The Swiss parties ask their government to mediate between Spain and Catalonia

Five Swiss national councillors have made a written appeal to the Swiss parliament for the government to mediate between Spain and Catalonia. The question made is: ‘Given Switzerland’s neutrality and democratic tradition, is the Federal Council [government] prepared to offer our country’s “good offices” and intervene between Madrid and Barcelona?’

As we are informed by the Swiss press, those signing the petition are Mathias Reynard (Socialist Party), Yannick Buttet (PDC, Christian-Democrats), Oskar Freysinger (UDC, right wing) Beat Flach (Liberal Greens) and Balthazar Glättli (Greens). The only party that has not signed in the liberal PLR.

Here is the text of the appeal translated into English:

“Catalonia has a strong and unique identity that is obvious not only in its language and culture, but also in its ancient institutions. The discussion over independence is long-standing in the region and has gained much strength in recent years: in 2012 most of the elected deputies were in favour of the ‘right to decide’ and in 2014 a referendum was held on Catalan independence (the poll with a clear 80% in favour of independence received an immediate legal answer from the Spanish state).

Despite the blocking from Madrid, Catalonia aspires to democratically decide on its political future. On 3 August, the president of Catalonia dissolved the parliament and called plebiscitary elections for 27 September. If the pro-independentist lists win a majority of seats, Catalonia will make a unilateral declaration of independence.

In short, we state that:

The Catalans have repeatedly expressed their will to decide on their political future,

The Catalan executive has tried everything to fulfil the democratic mandate and allow the Catalans to vote within a legal framework,

Spain’s successive vetoes have put an end to the legal forms available to Catalonia,

The Spanish position appears to be contrary to correct international practice in democratic countries,

The Catalan executive has decided to organise plebiscitary elections,

Through its prime minister, Madrid has announced that in the event of victory for the independentists, it would consider the declaration of independence to be illegal.

We therefore ask the Federal Council to answer the following question:

Given Switzerland’s neutrality and democratic tradition, is the Federal Council prepared to offer our country’s “good offices” and intervene between Madrid and Barcelona?”