13, April 2018
Spain court rules proposed Catalan leader must stay in jail 0
Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request by Catalonia’s pro-independence presidential candidate Jordi Sanchez to be let out of jail and sworn in as regional head.
The Catalan parliament had been scheduled to hold a debate and vote on Sanchez’s candidacy on Friday, but after the court’s ruling Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent announced on Twitter he had suspended the session indefinitely.
Sanchez was remanded in custody in October pending charges over his role in last year’s failed Catalan independence bid.
An attempt to appoint him as president failed last month after Spain’s Supreme Court turned down a request for his release from jail.
But Torrent put Sanchez’s name forward as a candidate again earlier this month after the United Nations Human Rights Committee defended his political rights.
In letters sent last month to Spanish authorities and Sanchez’s lawyers, the UN committee requested the state take all steps to ensure he is allowed to exercise his political rights.
Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena once again turned down Sanchez’s request, arguing there were signs that he could “move in the direction of a rupture of the constitutional order”.
The judge argues it was justified in limiting Sanchez’s political rights given the risk that his release would pose to the collective rights “of the rest of the community”.
Torrent had appealed earlier on Thursday for the judge to agree to let Sanchez, a former leader of influential grassroots independence group ANC who was elected to the Catalan parliament in snap polls in December, leave jail to be sworn in.
“The court has the opportunity to take note of international law and the protection of political rights or write another dark chapter in the history of the Supreme Court,” he said in an interview to news radio station Cadena Ser.
The court ruling comes as Barcelona is gearing up for a huge protest on Sunday to mark the six month anniversary of the jailing of Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, the leader of another separatist organisation.
(Source: AFP)
17, April 2018
French president warns authoritarianism on rise in Europe 0
French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that there is a growing temptation of authoritarianism both inside the European Union and around the world, urging the continental bloc to reinforce its democratic process. Macron said on Tuesday that the EU was facing a sort of “civil war” after Britain decided to pull out of the bloc in a referendum in June 2016.
The French leader, however, urged the EU states to double their efforts for the protection of the bloc against further division. “There seems to be a sort of European civil war. There is a fascination with the illiberal and it’s growing all the time,” Macron stated in his first speech to the European Parliament in the eastern French city of Strasbourg.
Macron became known as an ardent pro-Europeanist when he defeated far-right candidate Marine Le Pen to win the French presidential election last year.
The 40-year-old president is, however, faced with the rise of eurosceptic populists across Europe, including in Hungary, Poland and Italy. Outlining his vision for the future of the EU, Macron said in his Tuesday speech that the EU states had to do their utmost to protect the EU’s sovereignty.
“I don’t want to belong to a generation of sleepwalkers, I don’t want to belong to a generation that’s forgotten its own past,” he said, adding, “I want to belong to a generation that will defend European sovereignty because we fought to obtain it. And I will not give in to any kind of fixation on authoritarianism.”
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker welcomed Macron’s speech, saying it was a sign that “The True France” was returning to the bloc. Macron will travel to Berlin later this week to win support for his proposed reforms in the eurozone. Some German politicians have expressed doubts about Macron’s plans for earmarking a separate budget for the relocation of refugees, a thorny issue which has divided many countries in the bloc.
Macron said Tuesday in a separate proposal that the EU could create a fund to for communities that take in refugees. “I propose creating a European program that directly financially supports local communities that welcome and integrate refugees,” he said.
Source: Presstv