German Socialist Equality Party demands immediate release of Carles Puigdemont
By
the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei
26 March 2018
The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) condemns the German authorities’ arrest of Carlos Puigdemont and demands his immediate release. The former regional president of Catalonia was arrested Sunday morning by German federal police officers on an autobahn in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and detained in a facility in the town of Neumünster.
The arrest of Puigdemont by the German authorities is an arbitrary judicial act characteristic of an authoritarian regime. The German government and judiciary are serving as enforcers for the Madrid regime, which launched a brutal crackdown on the Catalan independence movement.
Puigdemont has committed no crime, but is being pursued for purely political reasons. The Spanish Supreme Court accused him on Friday, together with 12 other high-ranking Catalan politicians, of rebellion. The charge stems from their having carried out a referendum on Catalan independence, a promise they campaigned on during the previous election. To date, 25 Catalan politicians each face up to 30 years in prison.
Puigdemont’s arrest recalls a grim episode from the past. This is not the first time German authorities have arrested a Catalan prime minister. In August 1940, in France, the Gestapo arrested Lluis Companys, who had fought against Hitler’s ally Franco during the civil war. They extradited him to Madrid, where he was tortured, sentenced to death and executed.
The fact that Puigdemont is a political prisoner who also faces serious consequences is beyond question. A comment in the Süddeutsche Zeitung entitled “Germany has its first political prisoner,” acknowledged that Madrid is…