind of threat”, he said in a TV interview, adding that the letters put Felipe VI in “an absurdly uncomfortable situation” and that he will surely not even bother to read them’.

 

Then, on Sunday, a third letter attacking the Government arrived at the Zarzuela Palace, this time sent by reservists from Mallorca…