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ImigrantesLATEST NEWS - 21 May to 3 June 2002
"Sometimes Spain Forgets"
- Source: Nicolau Santos, Expresso, Lisbon
"The Spanish Prime MinisterJosé Maria Aznar, was annoyed with his Portuguese counterpart, Durão Barroso, who less than 4 months ago was calling him "my dear friend Xosé (sic) Manuel", because Portugal had not accepted the expulsion of the Basque Telexteia Maya, as Madrid wanted. And even with "Xosé Manuel", the government argument that it cannot interfere in the decisions of the courts failed to calm down the irritation in the Moncloa Palace (Madrid).
The Spanish P. M., José Maria Aznar, pressured the Portuguese P.M. Durão Barroso, to immediately move forward with investing in the TGV (High Speed Train), that Lisbon wanted to delay due to the country's difficult budget situation. Aznar not only pressed this decision - which Durão obeyed, announcing in Madrid that the investment would go ahead - but also the planned link that benefits Madrid most - and that excludes the link to the Algarve, as well as the Lisbon to Porto link, leaving that city linked by the TGV from Vigo. By making the Lisbon to Porto and Algarve link by High Speed trains whose technology is incompatible with the TGV, it leaves Portugal in a fragile situation as regards Europe, and above all, in the harmonising of the whole national network.
The Spanish P.M., José Maria Aznar, is studying with his government the possibility of building a mega air traffic centre at Badajoz, where the TGV is passing - so if it does happen, it will make the building of the new airport at Ota (Lisbon) irrelevant in a few years time, agreeing with Durão Barroso's electoral promise that such work will not proceed until there are no children's waiting lists at Portuguese hospitals. Portugal will therefore lose its strategic importance as a transatlantic gateway for air traffic - leaving that place to Badajoz, which will become the hub for the distribution of passengers who are visiting the Iberian Peninsula on going on to other European countries.
Madrid is also discreetly insisting that Portugal review its History courses taught in national schools - which, according to Moncloa, shows a systematic hostility to Spain and that it denounces the hegemonist attempts by Castile. It's just as well that a notable Portuguese group want to recover the fields where the Battle of Aljubarota was fought - although, as punishment for our sins, the main organiser of the movement is the Director of the "El Corte Inglés" and the main financier sold his banking group to the Santander (Bank).
All that this means is that sometimes, Madrid forgets that for more than 800 years it has been trying to govern all the Iberian Peninsula - but, unfortunately for Castile there is a rectangle that in 1143 gave its shout of "Ipiranga" and on 1 December 1640 again said that it wanted to be in charge of its own afairs.
What this also means is that today no one now conquers anybody with arms- but by technology, by strategic decisions, by the way how History is written and old conflicts are erased. What this means is that countries today base their expansionist strategies and domination in wiser and subtler instruments and more expert that cannot be described so easily, or as Sophia de Mello Breyner Anderson once wrote.
It is right that we take the decisions that are in our interest in an autonomous way in relation to what Madrid wants - and that we tell the History as it really happened and not as Castile would like it (to be told). So that Madrid remembers that, after all, it still doesn't give orders in all the Iberian Peninsula. And that this small rectangle by the sea wants now, as for the last 800 years, to continue to be in charge of its own affairs.
