CATALONIA
Europe can no longer look elsewhere!
Carme Forcadell
We are Catalans, we are Europeans, we are European. Catalonia has
always felt itself identified with the values of peace, freedom and
justice that impregnated European construction in its origins. But
today, an important part of Catalan society is wondering when the
European institutions will continue to obviate the flagrant violation of
fundamental rights that is taking place in one of the member states of
the European Union.
The police violence against Catalan citizens
on October 1 is the peak of the repressive spiral of Spain to try to
stop, without success, the exercise of the right to self-determination
in Catalonia. People of all ages and ideologies, who only wanted to vote
and decide the political future of their country, were victims of
unjustifiable violence by the police.
It was, until then, the
culmination of an escalation that includes complaints against the
Catalan Government and the intervention of its finances, complaints
against the majority of the Parliament's table, threats against more
than 700 mayors, suspension of acts on the referendum , the closure of
more than 140 web pages, and the arrest of senior officials and
employees of the Catalan Government.
But in spite of everything,
on October 1, more than 2.2 million people voted, 90% of whom voted in
favor of independence. Although polls were requisitioned, despite
threats and violence, citizens issued a democratic mandate that the
Catalan government's president, Carles Puigdemont, assumed. But it
suspended its effects temporarily to prioritize the dialogue, the hand
Extended and international mediation.
The Spanish president,
Mariano Rajoy, has a historic disjunctive: continue with judicialization
and repression, or choose the way of dialogue. Continue with
complaints, interrogations and arrests, or decide once and for all to
face politically what is a political conflict.
Regrettably, the
answer remains to ignore the policy. The Spanish government has
initiated the procedures to suspend, even more, self-government in
Catalonia and acquire its competencies.
The State, in addition,
responded with a serious attack on the appeal to President Puigdemont's
dialogue. The two leaders of the socialist social organizations,
responsible for some of the most massive mobilizations in Europe, always
peaceful, have been imprisoned accused of sedition. Innocent people can
spend up to 4 years in jail without trial, accused of a crime they have
not committed, by a court that does not even have the powers to do so.
Yes, in the European Union there are political prisoners. Yes, there
are political prisoners in Spain. There are demons jailed for their
ideas. In view of this fact, the response of the European institutions
can not be said to be a simple internal affair.
Because the
future of Europe also happens, inevitably, for Catalonia. The
credibility of the European project as an area of freedom and democracy
is at stake with the response to the democratic democratic process and
the repressive spiral of the Spanish State. Europe can not look any
further towards the other side. They violate the fundamental rights
contained in the Treaty on European Union, and it is the obligation of
the European institutions to guarantee these rights. What is the level
of repression you are willing to tolerate? Until when?
I do not
have the answers to these questions. Yes, I have, in contrast, the
answer that will be given by Catalan society. He will continue advancing
democratically and, above all, peacefully, to build his future with
freedom.
