European diplomacy pays the price for political prisoners

BarcelonaUntil now it was clear that the existence of political prisoners and Catalan pro-independence exiles had a reputational cost for Spain, but this Friday it has been European diplomacy as a whole that has had to pay the price. The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, travelled to Moscow yesterday to convey to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, the unease of the EU-27 over the imprisonment of opposition leader Aleksei Navalni and the detention of thousands of his supporters. Lavrov, an old dog of international diplomacy, replied by reproaching Borrell for the existence of prisoners in Spain for a political question such as "organising a referendum in Catalonia". "The Spanish authorities asked not that their courts not be questioned and we demand the same in terms of reciprocity," Lavrov claimed.

Clearly, then, the imprisonment of Catalan leaders is a stain on the European Union's external image and a compelling argument for authoritarian regimes like Russia's to justify that their methods are not so different. In fact, the digital Brussels think tankEUobserveryesterday published an article in which it considered that Josep Borrell had been humiliated by Lavrov. And the Catalan politician had to endure the speech of the Russian minister with a good face because the real purpose of his visit was to open the doors of Europe to the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, in view of the supply problems that the Union is suffering. It is revealing that one of the people who were most vocal in their criticism of the pro-independence supporters was not able to raise his voice yesterday and defend his imprisonment. Perhaps because it is indefensible.

It is foreseeable that after yesterday's spectacle, European diplomatic pressure will grow on Spain to release Catalan political prisoners and thus prevent Moscow or countries like Turkey from using them to justify their own human rights violations. The Spanish Foreign Minister, Arancha González Laya, came out to defend that in Spain "there are no political prisoners" and asked Moscow that Navalni be allowed to "run and campaign in the next Russian elections just as the Catalan pro-independence leaders serving sentences in Spain are doing". It is shameful that Laya uses the fact that the Catalan prisoners are campaigning, since the decision has not been taken by the Spanish government but by the Catalan administration, and it is very likely that in the coming days the Prosecutor's Office will appeal their open prison regime and the justice system will send them back to prison.

In any case, the episode in Moscow should serve to make the Spanish government speed up the release of the prisoners, since international public opinion does not understand that there are people sentenced to over 10 years in prison, among whom are social activists with no political affiliation, such as Jordi Cuixart, as Amnesty International has highlighteded on more than one occasion. And if they don't want to do it for Spain, they should at least do it to avoid damaging Europe's image.