Spain is currently forcing the European Union to orient and decide on three fundamental issues:
— for or against Human Rights
— for or against the rule of law
— for or against democracy.
If the European Union makes the wrong decision, it will fall apart. The people of Europe would, in the long term, despise and turn their backs on a political entity that decided against democracy, against the rule of law and against Human Rights.
Dr Oriol Junqueras is an elected Member of the European Parliament. His election was published in the Spanish Official Gazette. Despite his immunity, he remained imprisoned in Spain and was sentenced months later in the first and only instance to a long prison sentence (for exercising his basic and Human Rights!). On 19 December 2019, however, the European Court of Justice correctly ruled that Oriol Junqueras, as an elected MEP, enjoys immunity.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50808766
Nevertheless, Spain continues to detain MEP Oriol Junqueras, preventing him from attending meetings of the European Parliament and carrying out his duties as a Member of Parliament. The Central Electoral Committee of Spain, contrary to the clear decision of the European Court of Justice and an equally clear request by the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, denies the MEP the right to stand for election, as he was sentenced — after his election! — by the Spanish Supreme Court on 14 October 2019 to 13 years imprisonment (in the first and only instance, it cannot often be said that such a violation of Human Rights is possible in the system of Spanish unjust justice!).
Neither the European Parliament nor the European Union can and must accept this. Until now, the Catalans, Basques and Galicians have suffered most under the post-democratic Spanish monarchy, but now Spain is preparing to shake the foundations of the entire European Union. How much longer, Europe, will you remain silent and look the other way?
Quim Torra is the elected President of the Generalitat de Catalunya. He was recently condemned for having invoked fundamental rights guaranteed by the Spanish Constitution and Human Rights guaranteed by the United Nations Human Rights pacts. Although the judgment against him is not yet final, the Spanish Central Electoral Commission, which is firmly in the hands of the Spanish Right, has now decided that he should immediately lose his status as a Member of Parliament and therefore also his governmental office, which presupposes parliamentary status.
https://www.elnacional.cat/en/politics/catalonia-torra-removed-electoral-commission_456903_102.html
It is obvious that on the part of the sympathizers and members of the ‘post-fascist’ Partido Popular, the party of Ciudadano, which is by no means liberal, but in parts ‘pre-fascist’, and the largely neo-fascist party Vox, apparently everything is being done to escalate the tense situation even further and to provoke violence, which is supposed to be a pretext for the renewed abusive application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to Catalonia. Listening to the speeches of the officials of the Vox party, one gets the impression that, in the middle of Europe, they want to provoke conditions such as those in Palestine and force the Catalan people to assimilate to Spain. Over the last few decades, Spain has already done enough to ensure that a large proportion of the population in Catalonia, particularly in Barcelona and Tarragona, is the result of the immigration of Spanish-speaking Spaniards, by encouraging immigration to Catalonia and illegally kidnapping Catalan children as soon as they were born and bringing them up in Spanish-speaking Spain (this is what has been done with the children of Catalan and Basque-speaking parents, but not only).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQJXtY80fw
Just like Ciudadano's party, Vox wants to eradicate the Catalan language, culture and literature, the customs of the Catalan people as supposedly 'inferior' and force the Catalan population to assimilate to Spain. Every means is justified, including the correction of a democratic election result by a legally dubious decision of the Central Electoral Commission. How much longer, Europe, will you remain silent and look the other way?
The Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who has been removed from office by Spain in a coup d'état, and his minister Toni Comín are also elected MEPs, duly accredited since 6 January 2020, and, like Oriol Junqueras, enjoy immunity.
What right does Spain have to prosecute them with a national and European arrest warrant? How can Spain presume to obstruct the work of the European Parliament and, if necessary, to provoke the nullity of the decisions of parliamentary sessions? How much longer, Europe, will you remain silent, look the other way and put up with all this?
Anyone who believes in the universality of Human Rights, who prefers parliamentary democracy as a form of government and who advocates a functioning constitutional state cannot fail to show solidarity with the Catalan people and their politicians, who have been persecuted by Spain in violation of human rights, and to stand up for the human right of the Catalan people to self-determination! If the European Union chooses Human Rights, democracy and the rule of law, it may last for a long time. If, on the other hand, it continues to collaborate with the Spanish unjust justice system and to support Spanish politicians, public prosecutors, judges and police officers in their alleged crimes against Spanish and international law and against humanity, it forfeits its right to its own survival. Look, Europe, break your silence and speak!
Addendum (6 January 2020): After the Spanish Central Electoral Commission announced on Friday 3 January 2020 that Spain was denying Oriol Junqueras his mandate as MEP, the European Parliament reiterated on Monday 6 January 2020 that it recognised Oriol Junqueras as a Member of the European Parliament and expressed its hope that he would be able to attend the next session on 13 January 2020 in person, along with the MEPs Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín.
As the three Catalans, representing over two million EU citizens, have been elected Members of the European Parliament since 2 July 2019, but have so far been denied the right to take part in European Parliament meetings in an advisory and voting capacity, with the intervention of the European Parliament itself, it is expected that it will be possible to declare the nullity of all electoral acts and decisions of the European Parliament in the period from 2 July 2019 to at least 12 January 2020. Nullity would have to be established by a court of law upon request.