CATALONIA
"Spain's democracy and EU credibility are at stake in Catalonia"
OPINION · "The EU politicians, including in Sweden, should already have
understood that the crisis in Catalonia will not blow over by itself. On
the contrary, the more the EU allows time to go, the more the problem
will be deepened and the contradictions to increase further, "writes
Oriol Poveda and Jakob Svensson.
Left: Carles Puigdemont. Right: Protesters show support for Catalonia's
Deputy Regional President Carles Puigdemont, who has taken refuge in
Brussels. Photo: Emmanuel Dunand
If we had said that in 2018 there had been a elected EU regional
president in exile in Brussels, as well as political prisoners in an EU
country for over 100 days without trial, no one would have believed us.
If we had continued to tell that Nobel Peace Prize EU did not do
anything to solve the situation politically, most had enough laugh and
thought it was a plot for another day of the day television series. But
it's not just the EU that tigers still. In Sweden - whose government
likes to brag about its feminist foreign policy and how much they value
dialogue and diplomacy - we hear nothing but the Foreign Minister's
mantra that Europe does not need more disagreement and fragmentation. We
live in a bizarre era with Trump, Erdogan and Putin and the needle in
the ethical compass of Europeans may have started to spin around in
confusion . But for this sake, we must not turn a blind eye into what is
happening in the EU's internal circle.
We have seen a referendum, disputed yes, met by police superpower. Then
we witness a choice imposed by the Partido Populars (PP) right-wing
government in Madrid, as independence parties again win with their own
majority in the Catalan Parliament.PP's strategy of the lightning
election was to remove the independence forces from the Catalan
government and to appoint a similar rule. The victory of independence
parties, with over 2 million votes in the election, caused PP to panic
and went over to dismantle the rule of law. The Spanish independence of
the Spanish courts is already questioned by the heavy bodies , including
the Council of Europe. Even in the British journal The Economist's
report on democracy in the world in 2017, it is pointed out that the
Spanish Government's handling of the crisis in Catalonia is oppressing
democracy. The Madrid government recently tried to get the
Constitutional Court against the judgment of its legal advisory body
forbid the Catalan couple the lament to appoint Puigdemont to president.
The government's quirky request faced disagreement in the Constitutional
Court, which eventually ordered the Catalan Parliament to postpone
appointment to an uncertain future. Over time, the Catalan political
prisoners continue to wait for trial while Puigdemont and four of his
former regional ministers await their fate in exile. And all this is
happening in a blissful silence from the EU. Who had hoped that when the
dust from the police batons had gone, and a miraculously elected
election by all parties, it was implemented that there would be time for
politics and dialogue.
We have gotten wrong. Where is the EU? When does the negotiations
between the independence parties and the Spanish central government
begin? And what does the Swedish Government consider that we have a
democratically elected leader who can not access his post in an EU
country? EU politicians, including in Sweden, should already have
understood that the crisis in Catalonia will not blow over by itself. On
the contrary, the more the EU allows time to go, the more the problem
will be deepened and the opposites to increase further. It is now that
the EU must intervene if they want a proper, peaceful and democratic
solution to the conflict. And if the EU is too weak to force the Spanish
Government into the negotiating table, then it would be more honorable
to admit this to us citizens than to tease and in this way be implicated
in the actions of the Spanish Government. Not least, if the Foreign
Minister continues to claim that splitting and disagreement is not
desirable, she becomes the answer guilty of cohesion is worth every
price, including the well-being of the Spanish democrat and the
credibility of the EU.
