"We are very aware, when it comes to the whole Greek experience, that one of the problems the political left faces is … what it means to be able to implement your own ideas."
Facilitators, middlemen, discrete openings so that both sides could start to talk to – and not scream at – each other again and try to reach a compromise, are these now European dirty words?
Isn’t it the case that fellow Europeans not only have the right to comment on the affairs of their neighbours but that doing so is a political virtue which ought to be cultivated?
It is time for the Spanish establishment to realise that their country, like any other democracy, can’t be maintained harmoniously only by threatening the use of force and prison sentences.
The governor of South Tyrol recently sent a letter to the Spanish and Catalan presidents highlighting his region's successful statute of autonomy. But things in this northern Italian province are not as rosy as they appear.
The host city for Transeuropa, surfing or drowning in the waves of governing for change?
It is difficult to see why actions taken by the government in Madrid ought to be regarded as a curb on dissent, and not as a preservation of the country’s constitutional order.
“We lost against Aragón in the 15th century, against the Bourbons in the 18th century, and against Franco in the last century. We’re accustomed to losing. And if we fight Madrid, we’ll doubtless lose again.”
By equating Kosovo with Catalonia, Spanish leaders reveal themselves as unable to distinguish between legitimate aspirations for self-rule and destabilizing separatism.
In Catalonia, there has long been no other option: independence is the only remaining route to social justice after Spain’s dismissal of all attempts at dialogue over the years.
Carta abierta al presidente de la comisión, Jean-Claude Juncker, y al presidente del consejo Europeo, Donald Tusk, cc. Vice-Presidente primero Frans Timmermans. English. Catalan.
Carta abierta relativa a la defensa del Estado de derecho en la Unión Europea, co-signada por 188 académicos, políticos, intelectuales de la esfera pública y miembros del Parlamento Europeo, y enviada el 3 de Noviembre del 2017. English Català
