The fact that the Spanish state sentenced a Catalan rapper, whose militant poems are covered by the right to freedom of expression in other European states and, as a result of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Spanish constitution, should not be grounds for prosecution in Spain either, to a cumulative prison sentence of more than six years on several apparently flimsy charges has led to angry protests and riots in Catalonia and to stunned commentaries throughout the world.
https://english.vilaweb.cat/noticies/catalan-rapper-pablo-hasel-arrested-for-his-lyrics/
https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/audiencia-lleida-condemna-hasel-amenaces-protestes-empresonament/
https://english.vilaweb.cat/noticies/thousands-hit-the-streets-in-catalonia-against-detention-of-rapper-pablo-hasel/
https://english.vilaweb.cat/noticies/reactions-to-the-imprisonment-of-catalan-rapper-hasel/
It is surprising that this action of the Spanish justice system in the case of Pablo Hasél has been received and commented on everywhere in the foreign media with apparent surprise. For a long time there has been a corresponding repression in Spain, especially against Catalans, Basques and Galicians, many cases of obvious legal injustice by the Spanish state, which is anything but a «mature democracy», are known and documented. The fact that democratically elected Catalan politicians and leading representatives of civil society in Catalonia, who were declared deposed in violation of Spanish constitutional law, were sentenced in the first and only (!) instance by a court without jurisdiction to many years in prison, did not provoke such a clear reaction in the international press as the sentencing of a Catalan rapper. Why? Perhaps because the rapper's arrest was met with violent protests by angry Catalans not only in Catalonia itself, but also elsewhere in the Catalan countries?
The Spanish Constitutional Court, of whose judges appointed according to political proportionality only two must be qualified to hold judicial office and which also has legislative and executive competence (! ) — whether you call it a «constitutional court» or a politically staffed judicial control body for the preservation of existing power structures in the Spanish state is a matter for everyone to judge for themselves — recently decided unanimously that it was right to sentence the Catalans to long prison sentences in the first and only instance, bypassing the court of first instance in Catalonia provided for by law. The right to two instances, however, is a human right to which Spain has committed itself under international law and which it has anchored in its constitution as a higher-ranking right in the Spanish legal system. Which politicians of European states have so far taken offence at this decision of the Spanish Constitutional Court, which is much more serious than the recent conviction of the Russian lawyer Alexei Anatolyevich Nawalny, whose immediate release has meanwhile already been ordered by the European Court of Human Rights?
Spain is imprisoning an elected member of the current European Parliament who is entitled to parliamentary immunity and who could not take up his mandate as a result of this imprisonment. Why has the case of Dr Oriol Junqueras, which casts doubt on the democratic legitimacy of the whole of the current European Parliament and should in itself lead to the annulment of all the votes already taken during this parliamentary term, not caused a similar stir in European public opinion?
As a citizen of the European Union, I have no understanding for the fact that the states of Europe have accepted and continue to accept that an elected Member of the European Parliament, who represents many citizens of the Union who elected him, is unlawfully prevented from exercising his mandate. This is a dangerous precedent which violates the rights of hundreds of thousands of Union citizens and which makes more and more Europeans doubt the legitimacy of the decisions of the current European Parliament. Where was and is the media outcry in this case, comparable to the reaction to the arrest of Pablo Hasél?
Spain has applied to the European Parliament to lift the immunity of three Catalan MEPs — the Catalan president in exile Carles Puigdemont and his ministers Prof. Dr. Clara Ponsatí and Toni Comín. The decision on this seems to have been predetermined so far due to the political majority and neither to follow factual reasons nor to take into account the recent decision of the Belgian judiciary, which was also publicly mentioned by the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation. In this court decision, which was issued in the second instance, not only was full reference made to an unambiguous vote of the competent body of the United Nations, but it was furthermore clearly stated that representatives of the Spanish judiciary and politics had violated the principle of the presumption of innocence in the case of the Catalan politicians living in exile in such a serious way that, from the point of view of the Belgian judiciary, a fair trial for the Catalans could not be expected and that the «DIRECTIVE (EU) 2016/343 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 9. March 2016 on the strengthening of certain aspects of the presumption of innocence and the right to be present at trial in criminal proceedings» was clearly violated. Where was the outcry of the media and politicians in other European states, where a corresponding reaction of leading politicians?
But that is not all! Obviously, the rights of the three Catalan MEPs were seriously violated in this procedure by the European Parliament:
Why does hardly any politician or journalist care about this in countries like Germany or France, while the case of Pablo Hasél leads to a huge media echo?
