Catalan parliament president says assembly of French-speaking countries 'astonished' at her prosecution

French-speaking countries are surprised and bemused by Spain’s prosecution of certain members of the Catalan parliament bureau. That is what the bureau president, Carme Forcadell, who is among the representatives charged by the Spanish prosecutor, told ACN on Tuesday during the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie (APF in French), which was held this week in Luxembourg.

Leading pro-independence figure Forcadell took part in the meeting of 83 French-speaking territories from all over the world, and explained the current political situation in Catalonia to its members in a session on Sunday. Forcadell said the case against five out of the seven bureau members for allowing a debate and a vote on an independence referendum in the Catalan Parliament “has drawn interest” in the APF. She also said that some of its affiliates are “astonished” and “do not understand” the authorities presenting lawsuits for debating issues in parliament.

Forcadell also announced that the next AFP political commission, to be held in March 2018, will tackle the issue. “The Francophonie, a space of so many countries, will discuss it and will take into account the situation in Catalonia, because receiving lawsuits for allowing debates and votes in parliaments is very difficult to explain,” she said. Moreover, she claimed that everyone knows that the right to self-determination is a human right and that all peoples should have the opportunity to exercise it.