Greens call for Estonian government to recognize Catalan independence
The Estonian Greens have called for the government to recognize the independence declared by the Catalonia region of Spain last Friday.
"The Catalan parliament on Oct. 27 approved a law with which the Catalan Republic is created as an independent sovereign state," party deputy chairman Aleksander Laane and board member Marko Kaasik said in a press release. "We call for the government and Riigikogu of the Republic of Estonia, according to people's freedom of self-determination, to recognize the independent Catalan Republic."
According to the Greens, Spain's Conservative minority government has done nothing to find an amicable solution to the Catalan crisis. "Quite the contrary, by physically stopping the execution of the referendum, refusing negotiations and threatening with coercive measures, the Spanish government has done everything to ensure that tensions remain and increase," the press release read.
"Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is trying to strengthen the position of his government with dictatorial techniques by encouraging hatred in order to draw people's attention away from the state's economic and social problems that he is unable to solve," the party claimed, adding that the wish and decision to escape such a power completely should be understandable.
"We believe that next to Spain and other member states, Catalonia will have a place in the joint home of the EU and we are calling for the Council of the European Union and member states to work toward this," the Greens said. "The EU, the member states of which have given up a large part of their sovereignty, do not have the moral right to remain spectators by calling the Catalan crisis Spain's domestic matter."
The Catalan parliament on Friday approved the creation of an independent Catalan Republic. On the same day, the Spanish central government removed Catalan leaders from office and implemented direct control of the regional government as of Monday.
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in favor of Spanish unity in Barcelona on Sunday.
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS