{"id":260744,"date":"2017-10-01T14:10:10","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T18:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=260744"},"modified":"2020-12-17T11:56:14","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T16:56:14","slug":"respect-for-democracy-assange-calls-on-eu-to-suspend-spain-over-catalan-referendum-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/respect-for-democracy-assange-calls-on-eu-to-suspend-spain-over-catalan-referendum-crackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Respect for democracy?\u2019: Assange calls on EU to suspend Spain over Catalan referendum crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
He is absolutely right. The right to secession is one of the most important parts of the Human rights declaration that the United Nations is supposed to enforce.<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The WikiLeaks founder has urged the European Commission president to strip Madrid of the rights of an EU member state, as it proceeds with a violent clampdown to prevent the independence vote in Catalonia. Assange says this violates the union\u2019s values.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear @JunckerEU. Is this \u2018respect for human dignity, freedom and democracy\u2019?\u201d\u00a0Julian Assange mockingly inquires of Jean-Claude Juncker in a tweet, accompanied by a video footage of Spanish law enforcement agents forcibly dragging voters out of a polling station, knocking people off the steps at the entrance.<\/p>\n

\u201cActivate article 7 and suspend Spain from the European Union for its clear violation of Article 2,\u201d Assange urged the European Commission leader, with links to the paragraphs attached to the post.<\/p>\n

Article 2 describes values on which the Union was founded and are common to all its member states, with respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, as well as the rights of minorities, among them. Under Article 7, a state breaching these values can be deprived of certain rights, such as voting rights in the European Council.<\/p>\n

The same video has been shared by Jordi Cuixart, head of the Omnium cultural center, which promotes Catalan language and culture. Cuixart also referred to article 7, appealing to the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to note the part about \u201csuspension of a member state which uses the military against the population.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it a proportionality @marianorajoy?\u201d Cuixart tweeted.<\/p>\n

In September, Rajoy said the central government was set to respond to the Catalan plebiscite \u201cwith reason, moderation and proportionality,\u201d with the head of the region\u2019s police Josep Lluis Trapero later voicing similar assurances.<\/p>\n

The Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has already hit out at authorities in Madrid for using \u201cunjustified, disproportionate and irresponsible\u201d violence, as Catalans thronged to the polling centers across the region despite thousands of police officers trying to prevent the referendum, declared illegal by Spanish courts.<\/p>\n

In some places security forces have burst into polling centers, even chopping their way through with axes, in an effort to seize voting materials, with voters blocking the entrances and staging sit-in protests.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is against the constitution, it is against human rights, it is also against the interests of Catalonia, Spain and Europe\u2026\u201d\u00a0says one of the international observers at the referendum, Greek MEP Stelios Kouloglou, who spoke with RT.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the European Union, must interfere, not taking sides in favor of \u2018si\u2019 or \u2018no\u2019 in the referendum, but to mediate to start a dialogue,\u201d\u00a0he said, stressing that people are being injured during the electoral process in Europe for the first time. Kouloglou added that by using such tactics Madrid has\u00a0\u201ccut all the bridges with Catalonia,\u201d posing \u201ca blow to the unity of Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked why no condemnation of the crackdown has come from the neighboring countries in the EU or humanitarian organizations, Kouloglou referred to double standards.\u00a0\u201cWe want a Europe with equal standards for everybody and also a Europe that respects democracy regardless of whether violations are taking place in Venezuela, Russia or Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/405262-assange-spain-eu-suspension\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAEL\u2019S COMMENT: He is absolutely right. The right to secession is one of the most important parts of the Human rights declaration that the United Nations is supposed to enforce.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":287371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}