Carta de Citizens For Europe dirigida al Consejo de Europa

Brussels, 20 June 2021

Dear President,

Citizens Pro Europe (CPE) is a pro-European civil society organization that promotes the values of human dignity, liberty, democracy and the Rule of Law through an active citizenship. As such, CPE adheres to the recent report of “Foro de Profesores” and to the Press release of the “Asociación Profesional de la Magistratura”. We share all the concerns they express over the Draft resolution of the entitled “Should politicians be prosecuted for statements made in the exercise of their mandate?” that is to be voted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Spain is a living democracy. One of the most advanced democracies in the word. With a culture of free and open public debate, and where “the mere expression of any political views”, including pro-secession views, “is not a ground for criminal prosecution”. Since de adoption of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, no Spanish politician has been imprisoned in Spain for statements made in the exercise of his or her political mandate. The cases referred in the draft Resolution are no exception.

The politicians referred by the draft resolution, leaders of the pro-secession parties, were sentenced to prison, after due judicial process, for promoting the breaking of Spain’s constitutional and democratic order. For, inter alia, secession and embezzlement, as codified in the Spanish criminal code. The judicial process proved that through their actions they abused the powers conferred to them by the Spanish Constitution. As members of the regional government of Catalonia, beyond the limits of their democratic mandates, they promoted an illegal referendum on secession and declared the independence of the region. The Spanish parliament explicitly refused to yield the competence to organise such referendums to the Catalan authorities. The Constitutional court warned those politicians of the illegality of their acts in several occasions. In October 2017, the pro-secession leaders even used their parliamentary majority in the regional parliament to adopt laws to suspend the application of the Spanish Constitution and the Regional Statute of Autonomy. Laws declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. Yet, those same politicians pushed forward an illegal referendum that, in addition, did not meet any of the international standards to be considered free and fair. Furthermore, they did it diverting massive amounts of public resources. In sum, the extent of these antidemocratic actions by the referred elected politicians has no precedent in the history if the democratic nations of our continent, since the creation of the Council of Europe.

Citizens Pro Europe urges the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to REJECT the draft resolution “Should politicians be prosecuted for statements made in the exercise of their mandate?” in what concerns all sections and paragraphs related to Spain. Politicians, whatever their ideology, cannot be above the law if democracy is to prevail. The rule of law is the ultimate refuge of the weak. The rights and freedoms of citizens, in any democratic country, cannot be annulled by the action of the powerful few, even if they are elected. No democratic mandate legitimises any elected authority, through their political action and/or through an abuse of their power, to even try to annihilate the constitutional order of a democratic country.

Should the Assembly wish to look seriously into the cases of the imprisoned politicians, we recommend carrying out a real in-depth and neutral assessment. We stand ready to contribute to the work of the Assembly in this regard, and demand that the voices of those whose constitutional rights were violated in Catalonia through the illegal organization of the referendum on secession and the declaration of independence be also heard and taken into account.

If adopted, the draft resolution would put at stake the credibility of the Parliamentary Assembly and, more importantly, the future of democracy and the Rule of Law.

The following entities subscribe this letter:

• Consenso y regeneración, Joaquin Villanueva

• Grupo de periodistas Pi i Margall, Sergio Fidalgo

• Fundación Cultura Libre, Miriam Tey

• Clac (Centro libre arte y cultura), Andreu Jaume

• Hay Derecho, Elisa de la Nuez

• Asociación por la Tolerancia, Carlos Basté

• Societat Civil Catalana, Fernando Sánchez Costa

• AEB, Ana Losada

• Impulso Ciudadano, José Domingo

• Hablamos Español, Gloria Lago

Best regards,

Teresa Freixes

Jean Monnet Chair ad personam

CPE President