CATALONIA
Catalonia. Spanish government pressure continues
Baylac Ferrer
The
South Catalan news continues to be monopolized by the laborious and
complex negotiations between the independentist parties ERC, Junts per
Catalunya and CUP on the one hand. And on the other hand by the Spanish repression, continuous and inexorable, against the Catalan society.
The difficulty of reaching an agreement for a Catalan government lies
in the inflexible position of the Spanish government which refuses any
political dialogue, which intervenes by all means (threats, lawsuits,
imprisonment) to prevent the inauguration of the president of the Generalitat
, and the will of the Catalans to solve the equation: designate an
effective government that can administer the country and at the same
time restore the legitimacy of ministers and elected officials
imprisoned and exiled.
The room for maneuver is very narrow as Madrid maintains the
announcement of the use of force (prison, courts, suspension of
autonomy) against policies that do not suit him.
Exiled Brussels President Carles Puigdemont and Parliament Speaker
Roger Torrent, however, announced on Saturday (February 17th) that
negotiations are progressing and that the solution for the election of
the government is near.
On Friday, February 16, thousands of Catalans demonstrated in front of
the town halls to demand the release of the five political prisoners
still held without trial and subjected to the limitation of their rights
as well as permanent vexations (prohibition to listen to the mass,
refusal of send letters and books, punishments for having made
interviews, refusal of rapprochement in Catalan prisons ...).
The Spanish government has also announced its intention to curb the
teaching of Catalan and to close TV3, the television of Catalonia, to
"clean up". He also wants to introduce a bill to make it impossible for prisoners of rebellion and sedition to be pardoned.
Spanish pressure is also exerted on the French border where Spanish
police have demanded from North Catalan drivers (French citizens) to
remove Catalan adhesives from their license plates, continue to carry
out strict identity checks and search cars, without any reaction or
complaint from the French government.
The measures are to be compared with the demonstrations of support and
solidarity of the northern Catalans with their compatriots in the south:
solidarity soups, public demonstrations, commemoration of the
Republican refugees of 1939 in the presence of the president of the
Catalan Parliament, printing of posters in defense of the prisoners ...
