Catalan MEPs report Forcadell’s prosecution to European Parliament plenary session

A Catalan MEP from left wing pro-independence party ERC, Josep Maria Terricabras, and Ramon Tremosa, representing the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT) have called for an EU response regarding the proceedings against the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell. ‘Don’t be indifferent to the actions of the Spanish State against Catalan democratic politicians’, stated Tremosa during Monday’s plenary session, held in Strasbourg, and which revolved around EU fundamental rights. In this vein, the PDeCAT MEP called for not letting Spain ‘undermine with all impunity’ the ‘democratic and fundamental European rights’ of the Catalan people. In a similar sense, Terricabras noted that Spain’s Rule of Law doesn’t always have the reputation it deserves, since Forcadell will have to face trial ‘for allowing a debate on Catalonia’s independence’ in the Catalan Chamber.

‘We don’t want a EU of double standards’, stated Tremosa and compared the discussions about ‘the possible violations in Hungary and Poland’ which were held in the European Parliament to the lack of comments about ‘what is happening in Catalonia’. The PDeCAT MEP noted that the Spanish court ‘the follows instruction of the Spanish Government’ and emphasised that in the last elections held in Catalonia, on the 27th of September 2015, ‘pro-independence parties obtained an absolute majority in the Parliament’. Thus, he addressed EU Commissioner for Justice, Vera Jourová and asked her not to be ‘indifferent to the actions of the Spanish State against Catalan democratic politicians’. ‘Don’t let Spain undermine with all impunity our democratic and fundamental European rights’, he added.

‘When we talk about the Rule of Law, we sometimes forget the situation in some of the Member States which have a reputation which is not always deserved’, stated ERC MEP, Josep Maria Terricabras and emphasised that he was referring to Spain. ‘Next Friday the Parliament’s President will have to testify before the court for allowing MPs to debate on Catalonia’s independence’. Terricabras described Forcadell’s prosecution as ‘a grave violation of freedom of speech, which is universally recognised for those representatives who have been democratically elected’. 

‘Democratic regression in Spain’
Two weeks ago, Catalan MEPs from ERC and PDeCAT sent a letter to the 751 members of the European Parliament explaining Spain’s judicialisation of politics. Under the title ‘Democratic regression in Spain’, the document itemised ‘some information on political trials against Catalan pro-independence politicians in Spain promoted by the PP Spanish Government’, which, the letter nuanced, was ‘only voted for by 11 of the 47 Catalan MPs in the Spanish Parliament’. The document criticised the summonsing of Forcadell for ‘allowing a parliamentary debate on independence’ and also reported the ‘secret’ debate ‘held behind closed doors’ which allowed the case against former Catalan Minister Francesc Homs for co-organising the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014 to proceed. An episode which was described in the letter as ‘a shameful moment for Spanish democracy’.