Stephen LENDMAN
Millions of pro-independence Catalans are on their own. Europe turned its back on them, violating fundamental international law, affirming the right of self-determination for all people.
Separatist officials blasted EU policy, ignoring the rights of Catalans, silent in the face of vicious Madrid repression, lawlessly deposing and jailing its officials.
Outspoken Girona Mayor Marta Madrenas said “(w)hat surprises me is that Europe doesn’t give a damn. The Spanish state is violating fundamental rights and liberties. Are those not founding principles of the EU?”
Other separatists feel the same way. Girona pro-independence Catalan National Assembly coordinator Adam Bertran said “(w)e were hoping for a Europe of democratic values, a Europe that defends human rights, defends non-violence and defends its citizens rather than its institutions.”
“But what we have seen until now is silent complicity with Spain” deplorable collusion with fascist repression.
Without supportive international pressure, mainly from Europe, PM Rajoy will continue operating extrajudicially.
The only solution is dialogue and compromise, along with ending regime repression, reinstating Catalan officials, releasing jailed ones, and dropping all unacceptable charges.
Otherwise, tensions will remain heightened and things will likely get worse than already, including other parts of Spain wanting separation from Madrid.
Overnight in Catalan communities, cars were torches and public bins set alight, multiple incidents reported. Electrical installations were affected.
So far the perpetrators are unknown, possibly right-wing thugs trying to intimidate separatists, more incidents likely to follow.
On Monday in a London Guardian op-ed, deposed President Puigdemont called Catalonia “the only territory in the European Union that has been denied the supreme law its citizens voted for; the parliament that its citizens elected; the president that this parliament elected; and the government that this president appointed in the exercise of his powers.”
By deposing Catalan officials and dissolving its parliament, Madrid acted “an arbitrary, undemocratic, (and) unlawful manner…interven(ing) in our self-government and the institutions that the Catalans have been building in our nation for centuries.”
“It committed a brutal judicial offensive to bring about the mass imprisonment and criminalization of candidates promoting political ideas that, just two years ago, obtained historically high levels of public support.”
It’s what democracy is supposed to be all about! Support more overwhelming on October 1 – a 90% + majority for independence from Spain by referendum, marred by Madrid-ordered police state violence.
Dismissing and banning Catalonia’s democratically elected government constitutes a high crime against rule of law principles – Europe complicit through silence and support for what demands condemnation.
False charges against Catalan officials include glaring irregularities, said Puigdemont – assuring unfair judicial proceedings against them, declared guilty by accusation.
“No crime committed in the name of the unity of the country will ever be prosecuted: not the violations of the secrecy of postal correspondence, nor the repeated restrictions on the right to freedom of expression, the blocking of websites without judicial authorization, arrests made without judicial order, nor the certification of a police brigade outside the law to illegally pursue pro-independence political leaders and the Spanish left,” Puigdemont stressed.
“(W)e will defend our rights to the end,” he concluded. Spain’s future in on the line.
Rule of law in the country is dead. It’ll take a nationwide convulsion to revive it.
