Danish Parliament approves proposal requesting Spain and Catalonia to talk about self-determination

Barcelona (ACN).- The Folketing, the National Parliament of Denmark, approved on Tuesday a proposal debated a week ago requesting Spain and Catalonia to hold "a peaceful and democratic dialogue" on the self-determination claims and "the question of Catalonia's independence". The motion (Förslag) was approved in the end with the support of 6 of the 8 parliamentary groups and the abstention of the other two, resulting in 64 votes in favour, 41 abstentions and 0 votes against. There have been rumours suggesting that Spanish Government pressure was the reason why the main opposition party, the Liberal Venstre, abstained despite last week announcing its support for the proposal. The other group which abstained was the extreme-right Danish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti). The proposal is the answer that the Danish Foreign Affairs Minister, Martin Lidegaard, from the Danish Social Liberal Party, gave to a question filed by an MP from the Red-Green Alliance, Nikolaj Villumsen. The question asked the Danish Government "How it will ask for the right to the self-determination of peoples to be respected in relation to the wide majority of the Catalan parliament, Catalan society and the Catalan Government that want to hold an independence referendum?" During the debate, Lidegaard highlighted that the Spanish Constitution does not fully recognise Catalonia's nationhood, which is a pending issue in Spain, he said.

The MP from the Red-green Alliance had attended a debate organised by the Danish branch of the civil society association Catalan National Assembly (ANC) in Copenhagen and committed himself to file a parliamentary question to the Danish Government about Catalonia's self-determination claims within a democratic European Union. According to the ANC's Coordinator in Denmark, Toni Segovia, the petition from the Danish Parliament to hold a "peaceful and democratic dialogue" is "a massive victory" for pro-independence supporters, since Catalonia "takes for the first time at international level the category of political subject", being placed at the same level as Spain.

Furthermore, Catalonia's independence as exclusively being Spain's internal matter is no longer the only opinion expressed by international actors regarding this issue, pointed out Segovia. Indeed, he believes that some Danish parties will bring this issue to the European institutions.

The Catalan Government: "no votes against it, Mr Margallo"

After hearing of the vote, the Catalan Government's Spokesperson and Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, who is also in charge of External Relations, sent on Tuesday a direct message to the Spanish Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García-Margallo, in the press conference held after the weekly Cabinet meeting in Barcelona. "No votes against it, Mr Margallo. Here we stand", emphasised Homs.

Furthermore, Homs affirmed that the Spanish Government had pressured the Danish parties and institutions to avoid the debating and approval of the motion. The Catalan Minister said that "such behaviours are strange in a democratic context" and are "very far from being diplomatic", "far from the very long democratic tradition of many European states". According to Homs, such pressure "generates astonishment" to "those who believe that Spain is a democratic country".