When I read her comments, I immediately remembered the words of Elena Ceaucescu, wife of the former Romanian communist dictator, when she said: “how can you do this to me when I have treated you like a mother!” Both Elenas appeared joined by a maternal vocation. And, the truth is, with mothers like these you might as well be an orphan.   

 

Quite probably, Minister Salgado wants to be remembered as a generous person who was concerned for the people. Understandably, she feels authorized to take whatever coercive act necessary against our freedom to improve our welfare. This would be laudable if she were doing it to her own family –given she would know best how to manage her life and the lives of her family members. But just because a top ranking civil servant tries to “improve” the lives of more than 44 million people, as if they were her children, doesn’t make her a generous person but a atrocious enema of individual freedom: Spain’s 44 million people are not the Minister’s property nor her responsibility nor the government’s responsibility.

 

Coming of age has to be reflected in something. But, the current administration and politicians generally give it less and less importance. We study and work to gain independence from our parents and just when we achieve it, we realize we still have to submit to an unending procession of laws and regulations even if we disagree with them and consider them tyrannical impositions.