Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Seventy nine years ago, the Nazis extradited Lluís Companys i Jover, the Catalan President, to Spain where he was executed by the fascist Franco regime for rebellion against the Spanish state. In the past few days, the Spanish Prime Minister has suggested that this action by the Franco regime was legitimate as he commented on the Spanish Government's right to imprison leaders of the Catalan independence movement, elected politicians and officials. One could not get a more stark, alarming and sinister reminder of the brutal and repressive nature of what the Spanish state is doing to elected representatives of Catalonia and millions of Catalans, who have done nothing more than exercise their legitimate aspiration through democratic means by way of a referendum for national self-determination and independence. The Spanish Prime Minister quotes favourably the decision of a fascist regime to execute a Catalan President for doing the same thing. Our Government and the EU sit idly by and remain deathly silent. As we speak, five demonstrations in five Catalan cities are taking place, each of which is 100 km long, involving hundreds of thousands of Catalans who are horrified by the decision of the Spanish courts to impose 100 years of imprisonment on the Deputy Prime Minister of Catalonia and other leading figures in the region.

Their crime was not declaring independence but, rather, organising a democratic referendum.

Police violence is occurring in Catalonia as we speak. I have just watched disturbing footage of Spanish police throwing pensioners and old people to the ground and beating them ruthlessly for attending peaceful demonstrations in Catalonia and exercising their key international human right to self-determination. Nothing has been said about this. I appeal to the Government to speak out clearly and condemn the Spanish Government for jailing people who have done nothing more than exercise their legitimate rights under international law to fight for self-determination. They did so through democratic means by holding a referendum. The Government must condemn the Spanish state's violence against this peaceful movement for self-determination. I hope the Minister of State will do so and that she will also raise the issue with her European Union colleagues, otherwise the EU's claim to be an upholder of human, civil and democratic rights is nothing but hollow talk.

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