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In a statement, the European Democrats, who hold 11 seats in the European Parliament, praised the Luxembourg court's confirmation that the law is compatible with EU law, thus reinforcing the legitimacy of a law that seeks "political and social normalization in Catalonia." The European ruling considers that the amnesty does not violate EU law or affect EU financial interests, and places it within the competence of member states. The European Democratic Party (EDP), a transnational political organization, consists of 20 national member parties and currently holds 11 seats in the European Parliament as part of the Renew Europe group.
"The Court of Justice of the European Union has confirmed that Spain’s Catalan amnesty law is compatible with EU law.
This ruling helps close a conflict marked by tensions and the exile of democratically elected Catalan representatives. We welcome it and we look ahead.
Catalonia’s political future must be decided through democracy, dialogue and respect for its people, and in full respect of the rule of law.
Catalan voices must be fully heard, including in the European Parliament."
In response to two separate requests sent by Spain's Court of Audit and the National High Court for a preliminary ruling, the latter tied to the case in which Puigdemont is under investigation for terrorism, the Luxembourg judges have confirmed the view (source in Spanish) already set out by the institution's Advocate General last November. Even though the law was passed under very particular circumstances, as a condition imposed by the ERC and Junts parties for backing Pedro Sánchez's investiture, and without consulting European courts, Advocate Dean Spielmann already gave the text the green light at the time, arguing it had been approved "in a genuine context of political and social reconciliation" and ruling out that it amounted to a "self-amnesty".
At
dawn on October 15, 1940, Lluís Companys, then President of Catalonia,
was put before a firing squad in the moat of Montjuic Castle in
Barcelona and shot. The detail of soldiers executed the sentence of a
court martial, pursuant to regulations recently imposed by General
Franco's fascist regime. The German Gestapo had handed over to their
fellow Spanish Secret Police only a few months earlier a 58 year old man
who represented a country they wanted to ridicule in defeat and to
teach a lesson for the future. |
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At
dawn on October 15, 1940, Lluís Companys, then President of Catalonia,
was put before a firing squad in the moat of Montjuic Castle in
Barcelona and shot. The detail of soldiers executed the sentence of a
court martial, pursuant to regulations recently imposed by General
Franco's fascist regime. The German Gestapo had handed over to their
fellow Spanish Secret Police only a few months earlier a 58 year old man
who represented a country they wanted to ridicule in defeat and to
teach a lesson for the future.
On
August 13, 1940 began what would become a dark chapter in the history
of Catalunya. The Franco regime was about to perpetrate a unique crime:
the murder of a democratically elected President. Six men stormed the
residence of Lluís Companys, President of the Catalan government, at La
Baule in Brittany. He was captured by four men in German Nazi police
uniforms and two civilians. One of them was Pedro Urraca Redueles,
officially a police attached in the Spanish embassy in Paris, in reality
a spy paid by the Franco regime to serve as liaison with the Gestapo
and the Vichy Regime and to coordinate in part the repression of Spanish
republican exiles in France. On that day Lluís Companys started a
journey that would end tragically two months later, on October 15, 1940,
with his execution in Montjuïc, Barcelona, after an illegal ... read more
Just
after Hitler’s armies had defeated France, Franco's Government took
advantage of the victory of its Nazi allies and began to act against the
Republican exiles in French territory. On the one hand, it tried to
destroy all the organizations that the refugees were maintaining in
exile and to expropriate their properties and documentation; on the
other hand, with the collaboration of Germany, it tried to get various
Republican personalities who were in the "German-Occupied Zone" arrested
and transferred to Spain, while getting others who were in the Vichy
"Free Zone" arrested and extradited ... (read more)
The event organized in Barcelona this Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the 1-O, the self-determination referendum held on October 1st, 2017 was attended by 60,000 people. What was most evident was the vast divide separating the thousands of
people who gathered in front of the Arc de Triomf in defence of the
validity of the referendum, and Catalonia's Republican Left (ERC) political leadership that has abandoned the 1-O.
In fact the dismissal of vice president Jordi Puigneró (Junts) by president Pere Aragonès (ERC) only three weeks after the Diada demonstration from which the ERC leadership absented itself, is already clear. The first signs were given at the very start of the event, when it was recalled that the Spanish state's repression had, among other consequences, led to the situation of there being five people in exile who were unable to come personally to Barcelona. The names of Lluís Puig, Clara Ponsatí and Toni Comín, from the Junts space, received loud applause, and this multiplied when the name of Carles Puigdemont was read, prompting a shower of praise and chants of "president". Only one of the figures in exile was criticized: the name of the ERC general secretary, Marta Rovira, provoked jeers among the public.
The ERC space also could not avoid the crowd's derision, a few moments later, when senior ERC figure Carme Forcadell went on stage. During her speech, calls of "traitor" and "out" were heard among the public: "Many of you are angry, disappointed and disillusioned. I understand that and I share it.", she said. But it 's too late. Her party is sinking day by day.
Carles Puigdemont and the ANC get all the warmth
Carles Puigdemont, the president-in-exile, who spoke live via telematic means, was enthusiastically welcomed by an audience that, for long periods, remained silent listening to his words. A tranquility that was broken after several messages from Puigdemont, such as his "immense thanks" to the citizens who made the 1-O possible, his warning that those "delusional undertakers" should give up any hope that the people will forget about independence, and his defence that "there is no need to repeat" any referendum because the 2017 one is still valid, as opposed to the "clarity" proposal of the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès. Even his appeal for the unity of the independence movement was well received: "The only table to which we must chain ourselves is the dialogue table between the siblings of Junts, ERC, the CUP, Òmnium and the Assembly". Unlike the other speakers who spoke along these lines, Puigdemont was applauded.
