IT is certainly food for thought when you've got 200 former military officers in Spain criticising the Spanish Prime Minister and his political partners.
In a letter senior figures from all three armed services launch a bitter attack on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for going into coalition with communists (they refer to his pact with the far-left Podemos group) and for asking for the support of radical Catalan and Basque Parties (to get his budget through parliament he was forced to get the backing of various Catalan and Basque parties which support a breakaway from Spain).
To be honest I was rather amazed that Sanchez had sought the support of Catalan parties who support a breakaway from Spain, especially as Catalonia is such a controversial topic in Spain. We must remember that Podemos is one of the principal parties in Spain and has widespread support across the country. The fact that it is in coalition with Sanchez´s Socialists has caused an outcry from some of the more right-wing parties but at the end of the day they were duly elected by millions of Spaniards.
The former military officers also claimed that the Basque political group supported the now disappeared ETA terrorist group. These are difficult times in Spain and I can't really understand the concerns of the military officers. What they must remember is that Podemos, and the smaller Catalan and Basque parties have been elected by the people of Spain through the democratic process.