Spanish Constitutional Court limits freedom of speech of political party members
The court refuses to support a PSOE member suspended for criticising her party to the press
MadridWhen someone joins a political party, they concede part of their right to freedom of expression to that political party in order to “preserve the public image” of the party in question. That’s the conclusion Spain’s Constitutional Court has reached, returning a verdict which, for the first time, limits the freedom of speech of members of Spain’s political parties. The court has refused to support a member of PSOE in Oviedo (Asturias) who was suspended after she called her local party leaders “leeches” in a letter to a newspaper’s editor for not holding primaries to elect the town candidate.
The judges argue that the member’s right to free speech “has to be balanced with the necessary loyal collaboration” with the party. In other words, they believe that members “take on the duty of preserving the public image of the political organisation which they belong to and of positively contributing to help it work properly”. “As a consequence, certain actions or behaviours… can logically lead to a disciplinary sanction or even expulsion” the verdict continues.
The ruling is unprecedented as this is the first time that the court recognises that a decision by a political party which interferes with a fundamental right, in particular when it is a disciplinary action concerning free speech, can be subject to a legal constitutionality check which goes beyond a mere formality.
The court’s vice-president, Adela Asúa, was responsible for writing the report. Neither the court’s president, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, nor his fellow judge Andrés Ollero, agree 100% with the verdict, Ollero believing that it opens the door to regulating the activities of political parties.
The claimant stated in her original letter that the socialist party’s Asturian members were “tired of such ‘crooks’, of people who don’t work and whose sole aspiration is to be a candidate for election, whatever candidacy, without anyone else knowing what values they hold, what merits they have in civilian life”. She added that the members of the parties’ executive boards “now seem more like leeches that want all the power, that want to suck the blood of anyone who opposes them”.
