Spanish diplomats have been trying for years (decades, actually) to modernize the regulations that define their daily work: from How to choose who will be the ambassador to a position abroad to the instruments to reconcile the family life of officials in constant movement with their families and children.
Former Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo tried to reform it, without success. The current one, José Manuel Albares, promised to move it forward. He even presented a proposal, but it has not yet come into force. The Ministry claims that it is waiting to know how it affects the new Public Service law, which came into force on December 21, 2023. So the 1955 rule, partially modified in 1993, remains in force.
In this context, and after several attempts at rapprochement with the head of diplomacy (including a letter to the minister), the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) This Monday he slammed the table and made public a letter addressed to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in which they ask for “protection” in the face of “the indifference” of Albares.
“We are fully aware that in your task of defending the interests of Spain we should not distract you with a question like the one we respectfully raise here. However, as an association that brings together the vast majority of our country’s diplomats, we are forced to resort to your protection before the total indifference of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation,” reads the letter, distributed to the media by the Board of Directors of the ADE. “A modern nation like Spain and a progressive government like ours allow a norma franciscoa: the Regulations of the Diplomatic Career, of the year 1955″.
Shameful relics in the Race Regulations
They recognize that this decree “sanctioned by the dictator” has been stripped, over the years, of several articles but that many anachronisms are still present. “Shameful relics remain in it such as the ‘courts of honor‘ (to which 11 articles are dedicated), references to ‘National Movementl’ or ‘the Spanish Territories of the Gulf of Guinea and Spanish possessions in Africa’, to cite just a few examples.”
Diplomats criticize the fact that all those elements that could evoke the dictatorial past have been removed from the properties of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in accordance with Law 20/2022 on Democratic Memory, but that this other vestige of the past is maintained. “It is very difficult for us to understand that in this Ministry we must live not with a symbol but with a Francoist norm.”
They ask that the norm be “urgently replacea” by approving the draft regulations whose preparation was completed at the beginning of 2023. The new regulations will not only “be unquestionably constitutional” but also in line with a modern organization, they conclude.
This newspaper has contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to request a reply, which it has not yet received at the time of writing this article.
