sinn féin

Catalan president Pere Aragonès promises to "work harder" to achieve Quebec-style Clarity Act to set independence referendum conditions

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

"Crimes amount to allowing people to vote to determine their own future," says Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy

Sinn Féin’s leader, Gerry Adams, praised “the peaceful and democratic nature” of Catalonia’s pro-independence aspirations and applauded the “positivity of the campaign” to call a referendum. “That’s a matter of the people there to strategize on, but certainly the right to a referendum is a very modest and very simple demand and it's one which the parties in government have been mandated to do,” he told the CNA. Thus, he called on the Spanish Government “to do the right thing” and lamented some of their recent actions, especially the prosecution of the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell and other Catalan officials “for doing their job”. Adams met with Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, this Wednesday in the Irish Parliament and reaffirmed his “sympathy” for Catalonia’s political aspirations and praised the “bonds” between the two communities.

MEPs from different parties have criticized the way the Spanish State has used the court to tackle Catalonia’s pro-independence aspirations, particularly this week as the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, and other members of the Chamber’s Bureau have been brought to court for allowing a debate on independence in the Parliament. According to Sinn Féin’s MEP, Matt Carthy, the Spanish State is “undermining its reputation across Europe” by taking public representatives to court. In a similar vein, European People’s Party MEP, Sipra Pietikäinen, said the reaction from the Spanish judiciary was “very strong” and called for “mediation” instead to overcome the current deadlock. Slovenian MEP Igor Soltes also criticized the EU role regarding these kinds of conflicts and lamented that “sometimes it is easier” for EU institutions to intervene “in foreign countries” such as Venezuela rather than doing so in Catalonia.

The Foreign Affairs spokesperson of Irish Republicans Sinn Féin, Seán Crowe, has expressed his party’s concerns regarding the prosecution of the Catalan Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, for allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote in the Catalan Chamber. In a communiqué published this Monday on Crowe’s personal website and that of Sinn Féin, the Irish politician wrote that he considers Forcadell’s summonsing “hugely concerning” and warned that her prosecution and potential debarment from public office “puts at risk the very democratic standards that people hold dear throughout the world”. Thus, he calls for the Spanish Government to “reconsider” its position “even at this late stage” and warns that that the executive led by the conservative People’s Party “cannot stifle, ignore, or ban the democratic demands” of the Catalan people.