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“It is a real possibility”

Catalan Minister of External Affairs warns that there could be more arrests and that the situation questions the credibility of European institutions

“If this is a possibility? Yes, it is”. The Catalan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, spoke firmly and clearly yesterday before 80 journalists from the international press corps in Brussels: all members of the government, with President Carles Puigdemont in the front line, run the risk of ending up in prison as has happened with the presidents of the ANC, Omnium Cultural and Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Cuixart.

In a press conference at the headquarters of the Permanent Representation of the Generalitat to the EU, Romeva asked if it is “normal” in the EU that a government “can be removed from office or even jailed.” “Is this something that the EU can accept? Would it be comfortable with a democracy like that? Because it could happen, yes, it is a real concern,” he admitted to correspondents from Italy, France, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal and Switzerland.

Romeva, who was an MEP in Brussels for a decade and knows the workings of the European capital, warned that the EU is putting its “credibility” on the line with Catalonia. “When we speak of fundamental rights, we must be very clear with the message we send,” he said. “Imprisoning people for expressing political ideas that Spain’s government does not seem like a good thing to accept,” he said, adding that European institutions need to be alert

The European Commission spokesman, Alexander Winterstein, refused on Tuesday to comment on the imprisonment of Sanchez and Cuixart, seeing it as an “internal constitutional and legal matter” of Spain. Romeva, in response, said “This will have long-term effects in all European countries.”

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