Excerpts of the interview of Pablo Hasel
We publish excerpts from the interview carried out by the bourgeois press with Pablo Hasel.
The newspaper Servir al Pueblo, Spanish State, has published it completely. Pablo Hasel has currently served more than 3 years of his sentence, half of the total amount. Among his convictions the one that stands out most, causing huge protests, is the “glorification of terrorism” and “insult to the crown” in a clear trial of political repression to the singer. Some of the phrases that led to his conviction were: “Juan Carlos el Bobón [stupid], mafia boss plundering the Spanish kingdom”; “the poor go to jail, not the Infanta Cristina, but half the country wishes her the guillotine”; “on television they vomit that he is useful, yes of course, for he is a drugdealer and owner of the whorehouse”; and “those puppet-masters deserve a thousand kilos of ammonium”; “but I shout: Spanish Television deserves a bomb!”; “death penalty for the pathetic princess”; “Patxi López’s car deserves to explode!”. Here is a clear example of how the bourgeois States, in this case the Spanish imperialist one, will not hesitate to repress opposition.
Hasel himself explains this in the interview: “There is a lot of discussion about these phrases, but not all the ones that got me imprisoned, and that do not allude to the armed struggle. Also in that first conviction in 2014 there were many phrases that did not match what they call glorification of terrorism. The justification to the ones you quote? Anger at ruthless policies with which they profit and cause countless victims and suffering. That is an objective fact, nobody can deny it without lying. Why can they kill, but we can’t even express our rage with songs? Besides, I will never condemn armed self-defense in the face of such barbarism and oppressive violence. Zionists who commit genocide with the help of the US and the EU are called democrats, but then some angry rappers against the guilty system are scandalized.“
He also spoke of how his case was brought forward because of his relationship with the anti-fascist struggle. This struggle, as we have previously reported, is strongly persecuted by the Spanish State, even with several police officers infiltrating the social movement. “Anyone who has listened to American rap knows that they have rather more explicit lyrics and are not imprisoned for it. Ice T, one of the best known rappers, has a song called Cop Killer, in which he talks about compulsively executing cops. Eminem, the best-known rapper in history, has rapped about assassinating the president. Pop stars like Madonna have said things like ‘we should bomb the White House’ [the singer later qualified that and pointed out that it was a metaphor]. The lack of free speech for anti-fascists in this State is brutal and cannot be normalized,” (…) “The song for which I have paid with jail, Juan Carlos el Bobón, is very soft. The brutal is what he did with impunity”.
Continuing with the struggle, Hasel has refused to pay the fines he has accumulated: “Even if they were 1,000 euros I would not have paid them because it would have been totally unjust. They have not been able to seize me because I have nothing, but I could have gotten the money thanks to solidarity” or sign up for “repentance” programs: “I have no regrets. I am proud to struggle. If I had agreed, I would have been out for a long time. When I reached the quarter of my sentence I could have gone on furlough and for half of it I would be out. But it would be a false freedom. I didn’t fight and then go down on my knees humiliated, betraying myself and the cause.”
In front of the question of why he has not exiled as Valtònyc did (rapper sentenced to three years and six months for glorification of terrorism and insult to the Crown who fled to Belgium and avoided jail), Hasel answers: “I considered it, but I made the decision based on what I thought was most beneficial for the struggle, not for my personal well-being. Exile is respectable and hard, but logically a long stay in jail means a higher cost. I saw clearly that there would be more response, that I would create more consciousness by staying here.”
Although the bourgeois journalist asks him questions such as “if he has any regrets” or “his mission in all this” Hasel clearly explains that he is not going to renounce his revolutionary message despite the repression he has suffered in prison.
