The former president of the Parliament of Catalonia Carme Forcadell has admitted that perhaps the Catalan pro-independentist politicians did not have “empathy” with non-separatist Catalans and that they felt they were treated unfairly. This was said in an interview granted to Catalunya Ràdio last Friday at the Mas d’Enric prison, in Catllar (Barcelona), where she is serving a sentence of 11 years and six months in prison for sedition, for the “decisive” role that the Supreme Court attributes to it in the Catalan independence process of 2017.
“It could be that we did a rash reading … If we had done a good reading then, we would not have set a calendar,” she said when asked about the objectives set by politicians in the process and the breach of own calendar.
The ex-deputy of Junts pel Sí considers that the calendar should not be “the most important thing”. “We did not have empathy with people who are not independentists and who perhaps did not feel treated fairly. There are many people who are not independentists who defend fundamental freedoms and rights and if you ask them to choose between Spain and Catalonia they choose Spain “, she pointed out. As for the present and future direction of Catalan independence, she advocates calm because everyone, including her, is “emotionally touched”. “We have to make a deep reflection and design a future,” she added.
Forcadell has also affirmed, regarding the claim of the independence parties that the prisoners of the procés recover their freedom, that the convicted cannot “be he center” nor be “the excuse or the currency of anybody’s exchange”. “You have to look for the good of the country, the whole country and all the people who live in it. And that will be good for us,” he said. He also warned that now we have to “think rationally” and that “emotions do not allow us to reason well.
The former president of the Parliament has opted for independence to move forward and resort to “nonviolent civil disobedience.” She has also expressed her hope that the separatist political forces will put aside their differences, something that generates “much anger”, and has asked them to find agreements at a time “so, so serious.” Forcadell has claimed to condemn “forcefully and immediately” violence during the riots that have occurred in Barcelona and Catalonia after the Supreme Court condemned the leaders of the process, something that has been reproached Quim Torra, head of the Government, who took several days to censor the use of violence, although it was attributed to “infiltrators.” “Nonviolence is not only for conviction, but also for efficiency,” added Forcadell.
In fact, she said she cried when she saw the images of the altercations in the streets: “I did not cry when I received the sentence, I cried when I saw scenes of violence in our cities: this is not us, I do not know what happens, I thought” indicated. “I didn’t recognize Barcelona when I saw it. You have to condemn it without palliative and fast, now! I was desperate to see it. What do we not understand? People, think what they think, have the right to leave home without your car being burned or being afraid when one takes children to school, “she said.
On the other hand, the former deputy and former president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) believes that she has been condemned for having been president of this organization and not for supporting the creation of a parallel legality without validity with the law of transience and the referendum law approved in the fall of 2017, as the Supreme concluded in the sentence. “I was the president of the Parliament and all I did was admit the laws to the majority by the Bureau,” she said, in defense “of the right of the Parliament to talk about everything, including the right to self-determination.” Forcadell has added that the one who passed those laws was the independentist parliamentary majority.
The former president of the Parliament in turn, understands the Catalan Chamber must return to the question of the right of self-determination, even if that has legal consequences for the deputies: “Neither now nor can we ever renounce the freedom of expression of our Parliament.” Finally, Forcadell has declared that sovereign prisoners could “have ethical, moral leadership” in independentism, but not hold representative positions “from jail or from exile.”
https://elpais.com/politica/2019/10/21/actualidad/1571673692_752123.html
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