The involvement of intellectuals in Spanish politics

The columnist Manuel Martín Ferrand responds to the publication of a manifesto signed by over 3,500 Spanish intellectuals in which the Popular Party (PP, conservative, opposition) is harshly criticised. "Who, aged over fifty, did not sign one of the documents ... that were circulating during the Franco period ? What is new about the new signatories, the latest fad in matters of manifestos, is to direct these attacks against the opposition and not, according to the tradition of dissent, against power. ... [They] judge that to turn terrorism into the 'axis of the opposition' is inadmissible and, not to mention the fact that terrorism is the axis of government politics, they are attacking the PP, which they do not name, and are urging people to go and vote to support the PSOE [the Spanish socialist party]. ...We can see that something serious is happening in a democracy when the intellectuals don't have a voice or only use it to denounce the 'exaggeration and manipulation' of the main opposition party."

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