THOUSANDS of Catalans are gathering in Strasbourg at the opening session of the European Parliament to protest at the veto of three of their elected MEPs and to raise the profile of the Catalan independence movement.
They have travelled by car, scores of coaches, trains and chartered planes for a demonstration against the exclusion of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, his ex-deputy Oriol Junqueras and former minister Toni Comin, who were excluded from the new parliamentary session by Spain’s Electoral Board (JEC), despite garnering more than two million votes in the European elections.
The protest is timed to start outside the parliament building as MEPs arrive and will be followed by a rally, at which a “Let’s Fill Strasbourg” manifesto signed by more than 30,000 people, will be presented to the parliament.
Its text states that Junqueras, Puigdemont and Comin represent more than 1.7m votes in Catalonia – almost 2.3m across the whole of Spain – and warns that “Spain is passing on to the European Union its repressive solution to the peaceful, civic and democratic demand of the Catalans”.
READ MORE: Exiled Catalan politicians snubbed by Spain for MEP list
The document calls on EU institutions “to take the initiative to promote and mediate in the dialogue and negotiation between Catalonia and Spain on the right to self-determination”.
Spain’s JEC decided to leave the three MEPs’ seats vacant because they had not attended the ceremony to collect their certification and swear an oath of allegiance to the Spanish constitution last month.
Junqueras could not attend because he is in jail – along with eight other indy leaders – awaiting a verdict in the independence trial following the October 2017 referendum.
He was denied permission by the Supreme Court, the same body that granted him the right to carry out the same formality after he was elected a Spanish MP.
Puigdemont and Comin, who are exiled in Brussels, face arrest in Spain and were told they could only take the oath on Spanish territory.
Their lawyers, however, are taking their cases to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, claiming their rights to stand for public office in the EU are being violated.
Today’s protest is also aimed at raising the profile of Spain’s refusal to comply with a resolution from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), calling for the immediate release of three jailed Catalan leaders – Jordi Cuixart, Jordi Sanchez and Junqueras – who were being detained for political reasons.
READ MORE: Catalan independence prisoners head back to Barcelona jails
Some people heading to Strasbourg reported being subject to stringent border checks by Spanish police as they tried to leave Catalonia.
When officers saw pro-independence Estelada flags, they were said to have slammed vehicle occupants “against the wall like criminals”.
Xavier Miralles wrote on Twitter: “Spanish national police check, they see the ‘Estelada’ flag and stop us. Searched against the wall like criminals.
“Car searched from top to bottom, with a detection dog too.”
Another user known as Jordi Sanchez added: “Spanish National Police have stopped us at La Jonquera, searching us roughly (sniffer dogs included) after seeing the Estelada flag and saying we were going to Strasbourg.”
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