The president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Dolors Feliu, has this week brought British MPs up to date on the continuing "Spanish repression", which as the head of the pro-independence organization explained, is carrying on, despite five years having gone by since the independence referendum of 1st October, 2017.
Feliu has been in London since Monday and has taken advantage of the trip to meet with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Catalonia, a group created in 2017 to monitor the Catalan conflict and develop links between the two territories. The ANC president also gave a speech at Westminster that served to update parliamentarians on the latest events in relation to the independence movement and Catalan politics.
Among the gravest reflections of the Spanish state's continuing crackdown against the independence movement, Feliu highlighted the massive espionage against independence supporters, their families and contacts, brought to light in the Catalangate affair this year, as well as the fact that there are thousands of people who have been prosecuted for ideological reasons: "This repressive wave has been planned by the Spanish authorities to create a demobilizing effect in the independence movement".
Feliu, critical of the dialogue table
Before some of the parliamentarians most interested in the Catalan issue, Dolors Feliu also went into depth about the so-called dialogue table between the Catalan government and the Spanish executive, which has met three times since it was created in January 2020. The ANC president maintained her critical position over the table, recalling that the organization had warned at the start that "it would not bear fruit". "It was said that the dialogue would dejudicialize the Catalan conflict, but from the very beginning the Spanish government has refused to talk about self-determination, a referendum, an amnesty for those facing judicial action or the independence of Catalonia", said Feliu.
The ANC president, highly critical of the Catalan government's failure to make progress towards independence, has warned that the entity will continue to pressure the European institutions so that they do not turn a blind eye "to the suffering of the citizens of Catalonia", says the ANC statement. "We Catalans are European citizens," denounced Feliu,"and therefore, we have certain rights that must be protected. If Spain abuses fundamental rights with impunity, this sets a dangerous precedent in the European Union."
As well, Feliu has met behind closed doors with members of the Scottish National Party and Ireland's Sinn Féin to share information and "continue cooperation and engagement between these nations, especially in anticipation of possible future self-determination referendums in Scotland and Ireland".
As part of the trip, Feliu also met with academics from the Catalan Society at the University of Cambridge, and attended a meeting with Privacy International, an international NGO based in London that works to protect digital rights everywhere the world. With this organization, she discussed the Catalangate scandal and the need to demand responsibility from states that use cyberespionage to violate fundamental rights.