Forcadell says her trial ‘puts democracy at risk’

The Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, lamented that the Spanish Government ‘is using the judicial power to limit the Parliament’s democratic right to debate’. ‘We can’t open the door to censorship because if we do, we won’t be able to close it again’, she warned and added that ‘no court could impede’ the Parliament from ‘discussing independence’. Forcadell considered bringing her before the Court ‘another step’ towards the Spanish State’s attempt to ‘violate the separation of powers’. Therefore, she warned that what is at risk with her trial ‘is not the political future of a person’ but ‘democracy’. During a press conference after her intervention before the Court, which lasted less than 40 minutes, the Parliament’s President thanked ‘the warmth and support’ she received from many political representatives but especially that from the citizens. ‘The people never let you down’, she added.

‘What happened today is inconceivable in a truly democratic state’, stated Forcadell because ‘ideas can’t be prosecuted under the penal code’. The Parliament’s President insisted that she ‘acted according to her functions’ when facilitating the vote on the pro-independence roadmap and defended that those topics which are discussed on the street ‘will always enter the Chamber’. ‘Today it is not only the Parliament’s president who is being attacked but the whole institution and its essence, which are debates and words’. ‘We can’t open the door to censorship because if we do, we won’t be able to close it again’, she warned.

In a similar vein, Forcadell criticised that ‘the executive power’ in the Spanish State ‘is using the judicial power to limit the Parliament’s democratic right to discuss, as simple and serious as that’. She warned that ‘if the Parliament accepts that there are issues which are not possible to discuss, democracy will have lost’. ‘What is at risk now is democracy rather than the political future of a single person’, she added.

Special thanks to the citizens
Forcadell thanked the Government, the 400 mayors from all over the territory, the political representatives from different parties, the trade unions and the several associations which supported her this Friday. They rallied around her on her way from the Parliament to the Court, expressing their solidarity towards Forcadell and criticising the Spanish courts’ judicialisation of politics.

However, Forcadell, who was founder and former president of the pro-independence grassroots association Catalan National Assembly (ANC) wanted to especially thank the citizens for their support. ‘The people never let you down’, she said.

Spanish Government: ‘There is no impunity in Spain’
The Spanish Government soon reacted to Forcadell’s statements. ‘Saying that justice is not independent in the Spanish State is not only false but unfair towards the judges’, the Spanish Government’s Spokesperson, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo stated in a press conference. ‘There is no impunity in Spain and everyone is subject to the law and to the actions of justice’, he added, emphasising that ‘nobody has carte blanche to disobey the laws and even less so those who have a public responsibility’.