Catalan Christmas Concert at the Palau de la Música

Every year in Barcelona, the city's great choral society -- the Orfeo Català -- puts on a Christmas concert on the 26th of December, Sant Esteve, which is also a holiday.  If you spent Christmas with your family, then you will probably spend Sant Esteve with your in-laws. 

The concert takes place in the great modernist (Catalan art nouveau) concert hall, the Palau de la Música, and all the different choruses of the Orfeo Català, children, chamber, adults, etc. participate.  This year's concert was one hour forty minutes in duration.  It was shown live on Catalan public television and here is a link to the video (which will begin with one or two advertisements, but have patience).  One song will run through the concert, the Catalan classic Fum, Fum, Fum.  And if you pay attention, you will see various members of the choruses wearing (of their own accord) yellow ribbons to remember the Catalan political prisoners imprisoned in Madrid.

http://www.ccma.cat/tv3/alacarta/programa/concert-de-sant-esteve-capitol-23/video/5711885/

If you don't want to watch or listen to the whole thing, you can watch this two-minute video of the finale, El Cant de la Senyera.  It's not the national anthem, but it is an anthem dedicated to the Catalan national flag.  And it is very beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO3R5Yh8O9M

Enjoy.

Catalan Elections and the Invisible Rabbit

Once again the Catalans landed a peaceful, democratic blow to Spain.   On 1 October over 2 million Catalans voted on the banned referendum that the Spanish government said would never happen and tried to block with 12,000 bat-wielding, riot-geared police.  The result was 2,262,425 votes counted (many ballots were stolen by the Spanish police), with 89% (2,020,144) voting Yes, and 7.8% (176,566) voting No.

This pissed off Madrid so it decided it would get rid of the Catalan government.  Never mind that it was a legitimate, democratically elected government.  The Spanish government made illegal use of Article 155 of the Spanish constitution – an article that says that the government is empowered to give directions to an autonomous community if it sees that things are out of control.  Rather than give directions to the Catalan government, it disbanded it and took over everything: the government, parliament, the economy, the police, agriculture, culture, even sending art works housed in a Catalan museum whose ownership was being disputed in the courts back to the complaining town they had come from years ago, before the final sentence of the judge.  They took over everything.

With half of the Catalan government in prison awaiting trial and others in exile escaping the Spanish government-run judicial system, Madrid also called for Catalan parliamentary elections, thinking this was a good moment for the pro-unity parties to win.  After all, the independence parties were incapacitated.  These would be “real” elections (unlike the banned referendum) run by a company owned in part by the Spanish government.  When Madrid said it would not allow foreign observers, people worried about the honesty of these elections.  And Catalan President Puigdemont asked if Spain would honor the results if the independence parties won.

Madrid said that now the silent majority of Catalans would have a voice.  Of course they had a voice in the September 2015 parliament elections and did not achieve a majority then, and anyone who wanted to could have voted – was encouraged to vote – in the 1 October referendum.  Silent majorities tend to resemble invisible rabbits and it would be interesting to see if Madrid could pull this rabbit out of its hat.

What it did pull out of that hat was a lot of repression.  Freedom of speech almost disappeared.  The Catalan public media was not allowed to call President Puigdemont “President Puigdemont” even though all former presidents maintain their title.  First yellow ribbons (in support of the Catalan political prisoners held in Madrid) were banned from all government buildings, then the color yellow was banned from everything – including night lighting for fountains.   Yellow scarves were banned.  Then, yellow ribbons began to appear everywhere: tied to trees, utility poles, bridges, balconies.

Passeig Maritim, Tarragona

Girona city hall

Citizens who demonstrated in protest of the Catalan political prisoners were not allowed to carry signs that said “Freedom for Political Prisoners.”  The signs were changed to read simply “Democracy” and those were banned too.  A few days before Thursday’s election, Spain’s vice president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, bragged at a meeting of the Popular Party faithful in Girona: “Who has ordered the liquidation of Catalan secessionism? Mariano Rajoy and the Popular Party. Who has seen to it that the secessionists don’t have leaders because they’ve been beheaded? Mariano Rajoy and the Popular Party.”  We all knew there was no separation of powers in Spain, and here was the Spanish vice president confirming it on television.  Rajoy had orchestrated the whole judicial procedure and there is no separation of powers between government and judiciary in Spain.

The independentists were not declared illegal, but, as Sáenz de Santamaría pointed out, most of the leaders were either in prison awaiting trial, in exile, or out on bail with charges of rebellion pending.  Any whisper of the word independence would put those people back in jail.  And so the campaign – hat tipped to favor the silent majority -- was under way.

On 21 December the Catalans (both silent and vocal) voted. 

The results were as follows: (the Catalan parliament has 135 seats and 68 are needed for a majority)

Pro-Independence parties (70 seats total)

JxCat:  34 seats, 21.65% of vote

ERC:  32 seats, 21.39% of vote

CUP:  4 seats, 4.45% of vote

Pro-Unity parties (57 seats total)

C’s:  36 seats, 25.37% of vote

PSC:  17 seats, 13.88% of vote

PP:  4 seats, 4.24% of vote

No stand on independence/unity

ComuPodem: 8 seats, 7.45% of vote

The party that won the most seats was Ciutadans – a pro-unity party.  The party that won the fewest seats was PP – the ruling party of Spain and the one that brought police violence and so-called Article 155 to the Catalans.  It fell from 11 seats to 4.  This is a notable result in that the PP is the ruling party in Spain while it is the least voted in Catalonia.  

The block that won the most seats and the majority of parliament was the independence block of three parties Junts per Catalunya (JxCat), L’Esquerra Republicana (ERC), and the CUP.  So much for the silent majority.

And what about that invisible rabbit?  Donald Trump sees millions of happy faces at an inauguration that was poorly attended because he is a man plagued by narcissism.   On the other side of the pond there are those who also don’t see reality, but in their case their vision is warped by political expediency.  This is why the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt sees invisible rabbits.  He could completely ignore the fact that the three separatist parties had won a total of 70 seats in the 135-seat regional parliament – ensuring a separatist majority – and instead congratulate the pro-Spanish Ciutadans (C’s) party which gained 37 seats, the largest single party but one without enough allies to form a government.  The Spanish president has the same vision impairment and did the same.  Not only that, but he announced that he would be happy to talk with the C’s leader while he stated he was not interested in speaking to Carles Puigdemont, the head of the independence block.  We are not talking here about good-natured Elwood P. Dowd who turns out to be wiser than many think.  These are political leaders who will not deal with reality, who are not democrats, and who are demonstrating that the EU has become an old-boys’ club led by people who see invisible rabbits.

What will happen now?  There are many questions pending.  The four Catalan political prisoners have court dates in early January to see if they will be released on bail.  If not, it would make it difficult for those elected to parliament to do their jobs.  If Carles Puigdemont returns to Spain will he be immediately arrested and also imprisoned without bail?  He is likely to be elected President of the parliament, but being imprisoned would make it impossible for him to serve.  Will the Catalans have the elected officials they voted for?  Or will they once again be decapitated by Rajoy?

After all the repression, the Catalans came out and voted once again for independence.  47.8% of the votes were for independence, 43.49% were for unity, and 7.45% were for neither.  Independence votes have been steadily growing.  In the September 2015 elections, the independence block won 1,966,508 votes, in the banned October referendum Yes won 2,020,144 votes, and on 21 December the independence parties won 2,063,361 votes.

