The former president of the PP government, José María Aznar, made a call this Tuesday from Mexico City for citizens to act against populisms and in defense of liberal democracies. In a geopolitical speech framed within the change in the world order that has occurred on the planet in recent years with the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the return to power of the US president, Donald Trump, he stated: “This is a moment for responsible citizens. I never tire of saying it in Spain: countries and their destiny are marked by the degree of responsibility of the citizens.”
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Aznar delivered his speech just a few hours after posting a video on social media, in which he asks Spaniards to mobilize following the indictment of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. “In this unsustainable situation in Spain, whoever can, should act,” says the conservative politician via Facebook and Instagram.
Although during his intervention before several hundred Latin American and Spanish businessmen gathered at the IX Ibero-American Congress of CEAPI, the former president avoided explicitly referring to Spain or Zapatero’s judicial situation, his words sounded similar: “If citizens decide not to get involved, if citizens decide to abstain, if citizens decide not to fight or consider it normal that populism sweeps away the liberal democracy system, then liberal democracy will perish.”
Almost three years ago he already delivered a similar message in Spain, which was interpreted as a call for citizens, officials, and judges to pressure against Pedro Sánchez’s coalition government. His speech in Mexico City at the business forum resonated on the same wavelength as then: “If there are responsible citizens who are capable of speaking, who are capable of saying, who are capable of being concerned, of not considering normal what cannot be considered normal, then liberal democracies will resist and freedom will triumph again. And that is what we have to trust in. But that is also what we have to do.”
Aznar is one of the figures of the Business Council Alliance for Ibero-America (CEAPI). The day before he held an exclusive lunch with some businessmen in which he elaborated on geopolitical changes and risks with the growing tension between the United States and China. And he questioned Donald Trump’s policy with the Iran war and the havoc in the Strait of Hormuz.
His intervention, much applauded by businessmen, many of the great Latin American fortunes, lasted barely a quarter of an hour. During that time he emphasized his defense of liberal democracy and his offensive against populisms. At that point, he asked that the rules of Parliament and judicial decisions be respected in a speech in which he seems to want to say more things, but without pronouncing them. “Parliament must be attended to as the sovereign expression of the people. Judges and justice must be understood and respected as fundamental elements of the rule of law. Without law, without respect for the law, without order, there can be no orderly democracy.”
During his intervention, he insisted that he was not referring to any specific country because populisms are advancing on all continents. “The system of alliances around that liberal democracy system today is in grave danger from internal powers that are populisms. It does not matter whether it is a right-wing populism or a left-wing populism. All populisms are the same and have the same defects,” he stated.
The PP is seeing in the rise of Vox, a far-right populist party, that it is conditioning its rise to power in many territories in Spain. But after the stir caused by his video on Facebook and Instagram, he tried to put distance: “What I want to convey to all of you is that, whatever the country, I don’t care, populism is a very serious risk for democracy, for freedoms and democracy.”
The former Spanish ruler described the supposed vices he detects in a populist leader: “A populist ruler is not concerned with a future project for his country, he is concerned with what he has to do to stay in power as long as possible. A populist is not concerned with how rules are respected, but tries every day not to respect them. A populist does not know, does not understand what limits are in the exercise of his political action, his government action, because they break the limits every day. He is not subject to the conventions, rules, or customs typical of liberal democracy.”
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