Flaws in Spanish Democracy?

The Spanish case is often referred to as a model of a successful democratic transition. After the civil war of 1936-1939 and the subsequent Franco dictatorship until 1975, the Amnesty Law of 1977 and the new constitution of 1978 contributed to a peaceful transition to democracy. But two developments are causing flaws in it: (1) the politically motivated campaign against Baltasar Garzón, the well-know judge of the Audiencia Nacional (the Spanish high court handling terrorism, genocide, and organized crime), and (2) the crusade against the Catalan autonomy statute.

A special peculiarity of the Spanish judicial system is its principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows the Audiencia Nacional to pursue cases of human rights abuses, drug trafficking, and terrorism outside of Spain. And although the universal jurisdiction has recently been limited to cases in which there are Spanish victims or those charged with crime are in Spain, Garzón achieved considerable international successes. The most noted one is certainly the indictment of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and his arrest in London in 1998, where he remained under house arrest for more than 500 days before returning to Chile following his release on humanitarian grounds. There, he faced legal action for human rights abuses, but was never convicted. Garzón also forced Argentinean President Néstor Kirchner to end a general amnesty for the military junta after investigating human rights violations committed during the “dirty war” of 1976-1983. In Spain itself, he is highly recognized for his relentless pursuit of ETA, the Basque separatist organization terrorizing the country since the early 1960’s. But today, the General Council of the Judicial Power, Spain’s constitutional body governing all the judiciary of Spain, suspended Garzón from his post at the Audiencia Nacional.