The virulence with which the more right-wing political and media Madrid has reacted against Germany for the release of president Carles Puigdemont has been so exaggerated as to startled the Germans, unaccustomed to being the subject of mockery and cruelty within the continent. Since it was learnt last Thursday that the Higher Regional Court of the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein discounted the charge of rebellion and would only consider that of misuse of public funds, a flood of accusations, insults and criticisms has fallen on the German government and the working of its justice system. As if it were to do with country and wasn't an exclusively legal topic, editors, columnists and famous PP politicians, like MEP Esteban González Pons and the party's spokesperson Rafael Hernando, have decided to signpost a dangerous path leading Spain towards intolerance in the eyes of Europe and revealing the lack of separation of powers.
In the prêt-a-porter collection from the Madrid media this spring, the thing least in the script was an argument with Germany and the appearance of Germanophobia, with its clear similarity to the much-rehearsed Catalanophobia. The German justice minister, Katarina Barley, who this weekend said that Spain shouldn't take Puigdemont's extradition for misuse of public funds for granted, that it will have to explain why it should happen and that that won't be easy, has earned everything from headlines like "Germany, you don't touch Spain" to direct accusations against the minister in one of the great Madrid newspapers in which she is labelled, among other charming names, as a "progressive Nazi", "Merkel's racist minister" and the "German euromania to massacre its neighbours" is discussed.
González Pons has questioned the German justice system, suggested that the court went further than it should have and threatened that if the European Arrest Warrant doesn't work, the Schengen area is meaningless. Young Casado has gone further and demanded the German court to correct its decision. As if Germany were Spain! The Spanish government, which encouraged the first fire, has had to come out quickly to try to put out the first of the disproportionate campaign against Germany.
In the middle of all this Spanish nonsense, the embassy from Madrid in Berlin is dedicating itself to publishing letters to the editor in German papers. Very few means and less influence in a difficult country like Germany which has taken on the Catalan case as a public debate more closely related to the violation of human rights than independence. And whose political class and the media are discovering attitudes by which, far from bringing them in as accomplices in the problem, they are criticised and attacked to excess. Madrid, in spring.