European politicians lament absence of international observers at referendum trial

A group of European politicians have travelled to Madrid to follow the Catalan independence trial and insisted that international observers should have been allowed in the courtroom during the hearings. “It’s difficult to give a comprehensive view of what’s going on when you’re only here for a couple of hours” said Magni Arge, a member of the Danish parliament from the Faroe Islands.

Arge and other MPs in national parliaments, as well as members of the European Parliament like José Bové, were allowed to enter the courtroom during witnesses’ testimonies on Thursday morning.

Je suis observateur au procès des prisonniers politiques catalans aujourd’hui. Et j’assiste à un procès politique à charge qui traite de nos droits fondamentaux, de nos droits à la démocratie. Il concerne tous les européens #JudiciaAlaDemocracia #LlibertatPresosPolitics pic.twitter.com/9elHSVddRm

— José Bové (@josebove) February 28, 2019

“It looks very civilized in the outside, but how civilized is it in the inside and over the long-run? That’s a completely different matter” said Arge in an interview with Catalan News. The delegation includes members of the EU-Catalonia Dialogue Platform, encompassing MEPs from different parliamentary groups and countries.