SPAIN AGAINST THE CATALONIA NATION -- Catalan News Agency - Extreme-right group Manos Limpias fuels a judicial battle against Catalonia's self-determination

Catalan News Agency - Extreme-right group Manos Limpias fuels a judicial battle against Catalonia's self-determination

Extreme-right group Manos Limpias fuels a judicial battle against Catalonia's self-determination

CNA

Barcelona (ACN).- The far right and Spanish nationalist
trade union Manos Limpias is continuing its crusade against Catalonia's
self-determination. On Monday evening, the organisation chaired by
Fascist Miguel Bernard sent a complaint to the Director of the Spanish
Public Prosecutor’s Office against the citizen association that
organised the two massive independence demonstrations on the 11^th
September 2012 and 2013:  the National Assembly of Catalonia (ANC).
Manos Limpias accused the grassroots organisation ANC of fostering
"insurrection" for having issued a road map that proposed declaring
independence from Spain on the 23^rd April 2015 if the Spanish
Government had not previously allowed a self-determination vote.
Furthermore, the organisation was proposing to "take to the streets", in
the same vein as the citizen demonstrations or the occupation of
squares and public spaces that have been going on in Catalonia and Spain
over these last few years. The road map was issued as a political
statement and foresaw several intermediate steps, such as exercising the
internationally-recognised right to petition using the thousands of signatures that this civil-society organisation has been collecting these last months.
The extreme-right group had filed a first complaint in February against
the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, for "sedition",
"rebellion", "perverting the course of justice" and "disobeying judicial
authority". On Tuesday, after a preliminary analysis – including a
report by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Catalonia's Supreme Court
(TSJC) dismissed the complaint, emphasising the political nature of Mas'
statements and actions. However, Manos Limpias announced that it will
appeal the decision, taking it to Spain's Supreme Court. The
Extreme-right organisation said that it was expecting the TSJC's
decision since it is "contaminated" by Catalan nationalism because it is
located in Barcelona.

The tensions between Catalonia and Spain are gradually involving the
judiciary. And the extreme-right Spanish nationalism – which has caused
hundreds of thousands of deaths in Spain's 20^th century – is
winning an increasingly important role. Madrid-based media are echoing
its claims, acting as its spokesperson. Furthermore, a marginal
organisation such as Manos Limpias is filing judicial complaints against
Catalan self-determination activists and politicians and in the rest of
Spain those complaints are barely criticised.

Extreme right Spanish nationalism is back

In fact, two years ago, when Catalan independence claims started to
be shared by a majority of citizens in Catalonia, a few voices and media
in Madrid were already starting to suggest cancelling Catalonia's
autonomy. In the last few months they have been asking the Spanish
Government to adopt stronger measures against Catalan self-determination
demands in order to guarantee the unity of Spain, using a language that
was constantly heard in Spain before the consolidation of democracy.
Ironically, these reactions from the Spanish nationalists have been
fuelling support for Catalonia's independence, since many Catalans
remember the political, social and cultural repression of Franco’s
dictatorship, living in a centralised state that celebrated the unity of
Spain and wanted to eliminate diversity and impose homogeneity.

Now, the tensions go one step further, by putting the Catalan
National Assembly (Assemblea Nacional de Catalunya, ANC) under the
spotlight, with the aim of making this civil society organisation
illegal. On Monday evening Manos Limpias filed a judicial complaint with
the Spanish Public Prosecutor’s Office. The extreme-right organisation
was asking the public authorities to declare the ANC illegal and start a
penal procedure for an alleged offence of proposing sedition. The
complaint also accused the ANC's President, Carme Forcadell. The text
accuses the organisation and its Chairperson of "acting against the
Constitutional order" and issuing "a call for insurrection". In
addition, it accuses them of "misappropriation of public money".

On Tuesday, Carme Forcadell accused Manos Limpias of "fearing
democracy", but she said she was not surprised by the judicial
complaint. "First they targeted the President of the Catalan Government
and now us, because we are an important part of the [self-determination]
process" she stated. However, Forcadell denied that the road map
approved was "a call for insurrection". Forcadell explained that by
taking control of the infrastructure, they were trying to guarantee that
they will continue to work and will not be blocked by any power. "We
are proposing what it is normally done in an independence process. Those
infrastructures are very important and they have to continue working
normally", she said. However, she insisted that "it is the Catalan
Government that is the one deciding and the one having the last word",
regarding the call for independence. In this sense, she regretted "the
biased misinterpretation" of the ANC's road map.

