Council of Europe members denounce Spain’s violation of fundamental rights

Twenty-two members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have signed a declaration in favour of the “fundamental right to political representation in Catalonia” and supporting “the announced dialogue between the new Spanish Government and the Catalan one”.

In the text, the signatories denounce the fact that Spain is “denying the democratic right to take office of the elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Oriol Junqueras” and is trying to reject the rights of Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín. They also refer to the  “highly controversial sentence by the Spanish Supreme Court” against Catalonia’s pro-independence leaders. The statement ends with an appeal to dialogue: “We consider that is through dialogue and not repression that a constructive solution can be built”.

Signatories include members of all political families in various countries including Andrej Hunko (Die Linke, Germany), Momodou Malcolm Jallow (Left Party, Sweden), Tiny Kox (Socialist Party, Netherlands), Alvise Maniero (Five Star Movement, Italy), Lars Aslan Rasmussen (Social Democratic Party, Denmark), Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party, Scotland) or Thorhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Pirate Party, Iceland).