Catalan crisis Belgium’s ‘nightmare’, ties at risk
‘Puigdemont fuelling tensions’
BRUSSELS, Nov 7, (Agencies): The Catalan crisis is being called a “nightmare” and a “time bomb” for Belgium’s government.
The outlawed independence referendum in Catalonia hasn’t just sparked a political crisis in Spain. The flight of the region’s ousted president to Brussels is sowing divisions within the Belgian government and looks set to damage ties between the two European Union partners.
Even as Carles Puigdemont and his lawyer were questioned by an investigating judge on Sunday about his extradition, members of Belgium’s government, Belgian politicians and Spanish officials were trading barbs in the mainstream and social media.
Most vocal are members of the Flemish nationalist N-VA party — a key member of Belgium’s ruling coalition and whose separatist desires appear to have been inflamed by Puigdemont’s most recent drive for Catalan independence from Spain.
“I am just questioning how an EU member state can go this far,” Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Jan Jambon told the VTM network Sunday, in reference to the jailing of several of Puigdemont’s associates in Spain last week.
Puigdemont maintains that his arrival in Brussels is about raising the profile of Catalan nationhood at European level, and not to interfere in Belgian politics, or “Belgianize” politics in Catalonia. But his stay is being dubbed “the Belgian government’s nightmare” in the media.
“The dossier is a time bomb for the federal coalition,” wrote the daily Le Soir.
Criticism
Very little criticism of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government has been voiced by Spain’s 27 EU partner countries, but Belgium did condemn the violence, much of it blamed on police heavy-handedness, that marked the Oct 1 referendum in Catalonia.
Around 900 people were hurt — nearly all of them minor injuries. Spain’s government defended the police response, saying it was proportionate to the resistance officers met on the streets. “You have Spanish law but also international law, the European Human Rights Treaty and such things and they come ahead of member state law,” Jambon said. “I think the international community must keep a close watch.”
On Twitter, a close Rajoy ally and member of the European Parliament, Esteban Gonzalez Pons, wrote that “a year ago, Jambon who is defending Puigdemont, was justifying collaboration with the Nazis.”
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has tried to stay above the fray, refusing so far to comment on the case of Puigdemont and four of his associates in Belgium.
Still, that hasn’t stopped Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders from weighing in.
“There has been excitement around this dossier that exceeds the limits of what is reasonable,” he told broadcaster RTL. “Some people are getting involved in Belgium and commenting on the crisis when it’s not their role.”
“The first thing to do is keep the dialogue open with Spain,” Reynders added.
Meanwhile, a Spanish member of the European Parliament said Monday that the sacked Catalan president, who is in Belgium awaiting possible extradition to Spain, was being used to fuel tensions between French- and Flemish-speakers.
In a series of statements and tweets since Sunday, Esteban Gonzalez Pons, a member of Spain’s ruling Popular Party, also denounced Belgium’s interior minister for accusing Madrid of mismanaging the secessionist crisis.
“There is no conflict between Belgium and Spain but there is an internal conflict between Belgians, between Flanders and Wallonia,” he told Spanish television, referring to the Dutch-speaking northern and French-speaking southern regions.