24 Nobel Prize laureates call for “mediation and dialogue” between Catalonia and Spain

24 Nobel Prize laureates from several disciplines have drafted an 'Open Letter to Spain and Catalonia' in which they call for “mediation and negotiation” to undo “the current standoff” between Catalonia and Spain. As did the eight Nobel Peace Prize laureates in an open letter published on October 8, the 24 signees also stress that neither side is “free of errors” in a conflict that, in their opinion, did not start with the referendum on October 1. Rather, the tension began “seven years ago with the Constitutional Tribunal invalidation of the 2010 autonomy statute passed by the Spanish Parliament.”

Never in today’s Spain

In the letter, which was also sent to the European Commission, the Nobel Prize Recipients state that the Spanish government has done “little” since 2010 to “adequately address the simmering issue,” and resolve the conflict. They add that, however, they wouldn’t have predicted “the extreme and unhelpful measures” from Madrid in response to the referendum, listing “scenes of police brutality, violence and use of rubber bullets” against Catalan voters as something they “never would have expected in today’s Spain.”