The leading radio preachers of Spain's right-wing media are working especially hard this week to ensure that the mobilization against the proposed amnesty law, organized by Societat Civil Catalana (SCC), to be held this Sunday 8th October in Barcelona, becomes a triumph for Spanish nationalism. Broadcasters such as Federico Jiménez Losantos, of EsRadio, and Carlos Herrera, of La COPE, have been particularly vitriolic in their morning comments, with the main targets for their hostility being the acting Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the negotiations with the exiled Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont.
The agreement that Sánchez might reach with Puigdemont for the formation of a new Spanish government is an issue which seems to put these radio personalities in danger of a heart attack. Jiménez Losantos warns that, due to the state of the negotiations, "everything points to the need to go to Barcelona", to demonstrate against the amnesty for those prosecuted over the Catalan independence process. But he also goes beyond this and asserts that it is necessary to work for "the illegalization of the pro-independence parties". "It's not just that they have separatist ideas, but that they break the law; it's not they say that 'I'd like to live alone, I'm sick of the sight of my parents', no, they kill people or carry out coups d'état", said Jiménez Losantos, in the latter case referring to the Catalan independence movement.
Thus, taking advantage of the demonstration against the amnesty, Jiménez Losantos is trying to put the illegalization of the current Catalan independence parties on the agenda. "In the case of Catalan separatism, the parties that participated in the 1st October coup should be illegal, and anyone who is pro-independence should be in another party that has not committed any crime," he added . The journalist was also critical of the PP's regional barons, who have not yet confirmed their presence in Barcelona. However, PP president Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Vox leader Santiago Abiscal will both be in Barcelona on October 8th.
The EsRadio presenter believes that the investiture of Sánchez is in the hands of Puigdemont and states that the current Spanish president can only succeed in becoming head of the government again if he "breaches the constitution". What's more, Losantos believes that the Socialist intends to rule "by decree" with the help of Cándido Conde-Pumpido, president of the Constitutional Court, whose appointment he also describes as a "coup".
Radio station COPE praises Felipe VI's speech on October 3rd, 2017
From another conservative radio station, La COPE, presenter Carlos Herrera recalled this Tuesday that it was the sixth anniversary of king Felipe VI's speech on October 3rd, 2017. Herrera praised the king's leadership in that speech and recalled that he spoke out that day with the support of Mariano Rajoy and Pedro Sánchez. "With the force of his words, and putting his foot down, the king returned tranquility to half of Catalonia", said the journalist, for whom Felipe VI was "crowned" in October 2017, just as his father, according to him, truly won his position at the 23-F, the attempted military coup of 1981.
For Herrera, the speech of October 3rd, for which the independence movement believes that Felipe VI should apologize, "served as a shock wave, an electric shock for Spanish society to react against the separatist coup of October 1st" . The presenter believes that Sánchez's investiture can only be achieved by "repealing" the speech made by Felipe VI and which "culminated in the approval in the Senate of Article 155" under which the Catalan government was sacked and Madrid imposed direct rule on Catalonia for over six months.