Everything at once and everywhere. This has been the early commemoration of 4-D, when 46 years ago two million Andalusians took to the streets of all the provincial capitals of Andalusia, but also in Madrid and Barcelona, to claim the right of that territory to leave the marginalization and enjoying their own autonomy. Three events called at the same time, 12 in the morning this Sunday, held in three different places in Seville and promoted or promoted by different political formations, a variety that shows the division with which it is intended to recognize the relevance of what It happened in 1977 and has ended up being infected by the polarization that dominates national politics.
The traditional demonstration organized every year by the 4D platform, on this occasion under the motto “for sovereignty, the public and peace”, supported by unions, the tides and political formations such as Podemos, IU and Adelante Andalucía, left at noon from Puerta de la Carne towards the palace of San Telmo, a route that the general secretary of the purple formation and former minister, Ione Belarra, has also traveled. A little later a rally began in the Plaza de Cuba, “in defense of Andalusia and the equality of the Spanish people”, called by a barely known organization, Economy and Society Forum, to which the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno, who was also present, had requested attendance. Also at that time, the ceremony of the II December 4 Awards, awarded by the foundation of the PSOE, began in Coria del Río. Andalusia, Socialism and Democracy and that has recognized the former president of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
“Today I wanted to be here, the eve of December 4, which is a mythical day in Andalusia to claim something that was already claimed 46 years ago and that Mr. [Pedro] Sánchez has once again brought to the fore what is the division of powers that has been violated and above all something fundamental, equality among Spaniards,” said the president of the Board upon arriving at the rally in Plaza de Cuba, where The 2,000 attendees – according to data from the Government subdelegation – carried Andalusian and Spanish flags that they waved to the rhythm of bachata, Aitana, El Canto del Loco or AC/DC – no Andalusian group or singer. Although it was emphasized at all times that the event was called by civil society, the presence of the mayors of all the Andalusian capitals, the advisors of the Andalusian Government and other senior officials of the Junta and of Genoa, such as Elías Bendodo and Juan Bravo, has turned it de facto into an act of the PP – just when in Madrid the party was gathering against the amnesty – and the investiture agreements of the PSOE.
The manifesto that has been read —and that this week workers from the autonomous administration had been encouraged to subscribe from the official email of the Junta’s delegation in Huelva— alert that “equality among Spaniards is in danger”, that the agreements represent “a review of facto of constitutional consensus” and refers to the destabilization of the rule of law. Bendodo has even assured that the Andalusians were demonstrating today to “denounce the democratic anomalies”, which “have happened this week”, among which he has referred to the beginning of the secret negotiations between the PSOE and Junts in Geneva, to the pronouncements contrary to the suitability of the State Attorney General for the CGPJ or of the President of the Council of State for the Supreme Court or the diplomatic crisis with Israel.
A little over a kilometer away, the march called by the 4D Platform began, which, under the premise of the mobilizations for autonomy, has defended respect for public health and education by the Andalusian Government and the right to some decent social services in a community that, 46 years later, is still at the bottom of all levels of precariousness. And those were the cries that were heard during the demonstration — where its 1,000 attendees only waved Andalusian and Palestinian flags — in which each political party marched under its own banner. Behind Podemos was its national leader who has defended the importance of “Andalusia, as a historical nationality, having a leading role in the configuration of political rights in a legislature in which the territorial debate is going to be opened.”
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That demonstration concluded at the San Telmo Palace, the headquarters of the Andalusian Government, a bridge away from the rally sponsored by Moreno. The Guadalquivir was the geographical border that separated two concentrations with greater ideological distance and that has not served to muffle the volume of the Spanish anthem that was playing on the right bank and that was heard just when the manifesto of the 4D Platform was being read. whose assistants have begun to intone Andalusian, in another example of the differences in the autonomist arguments launched from both sides. The first claimed the right of Andalusians to demonstrate for equality and that the Andalusian flag belongs to everyone and the second defended that it was the only one that represented true Andalusianism.
Upstream and also at 12 in the morning, the PSOE celebrated its particular December 4 with the second edition of the awards that bear that name and presented by the Andalusia, Socialism and Democracy Foundation, chaired by the former first president of the Board, Rafael Escuredo. There, former president Rodríguez Zapatero has defended the amnesty reviled in the Plaza de Cuba rally. “Democracy thrives on generosity, reconciliation and forgiveness and that is why it is the best system in history. We will feel proud of this moment, of Pedro Sánchez’s determination, that an amnesty was approved, a moment of serenity to forge understanding with Catalonia,” he noted.
Parallelisms and differences with the 4D of 1977
December 4 was an anniversary remembered until last year, almost in a testimonial way, by the formations most to the left of the political spectrum, since the PSOE had made February 28, Andalusia Day and the date on which that the Statute of Autonomy was voted in 1980, the emblem of Andalusianism. When Moreno arrived at the Board, he also began to display this more autonomous profile, to the point of recognizing that he had managed to get his people to wear the bracelet with the green and white one along with the one with the colors of the Spanish flag, a evidence of how the Andalusian right had always been refractory to embracing Andalusianism. That is why he took advantage of the fact that 4D was somewhat orphaned to declare it Flag Day in 2022. However, the legitimacy of the concentration encouraged by the president of the Board this Sunday, appealing to the same spirit that unanimously brought millions of Andalusians to the streets, has been questioned. “It is good that the right has to assume that date, but we must keep the memory alive and reveal Moreno’s strategy of using the Andalusian flag as a throwing weapon. The 4D did not go against anyone,” recalls the leader of Adelante Andalucía, Teresa Rodríguez, who attended the demonstration.
Journalist Pilar del Río covered the historic marches of 1977 as a correspondent for Tele/eXpress, a half Catalan, and is categorical. “One of the mottos was ‘amnesty, freedom and autonomy’, we wanted to be like the others, not go against the others,” he points out to warn against the interpretations of history made by “the heirs of those in Madrid who said when The Statute of Autonomy was voted on, Spaniards, this is not your referendum”, alluding to UCD that opposed it. Nor does Isidoro Moreno, an anthropologist at the University of Seville, admit any parallels: “It is a perverse demand for equality to use Andalusia and its symbols. What happened in 1977 was a popular outcry that went beyond the expectations of the parties and was not against anyone, but was intended to demand that we have our own instruments to manage our problems.”
The historian José Luis Villar does observe parallels between the political moment that was experienced 46 years ago and the current one: “At the end of the 70s, the new configuration of Spain was being defined and the plans were for the Basque Country and Catalonia to have full autonomy. . Now we are also in a quasi-constituent moment in which the territorial structure is going to be redefined and this requires, as then, an awareness on the part of the Andalusians.” However, he warns that to reproduce these demonstrations today there are two ingredients that are missing: “the unity of all political and social forces and that that demonstration was not against anyone, it was in defense of Andalusia, so that it could play in the first division and that is what should be claimed now, in a time of crisis.”
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