The Catalan president Quim Torra, who has been deprived of his office by the Spanish judiciary and who is guilty of the ‘offence’ of exercising his fundamental and human right to freedom of expression, which is also guaranteed by the Spanish constitution, now has to face a second trial. That he will also be sentenced a second time is probably a foregone conclusion. Where is the outcry of the international press in the face of this injustice?
It has been documented often enough how in recent months both normal units of the Spanish army and elite units sang the fascist hymn «Cara al sol» with fervour. At a well-attended rally in Madrid on 13 February 2021, symbols of National Socialism were once again displayed, «Cara al sol» was sung and anti-Semitic propaganda was disseminated in the vilest manner, entirely in the tradition of Spanish and German fascism. At least this time, the embassies of Israel, the Russian Federation and also Germany have lodged protest notes. Of course, it was not the first time and will probably not be the last, especially since the Spanish public prosecutor's office explicitly protects the Spanish fascists' freedom of expression. Take a look at the last video on the following page of the news portal VilaWeb:
The Spanish state would be obliged under its own constitution and under binding international law not only to grant the Catalan people their human right to self-determination, but in particular to guarantee its free and peaceful exercise. Instead, it criminalised a referendum — the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression — although the holding of such referendums is not punishable under the Spanish Penal Code, and in this context also unlawfully censored a large number of internet sites, among others. Where was Europe's outcry for this suppression of freedom of expression, which went far beyond what can now be observed in the case of Pablo Hasél?
Five parties from Catalonia and the Basque Country recently requested in the Spanish Congress that the Spanish state, in accordance with its own legal system, grant the Catalan people the right to hold a referendum to exercise their collective human right to self-determination. By an overwhelming majority, conservatives (Partido Popular and Ciudadanos), fascists (Vox) and the ruling social democrats (PSOE) have rejected this. This is not the first time that the Spanish Social Democrats have shown their true colours.
https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/congres-tomba-mocio-referendum-abstencio-podem-no-psoe/
If you take away a people's human rights and tyrannise them with violence, you will reap violence who sows violence. Spain's leaders know this, this is exactly what they seem to want and this is what they seem to be working towards, so that they can finally once again use the paramilitary Guardia Civil, modelled on the German SS, and the Spanish army against the Catalan people and perhaps even, a dream of some military leaders, bomb Barcelona again. Even before the referendum of 1 October 2017, there were reports that a large number of Pizarro armoured vehicles had been moved to Catalonia. It seems to be Spain's strategy to provoke the Catalans for so long and so much until they finally react to the violence of the state with corresponding counter-violence and the conflict can thus be brutally escalated.
The fact that the conviction of Pablo Hasél, in particular his song against the corruption of the Spanish monarchy and against the monarchy as an institution, is currently making itself known all over the world, is of secondary importance for the 'deep state' of Spain, if only this arrest can finally incite the violence. This has succeeded, and the readiness to use violence is also growing recognisably on the part of the Catalan youth, who are tired of the constant oppression by the Spanish state and no longer want to turn the other cheek, but want to fight back, and in the Catalan population the approval for disobedience against the state and radical protest now seems to be growing steadily. This may start a spiral of violence that could ultimately lead to the Spanish monarchy coming to the same end as the Portuguese monarchy at the beginning of the 20th century and the politically intended message of Pablo Hasél's song, «Death to the Bourbons», becoming a sad reality. The Spanish state stands and falls with the king as the 'legitimate' successor to the 'leader' Francisco Franco, whose task it was and is to preserve the essentially Francoist character of the Spanish pseudo-democracy. If the Spanish state continues to escalate this conflict, sooner or later the lives of the entire royal family will also inevitably be in danger. One can only hope that the level-headed Catalan politicians, who from the beginning and time and again have campaigned for a peaceful path, for dialogue with each other and a civilised separation of the Catalan people from the Spanish state, will be able to convince both the representatives of the Spanish state and their own people to renounce all violence and allow Catalonia to achieve self-determination by peaceful means. However, the more the Spanish state relies on brutal repression and uses violence to suppress not only the Catalan people but also other minorities, the more likely it is that there will be a loss of life on both sides, which every clear and rational person, like the Catalan politicians, should strive to avoid at all costs.
https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/noves-concentracions-contra-lempresonament-de-pablo-hasel/
Europe continues to remain silent and to watch. The fact that its leading representatives tolerate all these human rights violations by the Spanish state removes the credibility of any criticism that the European Union tries to make of human rights violations by other states and will increasingly earn Europe the accusation of hypocritical double standards.