EU must tackle human rights in their back yard
A EUROPEAN government have locked up democratically elected political opponents – we should all be outraged.
In a week when politics has been dominated by the harassment scandal, it has been easy to miss the story that Spain has jailed Catalan leaders.
Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is currently in Brussels waiting to hear if Belgian courts will execute a European arrest warrant for him issued by Spain.
Whatever your views on the independence of Catalonia, the recent actions of Spain should be condemned.
Unbelievably, the European Union have so far been silent, so I was pleased to see more than 100 academics call on the them to do more in an open letter to EU chiefs Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk.
The letter points out that the actions of Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, in supressing the referendum and disbanding the Catalan parliament “constitute a violation of the Rule of Law” that needs to be probed by authorities.
The letter goes on to point out that the way in which the Spanish authorities have been handling the claims to independence, expressed by a significant part of the population of Catalonia, violates the law.
And quite simply, the way Spain is treating its political opponents – by making them political prisoners – cannot be left as an internal matter for Spain.
When Catalan authorities went ahead with holding an independence referendum, Madrid responded by sending in riot police with batons and rubber bullets to try to stop people voting.
The scenes on the news, of people
I HAD a lot of sympathy for Prue Leith, the Bake Off judge who mistakenly tweeted about the winner of last week’s finale Sophie Faldo – 10 hours before it was revealed on air.
We’ve all made mistakes – pressed send on that email too soon, sent a text to the wrong person.
So I was pleased to see in among the vitriol online, there was support from fans too.
old and young being intimidated by police, often beaten, were horrific. It was hard to believe this was happening by a country a lot of us know well as a peaceful holiday destination.
Spain’s actions are far from what you would expect from a European democracy and a member of the EU. And now the Catalan politicians are in custody as they face potentially 30 years in jail.
The EU are quick to comment on issues around the world – they should be talking loudly and taking action when it’s in their own back garden.