There are those who say that independence does not have a majority of the population and that therefore independence cannot be an option.  But you could also say that unity does not have a majority and therefore unity cannot be an option.  If there are those who would be unhappy with the change, there are even more who are unhappy with the status quo.   In a democracy, the citizens would be able to vote on a referendum and decide the issue. 

In the meantime, the Spanish interior minister has decided that the 12,000 para-military police that he sent on 20 September to stop the referendum (which they did not succeed in doing given that all the ballot boxes appeared out of nowhere on the morning of 1 October, over 2 million people voted, and their votes were counted) can go home now.  They’ve been posted in Catalonia for three months.  After beating up unarmed citizens on 1 October, they haven’t had much to do except go out in their vans and helicopters from time to time just to make their presence felt and to intimidate people.  Every now and then a few would go into a bar and start a fight if they were spoken to in Catalan.  Once they started a fight when the two waiters spoke to each other in Catalan, but it turned out that they were speaking to each other in Italian.  How were the Spanish police to know it wasn’t Catalan?  They have nothing against Italian.  Mostly they sat on those ridiculous, expensive boats and complained about the food.

The cost of this police operation is a government secret.  Rajoy has made it so in order not to have to answer questions about it in the Spanish congress.  Estimates make it at about 80 million euros for the three months – just the ships they were housed on cost 300,000 euros a day.  Whatever the amount, it’s a lot of money for a sustained, failed enterprise.

Tweety in the Port of Barcelona

These police are called “Piolins” (Tweeties) by the Catalans.  This is because one of the boats they were housed in had Tweety and other Looney Tunes cartoon characters painted bigger than life on its sides.  Tweety is leaving.  How much longer will the invisible rabbit be with us?  

Catalans tell the E.U. to Wake Up

Today 45,000 Catalans went to demonstrate in Brussels.  Brussels is the capital of Europe, it’s where the European Union has its headquarters. 

Forty-five thousand is a lot of people.  That was the count of the Brussels municipal police.  The Belgian federal police estimated the count at 60,000.  They travelled 1,346 kilometers (836 miles).  It takes 13 hours by car or bus from Barcelona.  Going by plane is faster but it costs more.  A round trip bus ride costs about 100 euros.  There were 250 chartered buses and many regular and chartered planes full of Catalans.  And many people went by car and a few even in motor homes.  

Although a few went a day or two early or stayed a day or two afterwards, most went only to spend the one day.  Those who went by charter bus left Wednesday afternoon to sleep on the bus and arrive in Brussels on Thursday morning.  The demonstration started at 11 am.  They got back on the same bus that afternoon to travel by night and return home the next morning.  To spend the few hundred euros to go by plane or to put up with the discomfort of traveling two nights in a row on a bus takes determination.  The Catalans who went to Brussels were determined. 

Spain managed to convince the world that the referendum held on 1 October was illegal.  But there is nothing in Spanish law or the constitution that says so.  And if there were, there is the United Nations Charter of Human Rights, to which Spain is a signee, that says that all people have a right to self-determination.  So under international law, the referendum was perfectly legal.  Even so, the European Union has gone along with Spain to say that the referendum was illegal.  They also squirmed their way out of condemning the police violence on 1 October, which in any democratic context, is unacceptable, whether or not those going to vote were going to vote on a legal or illegal referendum.  Going to vote is not illegal and does not under any circumstances merit police batons hitting you on the head.

The 45,000 Catalans who descended on Brussels today did so for several reasons.  First of all they were there to show support for their democratically elected president who has not only been illegally removed from office by the Spanish government, but has also gone into exile to avoid charges of rebellion and sedition, among others, charges that stem from his having a different political viewpoint than the Spanish government has. 

Different viewpoints are not allowed in Spain – in fact, the Spanish government says they are unconstitutional -- and there was evidence that fair treatment and a fair trial would not be forthcoming.  Those government officials who remained in Spain were all hauled off to jail immediately from their preliminary hearing, before any trial, and even before any investigation into the charges.  And they have been sitting in jail, without benefit of bail, for over a month, until a few days ago, six of them were released on bail, while four others remain in prison, the judge saying that their release could explode into violence. 

Why suddenly worry about violence when there has never been any violence on the part of the Catalan independence movement?  Maybe the judge is worried about the Spanish fascists exploding into violence if the Catalans are released?  This could be a possibility since there has been violence at each and every one of the ultra-right fascist demonstrations.  But in that case, wouldn’t it be more just to imprison the fascists? 

It turns out that Puigdemont’s going into exile to Belgium was a good move because when the Spanish issued an extradition order, expecting the Belgian judge to pack Puigdemont up and send him back, the judge didn’t do that.  He gave the accused (Puigdemont and four of his cabinet who are with him in Brussels) over a week to prepare a defense to the extradition charges.  The accused in Spain were given 24 hours to do the same before they were sent off to prison without bail from their preliminary hearing.  After the hearing he reserved two weeks for his own decision.  And before the date set for his decision, the Spanish suddenly withdrew their extradition order.  Why?  Because it seemed that the Belgian judge was not going to honor it and that would make the Spanish look bad.  What are charges of sedition and rebellion that carry 30 years prison terms in Spain, are not crimes at all in Belgium.  Spain’s fame as the home of the Inquisition lives on.

Besides showing support for President Puigdemont and his four ministers, the Catalans wanted to bring the issue of the lack of human and civil rights that they are suffering to the door of the European Union, the international organization that was founded on the priniciples of ensuring those rights and who are seen as failing their EU citizens who live in Catalonia.  They have had their legally elected government deposed and replaced by political leaders in Madrid for whom they did not vote.  They consider it a coup d’etat.  They have leaders in jail without bail before any trial.  They are in jail for their political beliefs and that is not something the EU should tolerate.

Seven hundred Catalan mayors have been charged with disobedience for having made polling spaces available for the referendum vote.  Some have already been called to testify before the judge, others are pending.  Several people have been arrested by police for having said things critical of the Spanish government or the Spanish police on social media.  Broadcasters on radio are also being charged for saying things critical of the Spanish government or police.  The Catalan public broadcasting company is under constant scrutiny and daily threat of being taken over by the Spanish government if they utter a word that the government doesn't like -- such as calling President Puigdement "President Puigdemont."

Each day Catalans' civil liberties are being curtailed.  One day they can’t hang yellow ribbons from government buildings, the next day city governments are instructed to remove any yellow ribbons that citizens tied anywhere they might appear throughout the city – park benches, bridges, lamp poles, balconies, or be charged with disobedience. 

They can’t light their public fountains with yellow lights.  A group of seniors is prohibited from wearing yellow ribbons and scarves and demonstrating in front of their city hall in the town of Reus, demanding the release of the political prisoners in Madrid.  The right to demonstrate and protest is fundamental in a democracy, but Catalans are being prohibited from exercising those rights.  Catalans believe that if they want to wear yellow, they should be free to wear yellow.  Catalan media is prohibited from referring to President Puigdemont as “President Puigdemont” even though every ex-president is referred to in that way.  The media cannot say he and his ministers are in exile. 

Initial reports I’ve read in the foreign (English-speaking) press say that the Catalans went to Brussels to ask the EU to support their move for independence.  But that isn’t so, not that they wouldn’t like that.  They went to Brussels to show support for their president who was illegally deposed, with the consent of the EU.  They went to Brussels because two leaders of their legitimate government, the government they elected, are in prison as are two grassroots leaders -- all of them imprisoned without trial for their political beliefs.  These are political prisoners and Europe should be concerned.  They went to Brussels to tell the EU that it should be ashamed for having abandoned its founding principles of human rights.  They have abandoned their citizens -- all Catalans are EU citizens -- to repression by the Spanish government.  Frans Timmermans, the European Commission Vice President, gave a short, cynical statement after the demonstration today that if the Catalans don’t like the Spanish constitution, they should set out to change it.  But Timmermans knows that Catalans are a minority in Spain, and a minority cannot change the constitution when the majority does not want to.  The Catalans went to Brussels to tell the E.U. to wake up.  That democracy is threatened in Spain by flagrant repression, and if democracy is threatened in Spain it is threatened in Europe.

