The Diplomat
The second vice-president, Pablo Iglesias, assured yesterday, in an interview granted to the newspaper Ara that in Spain there is not full democratic normality, in line with what was affirmed by the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, after his meeting with the High Representative of Foreign Policy of the EU and former head of the Spanish diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
Iglesias made this statement when asked about his opinion on the words of Lavrov who replied to Borrell when the latter demanded the release of the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, that in Spain there are political prisoners, alluding to the leaders of the ‘process’ imprisoned.
Far from rejecting Lavrov’s manifestations, as did the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, the vice-president responded: “If as a member of the Spanish government I go to any country and they tell me that the political leaders of the two parties that govern in Catalonia are one in prison and the other in Brussels, they are describing the facts to me”.
And he added: “These people have not planted bombs, they have not shot at anyone. Well, it is clear that there is a situation of exceptionality, and I have to recognize it as vice-president of the Spanish government. There is not a situation of full political and democratic normality in Spain when the leaders of the two parties that govern Catalonia, one is in jail and the other in Brussels.”
“It is a situation with many elements of exceptionality, which are bad for Spanish democracy. But the same I say to you about the entry into prison of Pablo Hasél. The judges have said that he has to enter, but as a democrat I understand that it does not benefit the image of Spain that someone can end up in prison for singing, whatever he says in his songs,” he said.
According to Iglesias, the “democratic quality of Spain” has deteriorated. “In a situation of democratic normality -he says- political conflicts are resolved democratically. How can there be democratic normality in our country if a political conflict has ceased to be managed by political means and has ended up being managed by police and judicial means? It is a problematic thing that no democrat can like”.
The first vice-president, Carmen Calvo, assured yesterday that she disagrees “absolutely” with what Iglesias said and defended that Spain is “a serious democracy” and referred to the electoral campaign in which the leaders of the ‘procés’ are participating.
The second vice president again clashes again with both Calvo and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as he has done in other foreign policy matters. González Laya responded to Sergei Lavrov, stating that “in Spain there are no political prisoners. There are political prisoners” and reminding him that our country “is one of the 23 full democracies”, while Russia ranks 124th out of 167 countries.
The support that González Laya did not receive from his Cabinet colleague came from Brussels, where the EU Foreign Affairs spokesman, Peter Stano, pointed out that there is no parallel between the situation of the Russian opposition leader Navalni and that of the imprisoned pro-independence leaders in Spain. “In the EU there are sufficient safeguards to ensure that people’s rights are protected because we have a functioning rule of law system, so of course the parallel is out of place,” Stano said.
