What Would You Do, Dear MEP?

What would you do? Imagine that the fate of three God-fearing, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens is in your hands. A university lecturer in Social Science, a university professor of Economics and a journalist and former mayor of a provincial capital, to be precise. 

And you have people screaming at you from both sides.

 

A large group on the one hand, all from a large nation with a history of civil wars, coups d'état and dictatorships, and with its media, opinion leaders, politicians almost to a man (and woman) shrieking hysterically that these three have fled justice after a coup d'érat and have to join their political companions and serve long prison sentences for their crimes. And their MEPs swarm around you, drilling instructions into the ears of the leaders of your political group and, maybe, you in person. And in the process, some of them have not respected the confidentiality rule but have made public statements or even, in one case, leaked the rapporteur's report to the Madrid press.  

And on the other side, a much smaller group (largely because their nation is much smaller) who have neen imploring for international mediation to force the bully to sit down and solve a deep political conflict through political negotiation, not by sending its political opponents into court.

Imagine the larger group fails to tell you that it has ignored multiple calls, after an institutionally catastrophic Constitutional court judgment, for the exercise of the smaller people's universal right of self-determination. 

Imagine the larger group fails to tell you that it has incarcerated the smaller people's parliamentary Speaker for allowing a debate on independence.

Imagine the larger group fails to tell you that it has incarcerated two respected social leaders, for standing (with permission) on a battered police vehicle - parked unlocked and with fireaarms left inside it - to call on ten thousand demonstrators to... go home. 

Imagine the larger group says that holding a referendum without government authorisation is illegal, yet fails to tell you that this was dropped ftom the Criminal Code in 2005.

Imagine the larger group fails to tell you that calls for the release of these political and social leaders, issued by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Amnesty International and a host of other humsn rights organizations, have fallen on the deaf ears of a Member state bent on political revenge and on "decapitating" the independence movement and "disinfecting" the smaller people.

Imagine the larger group fails to tell you that attempts to extradite the three MEPs and their colleagues have failed because courts in Belgium, Germany and Scotland have failed to find any evidence of the charges of "rebellion" and "sedition" brought against them, issued, moreover, by a court that, according to the European convention on human rights, was not the competent court to try them and their incarcerated colleagues in the first place. 

Imagine the larger group fails to tell you that the Spanish Supreme Court has ignored an EU Court of Justice ruling (requested by the very same Court!) ensuring another MEP's immunity, by the simple, age-old expedient of not releasing him ftom prison.

Imagine the larger group fails to tell you that it flooded the JURI committee (20% of its members are Spanish!), solely and simply to continue persecuting those who have thd perfectly legitimate aim of a national minority that wishes to continue existing as a free and sovereign people.

Imagine (well, this is no hypothesis) that you, dear MEP, will have to explain, to the hundreds of thousands of Europeans you represent, how you publicly voted in the plenary session to decide whether or not to waive the immunity, inside the European Union, of Carles Puigdemont MEP, Antoni Comin MEP and Clara Ponsatí MEP.  

I am sure you will vote in conscience, so as not to allow the European Parliament to make a fool of itself on the international scene (the Commission has a vice president that does this on his own), and that you will not be bullied in your turn.

See also in Catalan:

https://twitter.com/nstr30/status/1364681312372727817?s=19

 

Piulada de Germà Capdevila. Dret penal de l'enemic (14 JUN 2019)

Germà Capdevila comenta l'aplicació del dret penal de l'enemic a Oriol Junqueras.

Clica aquí, si cal, per accedir al text sencer

Letter by Birgitta to German MEPs (translation by M.S.) (16 FEB 2021)

https://twitter.com/BirgittaDE2/status/1361702252478681095?s=19

Reasons for protecting the immunity of Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí 

Ladies and gentlemen, honorable Members of the European Parliament, 

I believe that you should represent the interests of your citizens in the European Parliament.  

The roll-call votes, however, paint a different picture for me, so I really feel better represented by Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí from Catalonia.  

But their immunity is now under scrutiny in the European Parliament.  

As we have all learned from the judgment of a Belgian court in favour of Lluís Puig i Gordi, the Spanish authority issuing the request, the Spanish Supreme Court, is not the competent authority to make such an application. It is not the authority responsible for extraditing Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí and, in my opinion, is not responsible for the application to lift the immunity of these people. If you have all read the minutes of the Venice Commission, it should be clear to you when to vote against immunity from your colleagues.  

