National Day of Catalonia: EFA calls for a political solution and the immediate release of Catalan leaders

On the 11th of September, National Day of Catalonia, more than 600.000 people took the streets of Barcelona demanding independence and the right to decide on their own future , as well as the release of all Catalan political leaders and activists facing pre-trial detention since the referendum of October 2017.

The demonstration “showed once again that the independentist movement maintains a huge capacity for organizing and mobilizing hundreds of thousands of people and proves that there is a high support within Catalan society for freely exercising the right to self-determination”, EFA Secretary-General Jordi Solé said.

The European Free Alliance, as the only European Political Party that clearly stands for the right to self-determination, calls for real dialogue that allows a political solution to be found, and demands the end of repression and the immediate release of all political figures and activists who have been unfairly imprisoned for promoting and implementing the results of a referendum.

“EFA will always defend the respect for civic and political rights, as well as the right to self-determination of all peoples in Europe, including Catalonia.

The case of Catalonia is particularly worrying because of State repression and the judicial response to a political conflict, which could end in lengthy prison sentences for political representatives that were democratically elected to organize a referendum”, EFA President, Lorena López de Lacalle, said.

An EFA delegation participated in the different events organized for the ‘Diada’, such as the floral tribute at the Rafael Casanova statue, and met with representatives of the EFA member party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, members of the civil society organizations such as Òmnium Cultural and Assamblea Nacional Catalana, and from the international centre for national minorities CIEMEN.