APF head hails Catalonia’s ‘democratic strategy’

Catalonia has “a sincere and interesting democratic strategy” says the new president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie (APF in French), Jacques Chagnon. The Quebec parliamentary president and new head of the organization that represents the parliaments of 83 French-speaking countries and regions told ACN that “the Catalans are big enough and serious enough to make their own decisions" in the October 1 referendum. “We cannot deny reality, we know that there are particular problems in Spain that Canada did not have,” admitted Chagnon, but he urged the Spanish and Catalan governments to resolve their differences, “a little like England and Scotland did a few years ago.”

While stressing that the APF avoids “interfering in the internal politics of countries,” Chagnon, who met with Catalan parliament president, Carme Forcadell, on Sunday in Luxembourg, nevertheless pointed out that as a multilateral organization the parliamentary assembly has an interest in “guaranteeing that the democratic work done by a parliament can be appraised.”

It is for this reason that the APF’s political committee has chosen to tackle the Catalan situation when it next meets in spring next year. “We will let everyone talk about it and come to conclusions within the framework of a lawful organization,” he pledged.