Spain Takes Note of Belgian Justice

The decision of Judge Llarena to withdraw the extradition order against members of the Catalan government in exile was meant to save face, but what it did was to highlight the anomalous functioning of Spanish justice for all to see.

It was possible that the Belgian judge would not approve the extradition order on the basis of doubt that the accused would receive decent treatment and a fair trial in Spain.  But word had it that the Belgian judge was not going to allow the charges of rebellion, sedition, or misappropriation of funds, leaving only the charge of disobedience.  Rebellion and sedition carry penalties of up to 30 years in Spain, while disobedience carries no prison sentence – only the possibility of the person being suspended from holding office. 

Llarena withdrew the extradition order of the president and his cabinet because he knew that there were only those two possibilities: (1) that the Belgian judge would not grant it - finding that in Spain there are no procedural guarantees for a fair trial, or (2) that he would accept it but limit the charges to disobedience.  This is because the charges of rebellion and sedition do not exist in Belgium, or in most other modern countries, having been condemned to obsolescence sometime after the middle ages, and a European extradition order must be for a crime that exists in both member states or appear on a list of 39 specified crimes.  In any case, even the Spanish definition of rebellion requires violence and there was no violence in this case.  And finally, in Belgian law, misappropriation of funds can only be applied when the accused has personally appropriated the funds and that was not in the accusation.  This would mean that Puigdemont and the four ministers, if extradited, could only be tried for disobedience, which carries no prison sentence. 

Either of these two outcomes – denying the extradition or reducing the charges -- would be a great embarrassment to Spain and the Spanish justice system.  When Llarena wants to hold a trial which could condemn the accused to thirty years in prison, and Belgium considers that at most they could be prevented from holding office, the difference in the possible charges and the penalty is so gross that it is inexplicable.   So to avoid the embarrassment of having to answer to the inexplicable, Llarena withdrew the extradition before the Belgian judge’s decision on the matter.

With the withdrawal of the extradition order by the Spanish, the Belgian judge has immediately withdrawn preventive measures (where unlike their counterparts in Spain who are in prison without bail, those in Belgium were free without bail but had to remain in Belgium and make themselves available to the court whenever called).  President Puigdemont and his ministers are now free persons except if they enter Spain where they would be immediately arrested to face charges of crimes that are not crimes in other European countries.

The first consequence of the withdrawal of preventive measures against the legitimate government of Catalonia will be that President Puigdemont, counselors Ponsatí, Serret, Comín, and Puig will be able to participate freely in the demonstration on Thursday in Brussels where it is expected that 20,000-30,000 Catalans will gather before the EU headquarters to demand that the EU uphold the basic human and civil rights written into its constitution and supposedly guaranteed to all EU citizens (Catalans included). 

They are coming to Brussels because the coup d'état against the self-government of Catalonia would not have been possible without the total support of the European Commission.  Claude Juncker made a bad decision for the interests of the Union and in terms of European morals and politics.

President Puigdemont made a statement from Brussels about the cancelling of the extradition order, saying that the “Spanish are not so brave when the world is looking at them.  When they can’t control the whole chain, when they don’t have judges who are friends, or prosecutors who are close to them, and they have the whole world looking at them, then they are not so brave.”

Puigdemont asked why the charges against the rest of the accused were also not withdrawn.  He said that they were victims of a political persecution for carrying out the mandate of the Catalan public that voted for them.  “That’s not a crime, that’s democracy,” he said.

He said the extradition order was withdrawn because Spain has realized that the accusations of rebellion and sedition are not acceptable in Europe and that Europe prohibits persecution for political crimes.  He also said that leaving Spain and going to Europe was a useful strategy because it brought to light the state of Spanish justice.

Belgium Looks at Spanish Justice

Carles Puigdemont and the four ministers: Toni Comin, Meritxell Serret, Clara Ponsati, and Lluis Puig (pictured at right) testified today before a Belgian judge who will decide whether or not to agree to the extradition of the five to the Spanish justice system.

The defense will argue that Spanish justice wants to try the five for their political ideas and decisions.  They say that Spain is not charging them for individual crimes, but for political decisions that were well known to everyone and for which they were democratically elected.

According to the lawyers, the Spanish National Court has delivered five arrest warrants with identical offenses for the five - disobedience, rebellion, sedition and embezzlement of public funds - although it does not provide details of how they were committed or make any distinction between the five accused, although they held different responsibilities as members of the government.  One lawyer says that Spain does not specify what actions their clients carried out specifically for committing these crimes.

The lawyers, moreover, specifically reject that Puigdemont and the four ministers, sacked by an illegal application of article 155 of the Constitution that the Spanish government activated, could be charged with any criminal offense derived from the exercise of their public function related to the voting on 1 October. According to the Belgian press, lawyers will defend before the judge that political action, if it is an offense, is not a criminal offense, which is why extradition should be denied.  The attorneys say that criminal law has nothing to do with it. It has to do with acts related to constitutional or administrative law. The European arrest warrant is political and manifestly abusive, they say.

According to Belgian law, the Belgian judge may reject a European arrest warrant if it is shown that the interested parties will be tried for their political convictions in the country that claims them. But the defense strategy goes even further: lawyers will argue that the crimes of sedition and rebellion do not exist as such in the Criminal Code of Belgium. If the offenses for which they are charged are not classified as criminal offenses in both countries-, the European arrest warrant can be rejected for that reason.

Lawyer and Belgian law expert Denis Bosquet assures that, unlike Spain, the Belgian justice system "is absolutely independent" of the political branch. "The first difference between Spain and Belgium is that Spanish justice has put the ministers who remained there to appear in the Spanish court in jail. And they are not bandits. They are people who, by virtue of a political mandate, have organized a referendum ". The Belgian lawyer claims to be "surprised" because the Spanish government and the king "have expressed themselves so freely and critically" about everything that has to do with the 1 October referendum vote and its judicialization. "I was very shocked to see Philip VI's speech because he talked about irresponsible behavior of politicians. If the Belgian king made such a comment, he would have a very serious problem. In addition, in Belgium such intervention of the justice system would be inconceivable in the face of a political problem."

The ministers who appeared before the Spanish judge were
all sent to prison without bail to await trial

Belgian law could also refuse extradition if it is shown that those affected will be tried for their political beliefs or if it is proven that their fundamental rights can be violated in Spain. The Belgian prosecutor's office may have doubts in this regard.  In the middle of the week he asked the National Court for additional information regarding the extradition demand that affects Puigdemont and four advisers. The Belgian prosecutor was concerned about the conditions of the prison where the five Catalan politicians would be housed if Belgium approved the extradition and he asked Judge Carmen Lamela for information about the Spanish penitentiary system. In particular, he asked what prison the members of the Government would enter, what kind of cell they would be held in - he was even interested in the square meters - and how would their day to day would be in jail.

The Belgian prosecutor's office was also interested in procedural issues, such as what will happen when the president and the ministers arrived in Madrid, if Belgium accepts to approved the extradition, and which court will judge them. Finally, Belgian law asked for clarification about the information provided by Lamela (the Spanish judge in this case) in her account of alleged crimes committed by members of the Government, such as dates and details of the 1 October referendum vote.

Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said yesterday evening that the Spanish National Court had already sent all the additional information to Brussels. "Nobody in Europe will give us lessons on the exemplary rule of law," said an offended and arrogant Zoido.

Although it is not in their defense briefs, perhaps Zoido’s words will also be taken into consideration by the Belgian judge, who might think that asking for information in order to fairly view a pending case is simply part of his job and be put off by the exhibition of Spanish arrogance on the part of the Interior Minister, the person responsible for Spanish justice.

The judge heard the allegations of the Spanish prosecutor today.  The proceedings for the defense have been adjourned until 4 December after which the magistrate will have one or two weeks to study all the documentation provided by the defense of the members of the Government and issue a resolution. If he rejects the extradition warrant, the Belgian prosecutor's office – but in no case the Spanish - could appeal the decision if he deems it necessary. In the event that the judge gives a green light to extradition, the five members of the Government will be able to appeal twice.

According to data collected by the European Commission, Belgium arrested 74 people for arrest warrants issued by other member states, 17 of which - one in five - were not extradited by decision of Belgian law.

The fact that the two civil leaders and the eight ministers who presented themselves before the Spanish judge are all in jail awaiting trial while the Catalan President and other four ministers who presented themselves to the Belgian judge are free while awaiting their extradition hearing says a lot about the difference between Spanish justice and Belgian justice.  If Puigdemont and his ministers had not gone to Belgium and involved the Belgian justice system in this case, they would all be in jail in Spain, and the rest of the world would not know much about it.  Now, everyone is watching.

Comparing Apples to Apples

When politicians speak of a silent majority, beware.  Pay attention and see if you can find evidence of that majority.  Where are they hiding?  In the case of the PP in Catalonia, their silent majority never receives as much as 9% of the vote.  And they are not hiding, they simply do not exist.  The silent majority who would vote for PP, who like the fact that their elected government has been taken over and their legitimately elected leaders are in jail does not exist.  If you believe in it, you probably also believe in the great pumpkin.

Spanish President Rajoy is here in Barcelona today stumping for his party (the PP) in pre-campaign mode leading up to the elections he called for 21 December.  According to Spanish law, it was illegal for him to call elections.  That is the prerogative only of the President of the Generalitat (the Catalan government).  But he did it anyway and no one in the EU or anywhere else bats an eye because he says it is legal.  It’s reminiscent of Trump who says his Muslim travel ban is not a Muslim travel.  There are lots of people who believe that too.  But fortunately for Americans, they are not the ones in the judiciary.  Spain does not have that safeguard.

In his speech today Rajoy claimed the elections would be “clean, fully democratic,” as well as “with transparency in their development and scrutiny,” unlike, he said, the illegal referendum that had no legal guarantees.

But his elections do not replace the referendum.  They replace the clean, democratic elections with all legal guarantees that took place in Catalonia on 27 September 2015, when the current (or recently eradicated) Catalan parliament was elected.  That parliament, the elected President, all the ministers, have been thrown out, told not to return to their elected posts or face charges of disobedience.  Most of that government is in prison and the rest are in exile in Belgium.

The referendum, that, according to international law, was not illegal, did not have the legal guarantees because Rajoy destroyed those guarantees.  It could have and would have been perfectly clean and fully democratic if left to be carried out as planned.

So if Rajoy wants to talk about clean, fully democratic elections, let him compare the one he has called with the one he obliterated.  Let him compare apples with apples.

Brussels Examines Spanish Justice

Self-determination is legal under international law and yet Spain keeps talking about the illegal Catalan referendum on independence, and world leaders, the EU, and most of the international press repeats that phrase like a mantra.

If the referendum really was illegal, will the more than 2 million people who managed, in spite of thousands of Spanish police swinging clubs, shooting rubber bullets (that really is illegal in Catalonia) and dragging women by the hair to keep them from voting, all be arrested and tried?  For what?  For sedition?  Rebellion?  For voting?

So far the 2,262,425 people who managed to vote can relax.  The Spanish are not coming after them with warrants.  Not yet.  But 712 Catalan mayors are being charged with disobedience in connection to the referendum, having made their local polling stations available for the vote on 1 October.  The presidents of the two large grassroots organizations that, for the last six years, have organized the massive, peaceful demonstrations, that in the beginning were for the right to vote and that eventually evolved into pro-independence demonstrations (the public becoming more fed up each year with the repressive actions on the part of the Spanish government), they have been imprisoned without bail, pending trial – some day -- for sedition.   The charges against them made by the attorney general were received and accepted by a judge of the Audiencia Nacional, even though the charge of sedition does not fall under the jurisdiction of that court but must be heard by a higher court. 

700 mayors and 2 grassroots leaders are not enough.   The Spanish have also come after the legally elected Catalan government – the government that the citizens of Catalonia voted for two years ago.  Eight members are already in prison, without bail, pending trial for sedition, rebellion, and misuse of public funds (for buying voting boxes and printing ballots).  They were given less than two days’ notice of their hearing and their request for an extension, to provide time to prepare a defense, was denied by the judge of the Audiencia Nacional, the same judge who sent the two grassroots leaders to prison without bail before any trial.  After the hearing the eight were hauled off in multiple police vans with their hands handcuffed behind their backs, without protection of seatbelts, subjected to various big and small bits of humiliation on the part of the Spanish police.

There are six more, including the president of the Catalan parliament, who also were given less than two days’ notice but who, upon petition, were given additional time to prepare their defense.  Because of their political standing, they are being investigated by a different judge in a different court – the Audiencia Suprem.  Everyone is waiting to see if they too will be sent off to prison without bail while awaiting trial.

The list of Catalan criminals who tried to follow through on their election platform of holding a referendum, a referendum that is legal under international law is still longer.  Catalan President Puigdemont is in Brussels with four of his ministers.  There they are waiting to see if the order for arrest and return to Spain will be honored by the Belgian justice system.

When Puigdemont first appeared in Belgium on Monday, 30 October, after the Catalan parliament had declared independence on Friday, people were surprised.  You could say they were very surprised.  People here didn’t understand at first why he had gone, and neither did the press.  But he came on television to explain and then things started to unfold.

For the most part, the international press ridiculed him.  One paper said he had brought his circus to Brussels.  Others were only just slightly less rude.  Puigdemont speaks five languages: Catalan, Spanish, French, English, and Romanian; he tends to make his public addresses meant for the international press and audience in one or more of the first four, but for the most part, it seems that international journalists don’t understand any of them.  Definitely the Spain correspondent for the New York Times always manages to misrepresent what Puigdemont says no matter what language he says it in.

Puigdemont left Catalonia because there was a real probability of violence against the public if he had stayed.  If he and his government had insisted on entering their offices and carrying out their business, the police would have come to remove them, other officials and civil servants and members of the public would probably have tried to protect them from being removed (like thousands of anonymous people tried to protect voting boxes from Spanish police on 1 October), and Spain would have had the perfect excuse to use far more violence than they had on October 1.

President Puigdemont’s exile in Brussels (together with four of his ministers) has been ridiculed, and those frustrated Spanish authorities and members of political parties who would like to see him in jail have said he is frightened, self-serving, evading justice, and betraying his comrades who remained in Spain to face the music.

However, Puigdemont and all his ministers had discussed the situation and each decided for himself what he would do.  Some decided to remain in Spain, the rest decided to go to Belgium.  This was an agreed upon strategy and it was a good one.

