It's very likely that over the last few years nobody has done as much harm to Spain's universities as the political class. From Pablo Casado, the holder of a controversial master's from Rey Juan Carlos University and a post-graduate qualification from Harvard, which, in reality, was four days in the Madrid neighbourhood of Aravaca, to the acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, with accusations of plagiarism during the doctorate he was awarded by Camilo José Cela University (Madrid), not forgetting the presiding officer of the Senate, Manuel Cruz, who plagiarised paragraphs and authors in, at least, one of his works, or Cristina Cifuentes, the former president of the Community of Madrid, and we could go on. What's certain is that stench of ruses and inexplicable situations is in the air and in the middle of a deterioration of the work and the image of many universities who do do things well and don't appear in the papers.
But this Tuesday we've seen a new way to diminish the prestige of the universities from the political expert in varied messes, deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo. From Cabra, Córdoba, the idea has occurred to her of nothing other than threatening Belgian judges with retaliation if president Carles Puigdemont isn't extradited. Obviously, the Belgian justice system is still surprised by what Calvo said and meddling by an executive branch in the judiciary and not in its own country, but in another state. It's to be expected that they've noted for themselves how the Spanish government treats judges. It's episode two after the "prosecutors will refine it for you", which gave so much food for thought and which, at that time, PP was responsible for. Sadly, this is all part of Spanish democracy and it is as quick to improvise a charge of rebellion as it is to construct a false narrative of violence or to compare vandalism with terrorism. A justice minister like Grande-Marlaska comes out saying without consequences that "the violence in Catalonia has had greater impact than that in the Basque Country" and a deputy prime minister like Carmen Calvo merely has to pick up the phone and call the Belgian judge in charge of the case.
And, now we're at this point, I've looked in the different CVs published for Carmen Calvo when she was named deputy prime minister for some clue as to where such a faux-pas could come from. A steadfast defender of bullfights, a feminist, a devotee of Spanish fashion and shoes, separated, a student of the Piarist sisters, they say she asks for neither permission nor forgiveness and that she is called by some, without her knowledge, Mari-líos for her slip-ups1. Even those who fear her in silence say that José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero fired her as culture minister in 2007 "quite tired of her slips", without waiting for the end of the legislature. But her academic CV does have something which is cause for thought: she's professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Córdoba. I don't know whether some day she'll be able to give classes on the subject again or any other with such a view of what law is. In the university and the world of education in general, it certainly won't do her any favours.
Translator's note: 1. Líos is Spanish for "messes" or "fusses"; the minister's full name is María del Carmen Calvo Poyato.