Former MEP and current Catalan government representative in Madrid, Gorka Knörr, has sent an open letter to the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, pointing out that if his concern about violence and arbitrary detention in Belarus were sincere, he would also have used the same discourse when the same situation occurred in Catalonia in 2017, with rampant police violence used against independence supporters.
Specifically, Knörr asserted that Spain "has not applied the rule of law for a long time" and that when the Belgian judiciary reminds it of this, for example, by denying the extradition of Catalan minister Lluís Puig, the Spanish state continues to assert its own demands with only one argument, "mutual trust."
Le président du Conseil de l'UE, Charles Michel, annonce une réunion sur la situation en Biélorussie, car "les Biélorusses ont le droit de choisir leur lider et la violence contre les manifestants est inacceptable".
— Gorka Knörr. (@GorkaKB) August 19, 2020
J'ouvre fil avec une lettre ouverte.
@eucoprésident pic.twitter.com/XjnOQF3YOF
Gorka Knörr's Twitter thread in French on the hypocrisy of the difference in EU reactions to Belarus and Catalonia.
In the face of this situation, the Catalan government delegate calls on Michel to be just as vigorous about defending the founding values of the EU in Catalonia, since the 27 Member States "look the other way when it comes to attacks on the Catalan minority" and only do so “timidly” when these founding values are grossly violated in Hungary or Poland.
Borrell should be sacked
In addition, Knörr calls on Michel for the immediate removal of Josep Borrell as High Representative of European diplomacy, assuring that "he has led various scandals with international institutions and upholds views, to which the EU becomes linked, openly contrary to the founding values of the EU", recalling some of the most controversial issues in the last three years, such as when Borrell, amidst laughter from his supporters, called for the wound of Catalonia to be "disinfected" before it was stitched up.
Due to all this, the Catalan delegate considers that Borrell "has no moral legitimacy" to call for dialogue and condemn the violence in Belarus when he has been one of the great deniers of dialogue with the independence movement in Catalonia and, moreover, has never condemned the police violence on the 1st October 2017 referendum day.
Finally, Knörr says that he also shares "the concern about the situation in Belarus", but regrets that this same discourse was not delivered with regard to Catalonia in October 2017, as well as with respect to the repression against Catalans in recent years.
The full letter in Catalan from Gorka Knörr to European Council president Charles Michel.