The Catalan National Assembly (ANC), as well, was welcomed with open arms. In her speech, Dolors Feliu saw how her strategy, marked by the desire to put an end to the dialogue table with the state and start a new democratic attack in the short term, was strongly applauded. Her criticism of the "immobility" of the parties was warmly received by the public, as well as her call to "open new paths". Thus, the ANC president returned to the threat of a early election and a civil list, bypassing the parties, if the Catalan government does not comply with its pro-independence mandate.
Appart from the Barcelona's event there were meetings all over Catalonia and a rally in Girona where hundreds burned the ERC's effigy portrait and a Spanish banner.
On Friday, it was announced that the Elna City Council would go to trial following the decision of the councilor plenum to modify the municipal regulations to recognize the right of councilors to use Catalan, as long as the interventions are fully translated into French. The Intermunicipal Union for the Promotion of Occitan and Catalan Languages (SIOCCAT), that there are at least fifteen northern Catalan municipalities that will also introduce Catalan into the municipal regulations. If nothing else, there are Banys and Palaldà (Vallespir), Espirà de Conflent, Estagell (Rosselló), Formiguera (Capcir), la Menera (Vallespir), Tor de França (Fenolleda), Pesillà de la Ribera (Rosselló), Portvendres (Rossello), Ralleu (Conflent), Sant Andreu de Sureda (Rossello), Sureda (Rossello), Tarerac (Conflent), Trillà (Fenolleda) and Vingrau (Rossello).
Some of these councils have already received a threatening letter from the prefect demanding that they back down, and, according to SIOCCAT sources, some councils have already given up. Rodrigue Furcy, prefect of the Department of the Eastern Pyrenees, justifies the ban on Catalan by adding that article 2 of the French constitution says that the language of the republic is French. He also argues that French courts have ruled several times that plenaries in a language other than French are illegal.
The United Nations’ Human Rights Committee has stated
that Spain “violated” the political rights of four formerly jailed
Catalan leaders, convicted for their roles in organizing the 2017
referendum on independence.
The opinion was released on Wednesday and refers to the fact that former vice president Oriol Junqueras, together with former ministers Raül Romeva, Josep Rull and Jordi Turull were stripped as MPs before having been convicted in October 2019.
During their pretrial detention, the four former Parliament members brought their case to the Committee, alleging that their suspension from public duties, prior to any conviction, violated their political rights under Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In October 2019, the four of them were convicted of sedition, a crime that does not include the element of violence, as opposed to rebellion, and their suspensions were lifted.
Taking note that the four complainants had urged the public to remain strictly peaceful, the Committee considered that the decision to charge them with the crime of rebellion, which led to their automatic suspension prior to a conviction, was not foreseeable and therefore not based on reasonable and objective grounds provided for by law.
“The Committee took an important step in affirming that the safeguards against the restrictions of political rights must be applied more rigorously if these restrictions occur prior to, rather than after, a conviction for an offence,” said Committee member Hélène Tigroudja. “The decision to suspend elected officials should rely on clear and foreseeable laws which establish reasonable and objective grounds for the restriction of the political rights, and must be applied based on an individualized assessment. Such an approach and safeguards are the best way to ensure respect for institutions and to promote the rule of law in a democratic society,” she added.
The Catalans for Independence formation, created by former members of the ANC leadership, dissatisfied with the mandate of Elisenda Paluzie, gathered a hundred people yesterday in front of the Palau de la Generalitat, in a rally led by the slogan “we will not vote us again ”. During the event, a manifesto was read in which the group declares that they feel cheated by the "15-M scammers", referring to the City Council, and by the "October 1 scammers , referring to the Generalitat (Catalan autonomous government). "We are not in rebellion, but we no longer recognize you, and that is why we will not vote for you again," they said, addressing the current pro-independence deputies. The formation, created in 2021, aims to "bring together pro-independence activists who are not willing to give up the October 1 mandate or wait for future generations to implement it."
The pro-independence parties have won more than 50% of the vote in elections in Catalonia for the first time. The sum of ERC, JxCat, CUP, PDeCAT, Primary and FNC has been imposed on a total of 837 of the 947 Catalan municipalities. This is a higher figure than in 2017, when the pro-independence formations that presented themselves achieved this in 815 municipalities.
The turnout goes down from 79,09 % to 53,54 % amisdt the pandemics. Pro independence parties go down a 30 % but the pro Spanish go down a 40 % in spite of the rise of Vox, a new Fascist party which bursts in with a 7,7 %. The Catalan Independence front goes from 47.5% to 51.14% thanks to the decrease in participation that most strongly affects Spanish nationalism. Despite the advances it loses 630,000 votes. mainly due to the decline in ERC (-35%). JxCat and PDeCAT also collect 32% less votes than in 2017 and the CUP is down 3%. The Spanish forces lose 40% of the vote (the independence setback is 30%). C'anos falls 85%, PP 41% and Comuns 40%. All this makes it easier for Spanish nationalism to go from 65 to 61 seats, while the independence frontgoes from 70 to 74 MPs.
Although the three pro-independence forces of 2017 went from 2,079,000 votes to 1,360,696 and, as a percentage, only grew from 47.5% to 48.01, the presentation of other lists allows it to grow to 51.14% :
ERC 21.30% 33 MPs
JxCat 20.04% 32 MPs
CUP 6.67% 9 MPs
PDeCAT 2.72%
Primary 0.21%
FNC 0.18%
SCat 0.01%
MCR 0.01%
Overall, 1,448,901 people voted for pro-independence forces and 1,347,103 for Spaniards in the absence of a foreign vote.
