What does the concept ‘lawfare’ mean with which Podemos tries to repel the accusations of the opposition to the Government?

In recent days there have already been several leaders of United We Can and people close to the formation who have used the concept of ‘lawfare’ to defend themselves against the accusations that the opposition has launched against the coalition government, especially for the and its derived effects . What does this term mean?

‘Lawfare’ is a relatively recent concept in the academic field -it appeared for the first time in the mid-1970s- that comes from a mixture of the English words ‘law’ (law) and ‘warfare’ (field of war) and that it comes to be translated into Spanish as ‘legal war’. It has begun to be used especially since the beginning of the 21st century and is a way of denouncing the attempt to wear down the Government or opponents through the courts and laws.

Maintaining an appearance of legality and through the legal system -with the acquiescence of judges and police officers- the fall of political opponents would be sought, one of the examples given by theorists being unnecessary or ostentatious arrests within a political investigation. The concept is associated with the best known theory of the ‘soft coup’, which seeks the effects of the classic coup d’état but without an express overthrow of the current power.

The left flank of political science has used the term assiduously for the Latin American context in recent years. In this sense, they give as an example what happened with Lula da Silva in Brazil with his cases for corruption and her imprisonment or with Rafael Correa in Ecuador. But… what application does this theory have in the Spanish context?

Although from the left the ‘lawfare’ was already raised as a possible threat when the coalition government began to walk amid great political tension in January, it is now, with a context focused on the management of the pandemic and the responsibilities of the Executive in it, when United We Can say they feel victimized by this tactic.

The appearance of pointing to the Government for allowing this demonstration in the face of the worsening health situation has triggered the reaction of the ‘purples’, assuring that the opposition has had possible complicity in courts and instances such as the Civil Guard to laminate the Government.

Aiming the shot in that direction, the leader of United We Can and second vice president of the Government, Pablo Iglesias, asked the PP this Wednesday in Congress if “he is calling for the insubordination of the State Security Forces and Bodies” and if he is asking the Civil Guard to “fail to comply with the orders that they consider, on your initiative and incitement, unfair”.

Iglesias has thus slipped the theory of ‘lawfare’ after the ‘popular’ have made the Executive ugly, with him and the .

More explicit has been the spokesman for United We Can in Congress, Pablo Echenique, who has denounced that the Civil Guard report is “a pastiche of hoaxes” typical of a ‘lawfare’ strategy promoted by the opposition. “It seems that the ‘report’ on 8-M is a hoax pastiche of these that Vox repeats as cockatoos, false news and manipulations of official communications. This is how Pérez de los Cobos is better understood,” he added.

For his part, from En Comú, the parliamentary spokesman Jaume Asens has assimilated this theory maintained by Podemos with the case of the Catalan independentists: “First, the media cave builds the framework. Then, the right raises it. And then, its arm The court grants him certainty. It is the same scheme that was used before against other political opponents, such as the independentistas. Now it is against the coalition government. Lawfare”.

Also from the Catalan branch of the ‘purples’, the member of the Congress table Gerardo Pisarello has attributed the latest judicial actions to a situation of ‘lawfare’ or “legal war” of the “judicial and police arm” of the right to ” carry out obscene persecution operations” against the “democratically elected” coalition government, although it has only included Colonel De los Cobos in this alleged operation and not Judge Carmen Rodríguez Medel, who, for authorizing the 8-M concentration.

Likewise, the general secretary of Podemos in Galicia and candidate for the Xunta, Antón Gómez Reino, has also positioned himself in this way, also using the concept of ‘lawfare’, defining it as “the use of the law and legal procedures as weapons to try to overthrow a legitimate government.

The co-founder of Podemos Juan Carlos Monedero has not been left behind, who has explicitly pointed to the PP: “The PP has been preparing ‘lawfare’ in Spain for a long time, using judges to, as they do in Latin America, achieve in the courts what they are unable to achieve at the ballot box. Coups are now ‘soft’, but they are coups.”