Imagine that the government of North Rhine-Westphalia would be partly in exile and imprisonment just because this government held a referendum because they did not agree with the measures from Berlin. Now imagine if the head of government of North Rhine-Westphalia, now in exile, had been elected to the European Parliament through the European elections. If so, would you agree to the waiver of your colleague's immunity?  

How can I trust the European Parliament if it does not guarantee the rights of national minorities in Europe?  

I therefore urge you, the Members of the European Parliament, to evade political group pressure and to vote NO to Spain's motion to waive the immunity of Catalan MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí.

Thank you very much

...ooo000ooo...

Gründe fur den Schutz der immuniet von Puigdemont, Comín und Ponsatí

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren.

Sehr geehrte Mitglieder des Europiiischen Parlaments, nach meiner Auffassung sollten Sie die fnteressen Ihrer Bürger im Europiiischen Parlament vertreten. Die namentlichen Abstimmungen ergeben für mich jedoch ein anderes Bild. so dass ich mich wahrlich besser von Puigdemont, Comin und Ponsati aus Katalonien vertreten fühle. Doch deren lmmuniet steht nun im Europiiischen Parlament auf dem Prüfstand.

Wie wir alle durch das Urteil eines belgischen Gerichts zugunsten LIuis Puig I Bordi erfahren haben, ist die ausschreibende spanische Behiirde, das oberste Gericht Spaniens, nicht die zusEindige Behàrde, einen solchen Antrag zu stellen. So ist sie auch nicht die zusEindige Behörde zur Auslieferung von Puigdemont, Comin und Ponsati und ist meines Erachtens auch nicht zusEindig für den Antrag zur Aufhebung der lmmuniEt dieser Personen. 

Wenn Sie alle das Protokoll der Venedig Kommission gelesen haben, sollte Ihnen klar sein, wann Sie gegen eine lmmunitiit ihrer Kollegen stimmen sollten.

Stellen Sie sich vor, dass die Regierung von NRW zum Teil im Exil und in Gefangenschaft wiire, nur weil diese Regierung ein Referendum abgehalten hiitte, weil sie mit den MaEnahmen aus Berlin nicht einverstanden waren. Stellen Sie sich nun vor, der Regierungschef von NRW, nun im Exil. wiire durch die Europawahl ins Europiiische Parlament gewiihlt worden. Würden Sie in diesem Fall einer Aufhebung der lmmuniEt ihres Kollegen zustimmen? 

Wie soll ich dem Europiiischen Parlament vertrauen. wenn es die Rechte nationaler
Minderheiten in Europa nicht garantiert? 

Daher fordere ich Sie, die Mitglieder'innen des Europiiisches Parlaments, auf, sich dem Fraktionszwang zu entziehen und mit NEIN gegen den Antrag Spaniens auf Aufhebung der lmmunitiit der katalanischen Abgeordneten Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comin und Clara Ponsati zu stimmen. 

Herzlichen Dank

JEC and Clara Ponsatí MEP

On January 30 2020 the Spanish Electoral Board, while paying lip service to the CJEU sentence on Oriol Junqueras, says that Clara Ponsatí's seat will remain temporarily vacant! How did theEuropean Parliament respond the following day?
Click here  if need be to read the whole post.

Article by French MEPs Alfonsi, Bitteau and Rivasi — [29 JAN 2020]

Here is an English rendering of an article by three French MEPs in "Solidarity with the Catalan elected representatives in prison.
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Letter by C. Puigdemont MEP and T. Comin MEP to colleagues (15 JAN 2020)

Here is the text of the letter sent by two of the three Catalan MEPs who, as such, enjoy immunity. The third, Oriol Junqueras, has not been let out of prison by the Spanish authorities. Moreover they are trying to strip him of the European Parliament seat he won last May.
Click here if need be to read the whole post

Article by Prof. Javier Pérez Royo on the Junqueras case: The die is not cast (in English, 12 JAN 2020)

An English translation by Dave Evans of "La suerte no está echada" by Javier Pérez Royo.
Click here if need be to read the whole post

CJEU - PRESS RELEASE No 85/19 Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó and Antoni Comín i Oliveres v European Parliament

PRESS RELEASE No 85/19 - COMUNICADO DE PRENSA n.º 85/19

Click here  if need be to access the whole text.