The president in exile Carles Puigdemont, took the opportunity of his intervention in Geneve's Crans Montana Forum today, to make a call to the EU five days before the inauguration of the new legislature of the European Parliament. He warned that the political situation in the Spanish state, with the existence of political prisoners and exiles, directly confronts Europe with a "veritable test of the endurance of its democracy", and that Tuesday will be a key moment for EU's life with the opening of the new legislature in the Chamber.
Puigdemont, who made clear he was speaking as a political exile but also as an elected MEP, warned that the presence of both Oriol Junqueras and Toni Comín at the new legislature opening in the European Parliament will be important for them but even more so for European democracy, as it will send a message to the world: that "regardless political divergence, the will of the people remains the most important consideration"
In the opening event of the forum, the president denounced the existence of political prisoners in Spain, among which there are the former Catalan Parliament's speaker and also some of his own cabinet members, all accused of rebellion for having organised 1st Oct 2017 referendum.
He recalled the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions resolution which denounced the violation of fundamental rights and claimed the immediate release of the prisoners, stating that the response from the Spanish State did not respect that resolution.
"The problem is that this is taking place in the midst of EU's silence. Can you imagine what they would say if the country who was violating such a resolution was a non-European country?", he argued.
The president stated that even when he is an elected MEP, the same as Junqueras and Comín are, the Spanish authorities decided that none of them is to be present at the inauguration of the new legislature in the European Parliament next Tuesday, because the Spanish State has chosen to not have their names recorded in the list of elected MEPs with the argument that they had not attended the swearing of the Constitution in Madrid. He then added that, notwithstanding this, Junqueras did not get permission to leave prison to go to the Spanish Congress, while in his own case he had been warned that he would be detained if he did attend.
Puigdemont also said that the Treaty of Lisbon situates MEPs as the representatives of member states, or of the European citizens, and he explained that he had sent letters to the European Parliament arguing the violation of his fundamental rights but that he had received silence for an answer "as seems to be their norm".
For this reason, he warned of the risk of leaving 2 million European citizens out of the European Parliament, and of sending the message to the world that member states can block the entrance of political dissidence in the Chamber, and of citizens' votes for independence, or options different to the dominant ideology, being less worth than the rest.
The conclusion, according to Puigdemont, is that any decision regarding Catalonia is going to affect the whole of the EU which now has the possibility of either getting some credibility back or furthering the weakness of his moral authority.