Those in Belgium would remain free, at least initially, to tell the world what is happening.  And they are doing that.  Puigdemont’s first press conference attracted more media representatives than any press conference he has had while in Catalonia.  People are interested.  The world wants to know.  And at least for now, he is free to explain. 

And explain he does.  No longer feeling constricted by diplomatic niceties, he now explains how it is that the Spanish state’s actions are fascist.  Dissolving a legitimately government because you don’t like their political opinion and putting them in prison is fascism.  Taking over all aspects of an elected government is fascism.  The political party that governs Spain is a political party that wins less than 9% of the vote in Catalonia.  Catalonia now has lost the government it voted for and has one imposed on it that represents a tiny minority of Catalan voters.

But maybe most important of all is not what Puigdemont is telling the world, since much of the international press, although they talk about it a lot, they don’t actually tell their audience much.  What is important is what Puigdemont’s presence in Brussels demonstrates.

In Spain, elected government officials were given less than 24-hour notice to appear in court, hardly time enough to make personal preparations or prepare a defense for the preliminary hearing.  They were sent from the preliminary hearing to prison, handcuffed and humiliated along the way.

On the other hand, Puigdemont and the four other cabinet members, who knew, as we all did, that the arrest and return order had been sent to the Belgian police, made contact with the Belgian attorney general through their lawyer and made an agreement that the five would present themselves to the police without having to suffer the indignity of the police having to come and arrest them.  By the end of the day, a judge was appointed to hear their statements and that judge, a Belgian judge, decided that they were free to leave the courtroom but had to remain in Belgium, inform the court of their address in Belgium, and make themselves available to the court when called.  Not only was there no preventive prison, there wasn’t even any bail set.

Without having to say anything, this shows the difference between the way the Spanish and the Belgian judicial systems function in regard to the same charges.  It raises the question of an element of bias and revenge in one case, contrasted with purely legal considerations in the other.

Puigdemont knew very well what he was doing when he went to Brussels.  He is showing the world what kind of government Spain has, what kind of judicial system Spain has.  The world is beginning to recognize this and more and more voices are speaking up to condemn Spanish actions.  It is only the EU officials, all of whom are members of versions of the same political party as Rajoy, who continue to support him. 

Puigdemont was brilliant to take the issue of Catalan independence and Spanish justice to Brussels.  He said at the beginning that he did not believe he would get justice in Spain.  And now he has put that accusation before the Belgian courts.  Now a Belgian judge will review the Spanish accusation and Puigdemont’s defense, which includes legal points as well as the methods employed in Spanish courts and the treatment that the accused receive.  If the Belgian judge decides, in the end, not to accept the order to return Puigdemont and the others to Spain, what a blow that will be to the claim that Spanish justice is fair and that it is not in the pocket of the government.

If he had remained in Spain he would be in prison by now.  And from prison he wouldn’t be able to speak to the press and keep the issue of Catalonia before the eyes of the world.  It is still possible that Puigdemont and the others will face trial in a Spanish court.  If any or all of them are tried and convicted, those convictions would first have to be appealed until it reached the highest Spanish court.  Only then could it be taken to the World Court, and that could take as much as ten years.  In his move to Brussels, his appeal to an international court, although not the Hague, was achieved immediately.  People who never heard of Catalonia six weeks ago are paying attention, and the world is watching.

Banging Pots Is Not Violence

Spanish leaders never tire of talking about the rule of law and the constitution.  They insist that the Catalan referendum was illegal.  Is that so?  My understanding is that the Spanish constitution talks about the indivisibility of Spain, but there is nothing that says that referendums are not allowed, and in fact, they have been used throughout the country for various issues. 

Democracy is defined as government by the people.  The people exercise their democratic rights by voting to elect representatives or voting on referendums to give their opinions on specific issues.  If it is true, as those in Madrid say, that a referendum on independence is illegal, then Spain needs to consider that international law contradicts and overrules that.  A vote based on the right of self-determination is protected in the United Nations Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which Spain is a signatory, and is a right of all peoples.  If the Spanish government doesn’t know this, surely the EU does.

But you don’t need to study the Spanish constitution or international laws and treaties to understand that voting is a basic right in any democracy.  It is the only concrete way that citizens can choose their leaders and tell them what they want them to do.  Any country that doesn't allow it doesn't provide democratic rights to its citizens.

In the recent crisis in Catalonia, two civil society leaders were charged with sedition and sent to prison, without bail, to await a trial that could take years to happen.  These are the two Jordis, Jordi Sanchez, leader of the Assemblea Nacional Catalana and Jordi Cuixart, leader of Omnium Cultural.  These two organizations have been the driving and organizing force behind the massive pro-right-to-decide, pro-independence demonstrations that have been taking place over the last six years.  Both Jordis are known pacifists who have always in every public appearance, called for peaceful, civil demonstrations, and the Catalans have always taken heed and done exactly that.  Catalans (and others) consider them to be political prisoners as they have done nothing illegal, have never engaged in or advocated violence, and are being charged and being held without bail before trial, for their beliefs.

The two Jordis are the only Catalans in jail so far.  But there are hundreds of others who have been charged and called to testify before judges, in advance of possible indictments.  These include dozens of government officials, 700 majors of towns throughout Catalonia who made the usual polling places in their towns available for the referendum vote on 1 October, and several citizens, some of whom have been charged with violence for having defended themselves from police attacking them with clubs.  These people were unarmed.  One threw a chair, causing a Spanish police agent to fall.

There are the higher level government leaders, the former President of the Generalitat and former ministers who have already been indicted for various crimes related to the organization of an earlier referendum – an unofficial “consultation” that had no legal consequences but was a way of allowing citizens to express their opinion on whether or not they wanted independence.  It was basically an opinion poll.  This was held in November 2015 and was also deemed illegal, thus the indictments.

Now charges have been filed against President of the Generalitat Puigdemont, President of the Catalan Parliament Carme Forcadell, all the ministers and others from the government and parliament.  They are being charged with sedition and rebellion, never mind that rebellion is defined as employing violence and the only violence employed so far was that of the Spanish police on 1 October (the Spanish government says there is no reason to investigate that violence that resulted in over 1000 citizens being injured and treated by the public health service because the police were just doing their job).  Given that there has never been any violence within the independence movement or on the part of the government, the attorney general had written in his charges that violence could have resulted or could result in the future.  The charge of rebellion is the most serious of all the charges and can carry a penalty of 30 years in prison.  It is hard to understand how people could be so charged on the possibility of something that didn’t happen but might have. 

When the current, legitimate Catalan government was elected in September 2015, they ran on the platform of holding a referendum, setting up the mechanisms for a new state, and declaring independence if the pro-independence vote won in the referendum.  This platform was filed, as required, with the elections supervisory committee in Madrid when the candidacy was set up.  Puigdemont, in his press conference today, asked how was it that now people could be charged with such serious charges when they were completing what their platform had stated and what the people had voted for?

It is likely, if not certain, that if Puigdemont were to present himself before the judge, as he has been ordered to do at the end of this week, he will end up like the two Jordis – instead of testifying and going home, he’d be sent directly to jail.  His bail has been set at 6 million euros.  Before becoming president two years ago, Puigdemont was a journalist and mayor of Girona.  He’s not Donald Trump and hasn’t made a career of political corruption.  How is he supposed to come up with 6 million euros?

Rajoy has imposed elections to be held on 21 December.  Legally, only the President of the Generalitat can call for elections, but Rajoy is using an interpretation of the constitution in invoking Article 155 that goes far beyond what is actually allowed in many aspects of the Madrid takeover, not just the pending elections.  No attorney general or Spanish judge has called him on it, and none will.

