do we need more ECHR sentences to stop protecting the (in)defensible in Spain? Chronicle of an endless manipulation of hate speech to silence the annoying dissident

Abstract

If The present study aims to give a chronological review of the European Court of Human Rights case law that condemned Spain for its persevering protection of the honor of its institutions and authorities using criminal law.
Despite the exhaustiveness of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) statements in Castells and Otegi Mondragon, Government and Justice continue to protect their institutions by applying a twisted interpretation of the ephemeral doctrine of hate speech that only leads to a complication of the coexistence in a society as diverse and plural as the Spanish.

The last of the pronouncements of the ECHR, Stern Taulats and Roura Capella vs. Spain, has arrived in a crucial moment for the Spanish political arena. The convergence of the disingenuos political-separatist challenge in Catalunya and this sentence on the criminal protection of institutions and their authorities facing the outrageous political criticism, calls for a profound review of the State model in Spain.