The ANC organised the massive demonstrations for independence of 2012 and 2013

The ANC is a grassroots organisation that has not received any public
money, since it is funded by its members and crowd-funding campaigns.
It is organised in local and professional associations present
throughout the Catalan territory and society. The ANC has always
expressed its independence claims in a peaceful and festive way, making
use of the freedom of expression, the right to political pluralism, the
right to participate in political life, the right to demonstrate and the
right of association, which are recognised in any democracy.

For instance, the ANC organised the 1.5 million-strong demonstration for Catalonia’s independence from Spain that took place on the 11^th of September 2012, coinciding with Catalonia's National Day. A year later, on the 11^th of September 2013, it also organised the 400-kilometre-long human chain formed by over 1.6 million people called the Catalan Way towards Independence, which was inspired by the Baltic Way of 1989.

Madrid-based media called for the ANC to be outlawed

The judicial complaint filed by Manos Limpias against the ANC is not
an isolated action. Neither against the ANC nor in terms of other
complaints presented by the extreme-right organisation against Catalan
independence. For instance, in the last few days several Madrid-based
media, including El País newspaper, have been criticising the
ANC and many of them have even called for legal measures against the
grassroots organisation. These demands outraged part of Catalan society,
which was reminded of the outlawing of political parties and unions
during Franco's Dictatorship.

As a reaction, since the first demands for the ANC to be outlawed
were published some 10 days ago, the organisation has increased its
membership by 30%, going from 22,000 full members on the 14^th
of March to more than 30,000 this Tuesday. Now, totalling full members,
sympathisers and volunteers, the ANC is directly backed by 55,000
people.

In addition,  people who are not pro-independence, such as the leader
of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) in Barcelona's City Council, Jordi
Martí, have publicly stated that they will join the ANC if it is
banned. On top of this, the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition
(CiU), the Catalan Independence Party (ERC), the Catalan Green Socialist
and post-Communist Coalition (ICV-EUiA) and the radical left-wing and
independence party CUP – which between them represent some two thirds of
the Catalan Parliament – have expressed their explicit support to the
ANC and have criticised the judicial complaint. The governing CiU has
stated that if the ANC is declared illegal, Spain "will stop being
considered a democratic country". On Friday, the Spokesperson of the
People’s Party (PP) at the Spanish Parliament, Alfonso Alonso, said "it
is the same imposing something through the ballot boxes than through
violence".

The TSJC dismisses the complaint against the Catalan President

On Tuesday, the TSJC announced that it was dismissing the complaint
filed by Manos Limpias against the President of the Catalan Government,
Artur Mas. In February the
extreme-right organisation accused Mas of "sedition", "rebellion",
"perverting the course of justice" and "disobeying judicial authority".
After a preliminary analysis, including a report by the Public
Prosecution Office, the TSJC stated that it does not see any grounds to
take the complaint further and it has decided to dismiss it. The Public
Prosecution Office had also recommended that the complaint be dismissed.
The TSJC considered the Catalan Parliament's Declaration of Sovereignty
to be "a political action". Furthermore, it denies that Mas was
disobeying the Constitutional Court which had temporarily cancelled the
aforementioned Declaration as a precautionary measure.

The TSJC insisted that Mas' actions are "clearly political" and "they
are orientated towards getting" the Spanish Government's approval to
organise a self-determination vote. In this vein, the Catalan Supreme
Court also stated that the agreement reached by a majority of Catalan
parties to organise such a vote on the 9^th of November 2014
is "a political activity", not an offence. On Tuesday, Manos Limpias
announced that it will appeal the TSJC's decision by taking it to the
Spanish Supreme Court.

More on

ANC, Artur Mas, Carme Forcadell, Catalan Government, Catalan Independence, Catalan National Assembly, Catalan Supreme Court, Catalan Way, Democracy, European Union, Extreme-Right, Independence, Judges, Manos Limpias, Referendum, Self-Determination, Spanish Government, Spanish Nationalism, Vote

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The façade of Catalonia's Supreme Court (by ACN)

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