Catalans were worried that the pro-independence parties would be deemed illegal and not allowed to run.  So far that hasn’t happened and I don’t think it will because Madrid has another way of dealing with the problem of the pro-unity parties losing.  Today, the Vice President of the Spanish senate has said that if pro-independence parties win the election, they will impose Article 155, the government takeover, again. 

In a shrewd move, on Monday, Puigdemont went to Brussels, the capital of Europe, with seven of his cabinet members, four women and three men.  On Tuesday he held a press conference that those of the press club where it was held said never had so many cameras in the room.  When the press conference began, it went live around the world.

He spoke in four different languages and told the world that he and his cabinet were not seeking asylum; they were there because they weren’t safe in Spain; that they were peaceful people and didn’t want to achieve independence with violence; that the road ahead was long; that they would participate in the elections called for 21 December; and that they were in the European capital so that Europe would react to the situation.

Puigdemont had time to respond to five questions from the press: Euronews, BBC, Sky News, TV3 (Catalan television), and Belgian television.  The Spanish media were pissed that they didn’t get a chance to put forward a question.  They were also pissed that most of Puigdemont’s talk was not in Castilian (could it be that the Spanish journalists did not understand any of the other three languages?).  Puigdemont had delivered his talk in Catalan, Castilian, English, and French – most of it was in French.  “Vergüenza,” they said afterwards, referring to Puigdemont’s polyglot performance and not their own ignorance.

After Puigdemont finished and they were leaving, a Catalan who works for one of the Catalan MP’s went offside with some of the press and suggested to them that they read the charges of rebellion against the Catalan government.  What they cite as violence is the banging of pots that people do on their balconies when they protest.

Puigdemont and the Catalans may not win their struggle for independence by convincing the public of their cause yet it doesn’t hurt to have the public on your side.  No one who pays attention can be very impressed with the lies told publically on Spanish and international television (including the recent BBC interview with Foreign Affairs Minister Dastis who said the videos of the police violence on 1 October were fake news).  Spaniards can be fooled, but the BBC had its own cameras and crews there and knew better.  

Puigdemont doesn’t tell lies.  And he chooses his audience strategically.  Going to Brussels, the capital of the European Union, was good strategy.  Europe has chosen to ignore the police violence, the abuse of civil and human rights, the cessation of a democratically elected parliament and government, the incarceration of political prisoners, and the unconstitutional direct rule imposed by Madrid. (If anyone in Europe wanted to read the Spanish constitution they would see that what Rajoy is doing goes far beyond what is constitutionally legal.) 

The most important thing that Puigdemont said was a question.  Will Madrid recognize the results of the elections they have called for on 21 December?  If the pro-independence parties win another majority, will that vote be respected?  Yesterday the Vice President of the Spanish senate said that if pro-independence parties win, Spain will again impose direct rule.

Puigdemont, with this trip to Brussels, has brought the problem to Europe, physically, laid it at its feet, and told then to react.

The Legitimacy of the Catalan Referendum

I didn't write this, Tom Harrington did, and it was published in ARA on 5 October 2017, the day after the Catalan referendum on independence was held:

"One the more popular arguments now being employed but those who are against the separation of Catalonia from Spain but who do not want to be seen as lining up with the political philosophy and violent tactics of the Rajoy government is the following:

"I'm all for the Catalans being able to vote on independence. But there is no way that we can use a referendum such as the one that took place on Sunday as a basis for such a change. It simply did not meet the basic level procedural rigor needed to legitimate such a momentous social transformation".

As first glance this seems like an extremely reasonable posture. Who is against doing things, especially historically momentous things, with the highest level of procedural rigor? Certainly not me.

When, however, we subject this argument to a few basic queries, it's essentially disingenuous character becomes readily apparent.

Do you remember all the procedurally pristine processes that led to the independence (and, in numerous cases, subsequent rapid entry into the EU) of countries like Kosovo, Croatia, Slovenia and a long list of others? I don't either because they didn't take place. And I certainly don't remember any of today's legion of new born "proceduralists" raising any objections about it then.

What took place was that EU leadership class led by Germany saw in these countries a new set of relatively virgin markets that were also filled with low wage labor that would allow them to serve, In Emannuel Todd's Words, as Germany's "Near China".

Arguably more important than this was NATO's –which is to say the US's– desire to surround the former Soviet Union with countries loyal to its geopolitical aims. They knew that by pressuring the Europeans to swiftly acquiesce to the independence of the newly declared independent countries of the east, they could quickly corral them into serving as part of the US's emerging anti-Russian coalition, an absolutely essential element of the American's long-term geopolitical plans.

In addition to avoiding these realities, the new army oh-so-concerned proceduralists obviate the fact that from the very beginning of the current drive for independence in 2010 it has been the Catalanists who have talked constantly about the need to carry the referendum off in the most transparent and clean way possible, only to be told again and again by the Spanish state that there is nothing to talk about.

To hold up pristine procedure as a fatal strike against the Catalan cause when their interlocutor will not allow talks about proper procedure to even begin, is tantamount to ostracizing a woman who finally walks out the door of her house after having had her perennial requests for a peaceful, no-contest divorce dismissed out of hand by the man she no longer loves.

Finally, if there is one thing that established states can always do, as we saw on Sunday in a particularly crude way, it is to sabotage the "procedures" of the incipient states within their borders. To appoint the potential saboteur of the procedure, in this case Spain, as the judge of proper procedure in the region seeking independence, is to hand the established state an effective veto power sine die in the conflict.

I don't remember anyone granting the Serbs or the Russians this absurd privilege. Why are supposedly liberal and democratic people bending over backwards to provide the Spain with this outsized prerogative?

Keep these things in mind the next time some apparently well-meaning person tells you they'd be in the lead car of the train for the Catalan "right to decide" were it not for the lack of procedural guarantees in last Sunday's referendum."

The Spanish want to make the Catalan language illegal (like it used to be under Franco)

The link is to an article about seven agents of the Spanish National Police who started a fight in a bar in Barcelona yesterday.  Off-duty and drunk, they mistook the Italian waiters for Catalans (not knowing even vaguely the difference in the difference in how the two languages sound) and demanded that they speak Spanish (among themselves) because "Barcelona is Spain!".  

This kind of thing doesn't happen every day, but if you live here, you're not surprised when it does. There was recently an incident at the Barcelona airport when a traveler was speaking Catalan and a Spanish police agent arrested him for not speaking Spanish.  

The Spanish Guardia Civil and Police National are typically antagonistic with Catalans and the Catalan language, which they, for the most part and in spite of some of them being stationed here for their whole career, don't speak. When I first came to live in Barcelona and was being bothered and followed by a beggar on the street, I went up to two National Police to ask for help, speaking in Catalan. They made like they didn't understand what I was saying. I realized afterwards that if I had spoken in English, they would have figured it out. Thinking I was a tourist, help would have come. Thinking I was a Catalan, they couldn't care less, even though it was their job to do something. 

That experience colored my perception early on as to how to view and behave with the Spanish police forces. It's a little like blacks in America, an experience I also had when I was visiting in Los Angeles with my black boyfriend and we were arrested for driving in a car with stolen license plates even though the car was mine and I produced the car registration. But that's a long story. Just to say that blacks in America don't trust police for good reason, and here I feel the same with the Spanish police.

