Following a meeting with Alfonso Dastis Quecedo, the Spanish minister for foreign affairs and cooperation, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, on Monday 9 October welcomed the fact that his interlocutor had confirmed that an investigation was being carried out into clashes with the police in Catalonia.
This very brief declaration by the Secretary General appears to clash with the response of the Spanish home affairs minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido Alvarez, to the letter sent to him by the Human Rights Commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, on 4 October. In his response, Alvarez referred to the judgment of the Constitutional Court, which had ruled the referendum on Catalan independence illegal and called on the central authorities to block any attempt to contravene this decision. He also said that the security forces had acted “prudently, appropriately and proportionately, with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the rights and freedoms of the citizens”. This was seen as a flat 'no' to Muiznieks' calls to expedite an independent investigation into allegations of police brutality during the police's actions on 1 October, to prevent an escalation of tension and violence.
A similar call was made by Sir Roger Gale, Senior Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on 2 October. “Violence cannot be justified”, he wrote in a press release, adding: “where it has occurred, it must be properly and thoroughly investigated and its perpetrators, whether on the part of the authorities or of the demonstrators, brought to justice”.
A topical debate on the need for a political solution to the crisis in Catalonia was agreed upon at the start of the PACE autumn plenary session. It will be held at 4:30 PM on Thursday 12 October. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)