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The Spanish government has just answered a written parliamentary question from the deputy for the Basque party EH Bildu, Jon Inarritu, explaining that in 2018 it hired communications consulting firms in seven countries for the purpose, said the foreign ministry, of updating and enhancing the perception of Spain's strengths. To put it simply: the government, with Josep Borrell at the head of its diplomacy, wrote out cheques in the United States, France, Belgium, Germany, the UK, Switzerland and Mexico to improve Spain's image, which, by coincidence, took place at the same time as the Catalan independence process and Spain's reputational problems after the imprisonment of members of the Catalan government, the exile of president Carles Puigdemont and several ministers, the Spanish judicial and police crackdown and the European arrest warrants issued and then withdrawn in Belgium, the UK and Germany.

The countries chosen are significant, since in all of them episodes have taken place that have annoyed the Spanish authorities. In Belgium, the residence of Puigdemont, Comín and Puig, judge Pablo Llarena even withdrew the arrest warrant on two occasions because the crimes of rebellion were not accepted and later, for Puigdemont and Comín, due to the immunity they were protected by as MEPs. In Germany, it was the high court of the Schleswig-Holstein state that left Puigdemont free and slammed the door in the face of Spanish justice in July 2018. In Britain, something similar happened with regard to Clara Ponsatí.

As for France, this is where the Council of Europe has its headquarters, and this body analyzed the situation of the political prisoners more than once and is currently studying the situation in Spain and Turkey. The case of the United States is obvious as different media have raised their voices against Spanish repression and defended the right to a referendum, a situation similar to that of Switzerland and Mexico.

It is striking how criminal cases have been initiated against Catalan government ministers and senior officials for similar actions and yet how the money is happily squandered when it is the Spanish government doing it. In both cases, we are talking about taxpayers' money. It may be that consolidating Spain's democracy by means of chequebook actions ends up being the only way that they are able to say that Spain is a consolidated democracy. That's what Global Spain and the propagation of Borrell's lies was all about.