CUP Councillor accused of insurrection laments Spain’s “anti-democratic nature”
Joan Coma, city councillor in Vic, a town 60 kilometres from Barcelona, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly ‘inciting to sedition’ when calling for disobedience against the Spanish institutions in a plenary session a year ago. After refusing to do so in October, this Wednesday he testified before Madrid’s ‘Audiencia Nacional’ and was cleared of charges, although his passport has been taken away by the magistrate. “We are up against a state with a strongly anti-democratic nature”, stated pro-independence radical left CUP’s Coma after leaving the Court and called on those who defend Catalonia’s independence but also those who don’t want to join efforts to “overcome the current stage”. Coma’s arrest is to be added to that of Mayor of Berga, Montse Venturós, who was accused of an ‘electoral crime’ for refusing to take down a pro-independence flag from the city hall’s façade on two occasions.