BRIEFING
Yesterday evening, hundreds of thousands of people rallied across Catalonia in
protest against the imprisonment of the presidents of two pro-independence civil
society organisations.
At the request of the Spanish Government, the Chief and a deputy official of the
Catalan police as well as the leaders of the two main pro-independence civil society
organisations had appeared before the Spanish National Court to face
charges of
sedition
(an offence punishable with 4-15 years imprisonment). While the two Catalan
officials were ordered to surrender their passports and report to court in two weeks, the
two civil society leaders were sent to prison without bail
1
as petitioned by the
Spanish prosecutor.
These events come after
2,262,424 Catalans cast their vote in a referendum on
self-determination on 1
st
October 2017,
in spite of the violence used by Spanish
police forces, which left 893 injured
2
. The implementation of the results (90.09% of
participants backed independence) was temporarily put on hold by the President of
Catalonia on 10
th
October, given the calls for dialogue received from several European
governments, international figures and institutions, in order to allow for negotiations to
take place.
However, the judicial measures taken on Monday against Catalan officials and civil
society leaders are just the latest example of
the continued refusal from the Spanish
executive to engage in a dialogue
with the Catalan Government to address the
current situation. Indeed, that morning,
the President of Catalonia had addressed a
letter to President Rajoy asking the Spanish executive for a meeting to
“seek
solutions by way of dialogue”
and
“find
a solution rather than generate
confrontation”.
However, a few hours later,
the Spanish executive responded
ignoring the call for a meeting and setting a new deadline (tomorrow, 19
th
October at 10 am) after which measures will be taken to intervene the self-
government of Catalonia.
As the Catalan Government has stated on countless occasions
–and
still believes-
a
process of dialogue and negotiation is in the interest of all parties
in order to
avoid unnecessary social and economic tensions. The same openness to dialogue and
negotiation will inspire any response of the Catalan Government.
However, in the current context, the Catalan Government cannot accept a legalistic
entrenchment from a Government which bases its positions on biased interpretations of
the Law and the Constitution, and which has repeatedly infringed them (as illustrated in
the
attached document)
when, for instance:
1
2
See, in this regard, Amnesty International Spain’s
statement
asking for their release.
See, in this regard, the
report
of the independent investigation conducted by Human Rights Watch.