EU fears democracy

As the Catalan crisis reaches fever pitch, evoking chilling echoes of spain’s violent past, the silence of the Eu is becoming positively deafening.

it’s nearly a month since the Madrid government sent black- clad riot squads into Catalonia in a bid to prevent its independence referendum. They smashed up polling stations, attacked voters of all ages and two Catalan politicians were thrown in jail on charges of sedition.

since then, the hysteria has continued to mount, with mass demonstrations and threats of reprisals. The spanish prime minister has announced plans to sack Catalan officials and replace them with his own people, as each side furiously accuses the other of trying to stage a coup.

in any country this increasingly bellicose stand-off would be profoundly disturbing. in spain, which emerged from the dark shadow of Fascism just 40 years ago and where the bitter civil war is still within living memory, it’s terrifying.

Yet Brussels has absolutely nothing to say. ‘ There is no room, no space for any kind of mediation or international initiative or action,’ says European Council president Donald Tusk. intervention is ‘not on our agenda’.

isn’t it strange that the Eu is happy to interfere in such matters as how much VAT can be charged on tampons but when one of its member states is in the grip of a crisis, it is struck dumb.

The truth is that Brussels fears democracy. if Catalonia secedes, who will be next? Wallonia, Corsica, Transylvania? Only yesterday, two regions of italy held referendums on devolution.

All over Europe, the people are sick of being dictated to by remote political elites and are crying out for change. The rise of right- wing extremism in germany, Austria, the Czech republic and elsewhere is a chilling expression of this frustration.

With or without Brexit, the Eu’s very foundations are trembling.