María Jesús Cañizares
01.07.2019 00:00 h.
The political, judicial and social siege on pro-independence propaganda grows. While the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Barcelona continues with the investigation of the lobbies paid by the Govern to place articles favorable to the independence in the international press, the Court of Accounts advances in its diligences on the expense in Catalan diplomacy.
Also, in the coming days, the Parliament will discuss a motion for a resolution urging the fining for using public assets in these journalistic writings, at a time when the Government has admitted that the public coffers are empty, without prospects to be able to approve new budgets for lack of support – it would be the third budget extension of the pro-independence Govern–.
Political and social initiatives vs. Catalan “embassies”
The Spanish government announced last week that it will appeal against the opening of new Catalan “embassies”, as already challenged the “bilateral agreement” signed between the minister for digital policy of Catalonia, Jordi Puigneró –according to this document-, and the Faeroe Islands in issues of digital technologies.
But it is also that the Spanish community abroad is also mobilized, specifically in Switzerland, a country which has become an icon of the independence movement – there the UN has its headquarters, where a working group has criticized the imprisonment of the defendants of the procés in a non-binding report – and where a crowfunding campaign has been promoted to fight against the “false Catalan embassy”.
Investigations of the Court of Accounts
The report of the Court of Accounts on the resources allocated to the execution of the external action policies of Catalonia (2011-2017) has become a benchmark in this political and judicial offensive. Not in vain it does occupy 722 pages, a conscientious compendium of how the Government used public funds to internationalize the project. “This oversight body made a series of requirements to investigate and found very little collaboration on the part of the Catalan administration”, sources close to these inquiries explain to Crónica Global.
The court recently issued an order in which it ordered to continue with the investigation into the accountability of the government team of Carles Puigdemont. It is a parallel procedure to the criminal one that the Court of Auditors, the Prosecutor’s Office and the complainant associations – Catalan Lawyers for the Constitution and Catalan Civil Society – see legally feasible. The Generalitat requested the closing of the file, but it was dismissed by the councilor of this body, Margarita Mariscal de Gante.
Investigation of the Prosecutor’s Office against Artur Mas
On the other hand, the Barcelona Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the payment of 1.6 million euros to the American Independent Diplomat lobby by the Government of Artur Mas. The purpose of these contracts was to seek international complicity for the secessionist cause. The investigation responds to a complaint by Ciudadanos – which can be read in this link – in which it is noticed that nothing is known about the activities of that lobby, despite the repeated requests for information made by the MP deputy Susana Beltran. The contracts were signed on dates prior to the organization of the 9N secessionist consultation of 2014, for which former president Mas was condemned as well as several high officers of the Govern.
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