Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In October 2017, I had the great privilege of observing the Catalan independence referendum first hand. I was one of a large group of parliamentarians from across Europe who travelled to Barcelona and the surrounding districts to witness the vote. Some of us, myself included, were clearly sympathetic to the cause of Catalan self-determination but others in that delegation were not, yet still believed that the vote was a legitimate democratic exercise. My view, having been there, was that it was an incredible expression of a peaceful civil society movement intent on giving voice to the millions of Catalans who have a desire to determine their own future. It was unofficial but to describe a well-organised, peaceful ballot as illegal, let alone seditious, is simply not credible.

My abiding memory of the day of the referendum was meeting an 83 year old by the name of Antonio in the polling station of Barceloneta on the seafront in Barcelona. When I met him, his arm was in a sling, his head and legs grazed and congealed blood still visible. Antonio had arrived at his local polling station at 7 a.m., determined to be one of the first to cast his ballot. Two hours later, the Spanish Civil Guard arrived and, unprovoked, attacked the assembled voters. Antonio was badly hurt and admitted to hospital. His arm had been fractured but, undeterred, he returned to the polling station and waited in line.

When I arrived, the polling station was packed. People had been waiting for hours while the Spanish authorities repeatedly crashed the online voter registration system. When I asked Antonio to describe his treatment at the hands of the Spanish police, he said it reminded him of the brutality of the Franco regime through which he lived his younger life.

Antonio was dignified and peaceful. Above all, he was democracy personified, refusing to be bullied by the truncheon of the Civil Guard. The treatment of thousands of Catalans that day, much of which I witnessed, cast a dark shadow over Spanish democracy but what was to follow was even worse. The decision by the Spanish Government and judicial system to jail and prosecute elected politicians and civil society leaders was unprecedented and, let us be under no doubt, these were not legal questions but were politically motivated charges intended to criminalise a peaceful social movement and curry favour with an increasingly reactionary Spanish nationalism. While those of us who had have direct experience of the Spanish political and judicial system were not surprised the sentences meted out in October are still shocking.

Oriol Junqueras, former vice president of the Catalan Parliament was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Jordi Turull, former spokesperson for the Catalan Government, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Raül Romeva, former foreign minister, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Dolors Bassa, former minister for labour, was also sentenced to 12 years in prison. The former speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, the counterpart of our Ceann Comhairle, was sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison. What was her crime? She was accused of allowing a debate in the Catalan parliament on the holding of the October 1 referendum.

Other Ministers were sentenced to ten and a half years in prison and two leading pro-independence civil society activists, Jordi Sånchez and Jordi Cuixart, were sentenced to nine years. What kind of political system jails government ministers and civil society activists for organising a peaceful ballot? What kind of government sends in armed guards and soldiers to beat peaceful protestors off the streets? The sentencing of Catalan politicians and civil society activists casts more than a dark shadow over Spanish democracy, it calls into question that democracy itself. I have a message for the Spanish Government and the Spanish ambassador to Ireland, H.E. Ildefonso Castro: debería darnos verguenza lo que estáis hacienda en Catalunya y lo que estáis hacienda a la democracia en España. Shame on that Government for what it has done.

What recent events in Catalonia and Spain show is that this is not an internal matter for Spain. This is a fundamental matter of democracy and human rights. The Spanish Government is in clear breach of the values and treaty law of the European Union and the member states that uphold it. The only way to resolve this situation is through independent international mediation. Anyone who claims anything short of that kind of intervention is complicit in the single biggest breach of basic democratic principles in Europe in decades.

I urge the Members who have spoken already not to leave this to the internal politics of the Spanish state and to support the call for dialogue and mediation. We should support the call for what worked in the conflict in our own country which is conflict resolution because anything short of that will see the situation deteriorate and none of us here wants that.

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