Sinn Féin leader: 'Europe should engage with Catalonia's self-determination'

Mary Lou McDonald says Spanish government should accept the "movement for freedom" and dialogue not only about "the status quo"

The leader of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, talking to the Catalan News Agency (by Blanca Blay
The leader of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, talking to the Catalan News Agency (by Blanca Blay / ACN

ACN | Brussels

April 7, 2019 11:57 AM

The leader of the Irish republican party Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, believes that the EU should make a move in the Catalan conflict.

"The responsible thing for Europe to do is not to side down Catalonia and this question of democracy and self-determination, but to engage with it," she said talking to the Catalan News Agency (ACN) in Brussels.

"That is a thing that would not only benefit the people of Catalonia, and the people of Spain, but it could also bring confidence to the citizens of Europe that their institutions are able to listen" she added.

For her, the Spanish government should also admit that Catalonia has a right to vote in an independence referendum.