The threats of dissolution or illegalization of independence parties and associations that PP and Vox have once again put on the table do not seem to worry those who will later be addressed. The pro-independence parties rejected this Thursday the PP's proposal to disband those forces that promote illegal declarations of independence or referendums. The People's Party's proposal is included in the entire amendment to the Amnesty Law and aims to add a number of crimes for “constitutional violations” to the Criminal Code. The sovereigntist groups described the idea as a mix of authoritarian and totalitarian, but did not express surprise at the PP's move, and the majority addressed the issue in the middle of the holidays by expressing a few derogatory messages on the networks.
The President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and his government remained silent and only the Minister of Feminism and Equality, Tània Verge, reacted to the amendment, accusing the PP of “hypocrisy” and “lack of democratic culture”. The adviser recalled in an interview with SER Catalunya that there is a report from the Council of Europe that calls on the state to “end all repression and stop persecuting a movement that defends the right to decide by peaceful and democratic means”. The Republican ironically encouraged the Popular Party to go to Strasbourg to explain their proposal to see “what reaction” they receive and whether it is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights or other parameters of democracy and freedom of expression.
The deputy secretary general of the ERC, Marta Vilalta, interpreted the PP's decision as another step in its “career at Vox towards totalitarianism”. “This is not the first time they have tried to eliminate political opponents and we will confront them as always. Because holding a referendum is not a crime. We will have an amnesty and vote for our freedom,” he said online. In the same vein, Republican spokeswoman Raquel Sans accused the popular parties of not accepting the rules of democracy. “When you cannot win the game of democracy, you choose to disband and eliminate your opponent. The unique thought. If it is not totalitarianism, it is very similar,” he stressed.
Junts per Catalunya was aware that the PP proposal had no chance of success and opted for the majority, just as the CUP opted for silence. The former city councilor Josep Rull, president of the National Council of the Junta, was practically the only one who reacted and, when asked by EL PAÍS, assessed the PP's decision as follows: “It is an expression of political powerlessness.” If they no longer have arguments, they want to they only suppress differences of opinion. “It shows extraordinary political weakness.” The Catalan National Assembly (ANC) did not speak out and the president of Òmnium Cultural, Xavier Antich, pointed out: “Whoever says the most that he defends the rule of law is the one who defends it In the end, the most destroyed.” Your threats do not scare us, we will continue to defend self-determination and independence without resignation. “We have every right!”
It is an expression of political powerlessness. When they no longer have arguments, they just want to suppress differences of opinion,” says former city councilor Josep Rull (Junts).
In the year before the elections in Catalonia, the ERC and PSC are now locked in a dispute over the future of the Catalan budget, which the Republicans want to link to their support for the state budget. The socialist Salvador Illa has already warned that he will not play “a trading card”. Despite mutual accusations, Republicans and Socialists share a diagnosis about the PP: government spokeswoman Patrícia Plaja explained this Wednesday that the PP's politics are “getting closer and closer to the extreme right.” “It is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish between PP and Vox when they say: 'We are going to illegalize parties',” Illa concluded at an event in Gandesa, Tarragona.
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