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BRITAIN-SCOTLAND-SPAIN-CATALONIA-POLITICS
Catalan leader hopes for ‘support’ from Scotland
EDINBURGH, July 11, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – After years of holding Catalan
separatists at arm’s length despite obvious sympathy for their cause,
Scotland’s pro-independence First Minister Nicola Sturgeon meets Catalan
president Quim Torra for the first time on Wednesday.
Torra is visiting Scotland and also met Clara Ponsati, a former Catalan
minister who is fighting an extradition request by Spain on charges of
“violent rebellion” for her role in Catalonia’s failed independence bid in
2017.
“Maybe we can discuss how they can give us support, ideas to resolve the
critical political situation,” Torra told reporters ahead of his meeting with
Sturgeon.
“I would like to thank the Scottish people for their solidarity, their
generosity, with Clara,” he said.
Ponsati, a 61-year-old professor in political economy at the University
of St Andrews, has been released on bail as she challenges the extradition
through the Spanish courts.
Torra said the Ponsati case was “strengthening the links between Scotland
and Catalonia, two nations with the same goal, the independence of their
countries”.
Michael Keating, professor of political science at the University of
Aberdeen, said the meeting between Torra and Sturgeon is possible thanks to
“a degree of normality” returning to Catalonia after last year’s events.
There is a long-running affinity between Scottish and Catalan
separatists.
When Scotland held its independence referendum in 2014 in which the
unionist cause won by 55 percent to 45 percent, hundreds of Catalans came to
aid the independence campaign.
During Catalonia’s own bid last year there were demonstrations of support
in the streets of Scotland and several lawmakers from Sturgeon’s Scottish
National Party travelled to Catalonia as observers of the vote.
Sturgeon at the time expressed her concern about the crackdown in
Catalonia by Spanish authorities, defending the international principle of
self-determination.
But she has kept the Catalan cause at arm’s length, keen to underline the
legal basis of Scotland’s own efforts.
“The Scottish nationalists have followed the path of legality very, very
carefully,” Keating told AFP.
Sturgeon has to act “very carefully” also because she may be preparing to
renew pro-EU Scotland’s independence bid as Brexit looms and is concerned
about Spanish approval if it seeks to join the European Union, Keating said.
“That issue hasn’t gone away,” he said.
– ‘Red carpet welcome’ –
Ahead of the talks, Sturgeon has come under criticism from Scottish
Conservatives who have pointed to what they say were xenophobic comments made
by Torra about Spanish speakers in Catalonia.
“Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP always like to pretend they’re appalled at
anyone who would engage in divisive or bigoted language. But all that goes
out the window when it comes to fellow separatists, as this red carpet
welcome proves,” said Maurice Golden, a Scottish Conservative MP.
Some commentators have pointed out that receiving Torra but refusing to
meet US President Donald Trump, who will visit Scotland later in the week, is
a case of double standards.
A Scottish government spokesman said Sturgeon “regularly meets and hosts
leaders visiting Scotland and looks forward to the meeting with the President
of Catalonia in Edinburgh to discuss issues on how our two countries can
continue to work together.
“Ministers have made clear our profound regret that the Spanish
government has not proceeded by way of dialogue with Catalonia’s political
leaders and that the issue is now, instead, subject to a judicial process,”
he said.
BSS/AFP/RY/1900 hrs