Spanish Police Say Tweety Sucks And So Does The Food

One odd story today in the midst of all the news about the Spanish takeover of the Catalan government that is about to happen on Saturday.  Before the 1 October referendum, Madrid sent 12,000 paramilitary police to make sure the referendum did not happen.  These 12,000 agents were unable to find a single voting box but they did find a few million paper ballots.  They were supposed to keep the citizens from voting, but in spite of beating up over 1000 unarmed voters, over 2,300,000 voters managed to slip in between the armed thugs and cast their ballots.

These official thugs are housed in three ships -- one of which lacks the dignity that official thugs should receive because of the cartoons of Tweety and friends painted on its sides.  The police are still being housed there, more than a month after they've arrived.  And they have now complained to the Spanish Minister of Security that they don't like their accommodation.  The food stinks.  The housing is unacceptable.  And the worst of it all, they've found out that they get paid less than the Catalan police do.  Holy Mother of God!  They are pissed off and threaten to take action if something is not done.  I wonder that that action might be.  Maybe they'll chuck it in and go home?

Catalonia. Spain. Twilight for Europe

He explains it better than I can.

By Otto Ozols

I am writing this text on October 15, two weeks after the historical referendum in Catalonia which Spain tried to wreck with brutal police methods. In spite of endless threats and violence, 90% of Catalans voted for independence. The Spanish police confiscated countless ballot boxes, so it is not clearly known how many people took part in all. As I write this text, the president of Catalonia has suspended a declaration of independence for some time, thus once again giving Spain an opportunity to start a dialogue. So far, this proposal has been rejected, and we cannot know how this will end. In the past, Spain has categorically rejected any discussions and any call for dialogue 18 times. For many years, Spain has ignored millions of the country's residents.


So what exactly happened in Catalonia and contemporary Europe on October 1, 2017? To put it very briefly and clearly, people and democracy were kicked brutally and massively. The most terrible things happened afterward, however. It turned out that a twilight of true double morality and collective cowardice has appeared in Europe. The idea that present-day Europe is democratic and seemingly enlightened proved to be a pitiful illusion. Europe reminded me of a village in which the largest elder of a home brutally attacked the smaller and less defended other side simply because the smaller one wanted to engage in dialogue, have voting rights and have the right to make a choice. What was he thinking?! What kind of democracy is this?! It was like in the darkest Dark Ages. The smaller one was told to shut up, and after he refused to obey, he was thoroughly whipped in a merciless, public and offensive way. There was not even any mercy when it came to women and elderly people. 

What did the rest of Europe do? Yes, it just watched, issued some kind of cowardly mumble so as not to offend the big and fat one. Europe simply turned its back on more than two million of its European brothers and sisters, also threatening that in the case of divorce, they would simply be kicked out of the village. The shameless, little and haughty Catalans are dreaming about the right of self-determination?! Has the UN Human Rights pact anything to say about this?! What else? That pact has lots of things to say. They only apply to super-nations and the elect caste -- Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Scots and other first-class nation. No one said that out loud, but the attitude was very clear, indeed. 

Let no one doubt the fact that hundreds of ultranationalists in Spain went into the streets and raised their arms in a way that terribly reminds us of the times when people were divided up between "Übermensch" and "Untermensch." Some nations deserve 100% human rights, while others deserve less. Does this mean that the political elite in the EU really believe that the Catalans belong to these "incomplete ones"? Is it not really the case that a spiritual twilight has once again begun in Europe? Europe's leading politicians and the mainstream media are ready at other times to spend month after month yelling about ultra-radicals and the rebirth of Nazism, but now they are suspiciously quiet. In the village of cowards, it is dangerous to loudly criticise the large and mighty neighbour. That might mean that the cowards themselves would be seriously harmed. 

Many European politicians with serious faces repeated Spanish propaganda that said that the Catalans had violated the Spanish Constitution. These hypocrites probably haven't even read it. They haven't even read the first article which says that Spain is a democratic country. You know what a democracy is? It is a system in which people are free to express their views and in which the freedom of speech and assembly are respected and protected. What happened in Spain? The police simply beat up people who wanted to peacefully express their views by voting, and ballot boxes were taken away by force. Is that democracy? Can it really be that the senior politicians in Europe have lost their minds? This is democracy that can only be part of the understanding of Vladimir Putin, perhaps. 

If we continue to discuss the Spanish Constitution, then we must remember articles 96 and 10.2, which clearly state that Spain must observe international agreements that it has signed. If local laws are in violation of these agreements, then international agreements must still be observed. That's written in the Constitution. The aforementioned UN Human Rights Treaty states clearly in its first chapter that all nations have the right to self-determination, and it is on the basis of such rights that nations can freely determine their own political status and freely ensure their economic, social and cultural development. Spain ratified the treaty in 1977, which means that the right to self-determination of the Catalan people must be observed. Do Spain and its friends feel that UN documents can be viewed selectively? Here we come to an even darker twilight zone. People have been looking through their fingers at fundamental principles related to human rights and democracy that are enshrined in international law. The Soviet Union and its leaders used to do that. The Soviet republics theoretically had various rights, including the right to withdraw from the USSR, but anyone who dared to speak about his or her democratic rights was immediately grabbed by the police, and imprisonment was guaranteed. 

There will be those who will say that it is impossible to compare Spain to the Soviet Union. Euroskeptics do tend to claim that the European Union is similar to the Soviet Union, but Europeans with good faith will say that this is absurd. They are right. But if the police officers of a European city are allowed to beat up unprotected people who had different thoughts and believed in the freedom of speech, then one fine day we will go to bed in the EU and wake up in the USSR. The sad fact is that the twilight of democracy usually sneaks up behind us without us even noticing it. 

Back during the Soviet era, police officers could beat up those who thought differently in the streets. The Stalinist regime punished whole nations and millions of people. In the Soviet Union, the media in the imperialist centre could spit on journalistic ethics and demonise their opponents. That's exactly what is happening in Spain right now. Major newspapers and television channels in Madrid are not far behind the worst examples from the Kremlin regime. The Soviet Union, too, had judges who were appointed by politicians and who tried politicians who satisfied the will of voters, not the orders of the imperialist centre. Will you still say that the comparison to the Soviet Union is absurd? Think again. 

You probably think that there are essential differences between the European Union and the Soviet Union. I will remind you that the political elite in the USSR had to agree on collective and public lies. Leaders at various levels publicly repeated absurd lies on the basis of commands from higher-ranking leaders, and no one believed those lies. After the mass attack against unprotected voters in Catalonia, Spain announced that maybe just two or four people were injured. What followed in Europe was a pitiful farce. As if they had been ordered to do so, government ministers and politicians in many EU member states repeated these obvious lies. The world's leading media outlets, where there are strict editorial selections and only trusted materials are printed or broadcast, reported that several hundred people were beat up and injured. Respectable human rights organisations confirmed the same. The politicians had clearly seen and understood this, but they nevertheless repeated the absurd lies that Spain had dictated. This was shameful for the politicians and their citizens, and this discredited Europe as a union that is based on democratic principles. The most terrible thing, however, is another comparison with the Soviet Union. Politicians and diplomats joined together in mendaciousness even though they knew perfectly well that they were wrong and that citizens did not believe them. Yet more evidence of a twilight in Europe. Of course, there were a few honourable exceptions. The Slovenian parliament voted to denounce the violence of Spain's government and police and supported the right of Catalonia to self-determination. The prime minister of Belgium also plucked up the strength to object. Those, however, were rare exceptions. 

Now, you may be thinking that this author is a terrible Eurosceptic who wants to eliminate peace and mess up Europe's unity. Here we must return to the Soviet Union, where critics of the regime were given stupid names. No, I am not a Eurosceptic. I love Europe, but one in which fellow citizens are not beaten up just because they imagined that they might have the same right to self-determination that was enjoyed in the past by Norwegians, Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, and many other nations in Europe. Politicians in the aforementioned countries sometimes try to justify their cowardice with another totally idiotic argument, to be perfectly honest. They say that Catalans, unlike nations in the former Russian Empire, have nothing to worry about, because Spain is a democratic country in which no one oppresses them and so on (sometimes people are just beaten up, face lies and are tried in court in a politicised way). That's why Catalans should not even talk about the right to self-determination. Here we must cry oh Britain, poor Britain! If we follow along with this "wise logic," then we have to conclude that Great Britain is not a democratic country, and this is why the Scottish people were given the right of self-determination. That is what we must conclude from what has been said. 

We are told that Queen Elizabeth purred joyfully when she learned that the Scots voted in a referendum to remain part of the United Kingdom. Still, what did she say in advance of the referendum? Elizabeth II was laconic and said "a result that all of us throughout the United Kingdom will respect." She and other Brits thought that Scots are and will be a nation with full rights, one that deserves the same rights as any other nation. The British government did not think that Scots could not make their own decisions or that they are an underdeveloped pseudo-nation that is unable to take independence decisions without the supervision of "older brothers." This has nothing to do with different constitutions or laws, but it has everything to do with attitudes. After the orgiastic violence of the police in Catalonia, the king of Spain said nothing at all that would indicate that he understands or feels sorry for the Catalans. Apparently the Spanish elite feel that the Catalans, as a nation, are not even worthy of dialogue, to say nothing about the choice that was given to the Scots. If the Catalans try to state their choice, they must be brutally beaten up and humiliated, and apparently that is all fine for the king. Can we now complain that the Catalans no longer want to hear anything about this monarch? 

The sad fact is that even seeming societies in Europe have various false biases about the Catalans. These are spread by Spanish ultranationalists, and many people uncritically believe what they say. We must remember that the Catalans are not a Spanish sub-nation, and the Catalan language is not a dialect of the Spanish language, as many believe erroneously. The Catalan language is internationally and academically recognised as a unique and separate language. Any more or less educated person has seen the global language tree in which the Roman language branches have separate twigs. Let me stress that these are separate twigs related to Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French and also Catalanlanguages. The difference between Catalan and Spanish is at least as large as that which exists between Norwegian and Swedish, Estonian and Finnish, Ukrainian and Russian, and Latvian and Lithuanians. The Catalans are one of the oldest indigenous nations in Europe, and they have their own and unique language, history and identity. 

At a time when twilight is covering Europe, it is time to remember something that was once said by one of the most brilliant thinkers of the 20th century, the outstanding diplomat and former president of Estonia, Lennart Meri. In 1993, he delivered an important speech that was titled "Where Does European Identity Begin?" The things that Meri said about Ukrainians can now be applied to Catalans: "Any nation that faces a rejection of self-determination rights suffers a slap against its self-confidence." True, Catalans were publicly slapped and kicked in modern-day Europe in 2017, and the European Commission declared that the police acted appropriately. The European Union and Spain have demonstrated the same haughtiness toward the Catalans that Putin once demonstrated toward Ukrainians, declaring in a conversation with the president of the United States that Ukraine is not a real country, which suggests that Ukrainians do not deserve their own country. The same attitude right now is seen in the attitude that the EU and Spain display toward the Catalans? Does that not suggest darkness of mind? 

In another famous speech, this time in Salzburg in 2000, Lennart Meri spoke very important words that can certainly be applied to Catalonia: "Our world is not growing, but the number of countries in it increases. There are no signs of this tendency abating. The number of small countries is continuing to grow, and it would be light-minded of the world to close its eyes to this reality. The number of small countries can only grow on the account of big ones. In the democratic parts of the world this growth serves to reduce tensions and evoke new creative potential, whereas in the non-democratic parts of the world it increases tensions and induces new crises. The latter is especially valid for the regions where colonialist relationships nurture totalitarian regimes or vice versa, where totalitarian lifestyle has preserved colonialist relations." Here we must remember that Catalonia is not a "small" country. It has 7.5 million residents, and in this sense it is much larger than Denmark, Norway, Finland, or the three Baltic States taken together. In terms of economic capacity, it has one of the most dynamic and powerful economies in all of Europe. 

Short-sighted European politicians are talking about the threat that Europe might split up. Just look at a map that is 150 years old. There was no Ireland, no Norway, no Finland, no Czech Republic, no Hungary. Most European countries did not exist at that time, but now they do exist. Has that weakened Europe? On the contrary, Europe is more unified, peaceful and powerful than any time before. Can we imagine Europe without the aforementioned countries? Should it return to the old empires and patronage in the name of greater stability? No. Europe's creative strength is based specifically in the diversity of nations and the respect of nations. Europe is endangered not by a diversity of countries, but instead by conflicts among nations that have not been resolved for a long time, by human rights violation and by unacceptable state violence against its own citizens. Human rights organisations are starting to talk about human rights violations not just in Russia, Africa and other unstable regions; they are now talking about Europe. 

Europe's might is not based on natural resources such as oil, gold or gas; it is based on values that are the foundation for European stability, welfare and development. If we betray these values, we open the door to Europe's dark past. In the 1930s, Europe watched as a major power betrayed democracy, bartered the interests of smaller nations, and created a gruesome catastrophe. The foundation for all of this was the betrayal of democratic values, turning them into Realpolitik coins. This was done in the seeming name of peace, but stable peace cannot be achieved if its' very foundations are destroyed. 

What to do? First of all, we must understand that we have gone much too far. We must also understand that Catalan independence is inevitable. No relations that are based on violence can be sustainable, and that must be understood by Europe and by Spain itself. The sooner this happens, the better it will be for everyone, particularly Spain itself. Spain cannot prevent Catalan independence, just like one cannot change the flow of a rapid river with a fork. Spaniards and their politicians, of course, must demonstrate extraordinary courage in accepting the fact that Spaniards and Catalans can be brothers and good neighbours, each in their own country. They can be allies at the regional and international level. 

There is no doubt that Catalonia will be an independent and internationally recognised country. We must accept this fact and understand it, and the path toward that moment must be taken respectfully, as is appropriate for a union of democratic and wise countries. It is time for Europe to dissipate the twilight that has settled on its mind. The attack that took place in Catalonia on October 1 was not waged only against Catalans. It was an attack against the very foundation of Europe – the principles of democracy and human rights. If Europe proclaims democracy, but applies it selectively, blindly accepting large, mighty and pernicious countries that leave smaller and less protected nations in the hands of destiny, then it is basically descending to the level of Putin's Russia. That is a road to nowhere. It is time for common sense to return. If unprotected Catalans were beat up today, then someone else will be beaten up tomorrow. Maybe even you. Because European societies will be accustomed to the fact that there are certain times when we must keep quiet and turn our heads in a different direction. 

It is time to respect Catalan courage and to insist that senior politicians in European countries immediately return to the highest fundamental principles of democracy. This requires great wisdom, smart courage and true strength of spirit of the precise type that we are currently seeing in Catalonia. The Catalans deserve being heard. They deserve respect. They deserve independence after many centuries during which they have suffered endless persecution, language bans, concentration camps, forced emigration and the murder of their leaders. People in Europe who continue to believe in the ideas of democracy must not be threatened or beaten up. Every honest European must defend them.

Otto Ozols is a Latvian journalist and writer.
This article was first published in DELFI, by the Lithuanian Tribune and appears here with permission of the author.