Former French minister visits pro-independence leaders in prison

Benoît Hamon, the former French education minister under François Hollande, visited three of the Catalan pro-independence leaders at Soto del Real prison on Monday.

The ex-Socialist MP, who served in Barcelona mayoral candidate Manuel Valls's government, met ousted Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras, ex-minister Raül Romeva and activist Jordi Cuixart, who are among the dozen Catalans currently facing trial in Madrid.

Whilst Hamon said he did not consider himself as campaigning for independence by making the trip across the Pyrenees, he compared the state of Spanish democracy to that of Hungary and Poland, as well as France, where he believes there is a democratic deficit.