Spain’s government to challenge motions on self-determination, amnesty and police

The Spanish government will challenge motions passed by the Catalan parliament on Thursday seeking self-determination, amnesty and the removal of Spain’s Guardia Civil police from Catalonia.

The Madrid cabinet agreed to ask its highest advisory council for a report on the legality of the motions and is likely to take them to court.

“They are an attack on coexistence among Catalans,” said Spain’s government spokesperson Isabel Celaá on Friday after informing the press of the ministers’ agreement. “This government will not accept any attack on Catalonia’s [self-rule] statute or the constitution,” she added, urging “coexistence, respect and dialogue within the legal framework.”

Celaá also referred to the Catalan president’s accusations that Spain was “criminalizing the independence movement” after Monday’s arrest of seven activists, leading to their precautionary imprisonment without bail on terrorism charges.

“The [Spanish] government flatly rejects Mr. Torra’s accusations,” she said. “We ask him to make clear his respect to the democratic laws, the principles of the rule of law and the separation of powers.”

Motions on self-determination, amnesty and Spain’s police

Seeking an amnesty and exercising the right to self-determination were the responses to the upcoming potential guilty verdict for the leaders behind the 2017 independence referendum that the Catalan parliament decided on with a motion.

On Thursday, the pro-independence majority of lawmakers also passed another motion accepting “the legitimacy of civil and institutional disobedience as a means to defend the civil, political and social rights that may be violated.”

The same MPs also passed a third motion requesting that the Spanish Guardia Civil police, in charge of Monday’s arrests leading, be removed from Catalonia.