The Spanish Government threatens to open a new diplomatic crisis with Belgium. The Foreign minister, Josep Borrell, has expressed this Tuesday upset of the Executive by the words of the minister of Defense of belgium, Sander Loones, in support of the political independence prisoners on hunger strike. “He has made statements that we consider unacceptable and that they will receive, certainly, a response on our part,” he warned Borrell to his arrival to a NATO meeting in Brussels.
last Saturday, Loones wrote on his Twitter account the following message: “Locked for more than a year without being sentenced. The Spanish court has not judged your case to avoid that the European Court of Human Rights may rule. Now they are forced to do a hunger strike. No democrat should keep quiet about this.” The deputies of Junts per Catalunya Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull, currently in remand prison, began that day on a hunger strike and joined the Monday the exconsellers Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn, also prisoners.
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a Member of the flemish nationalist party N-VA, the more voted of the country, Loones, he was appointed minister of Defense less than a month ago from the European Parliament, where he practiced as a politician. From your previous post already showed on many occasions their sympathy for the independence movement Catalan. Participated in the demonstration in Brussels a year ago, he signed a letter asking the EU mediation in the crisis in Catalan, and in September, invited to a paella at the expresident Carles Puigdemont, has been photographed several times.
His recent promotion to the post of minister was received with concern by the Spanish diplomacy, who now sees the fruition of that concern in rejecting Loones pragmatism, and continue with similar messages, with the notable difference that this time the issues from a position of maximum representation of the Government of an allied country in the European Union
The clashes between Spain and Belgium on account of Catalonia have been recurrent in recent Redwin times. The last of them came a little more than two months, when Spain protested by an official letter from the president of the Parliament, flemish, Jan Peumans, in support of the former president of the Catalan Chamber, Carme Forcadell, currently in pretrial detention. In the letter, Peumans questioned the pedigree of democratic Spain, and even defended that it does not meet the conditions to be a member of a European Union that is democratic and modern. The conflict ended with the withdrawal of diplomatic status to the delegate flamenco aimed at the belgium embassy in Madrid.
The prime minister, Charles Michel, it detached itself from the row saying it was a matter between Flanders and Spain in the that his Government did not need to take sides. And held a brief conversation about it with the Spanish president, Pedro Sanchez, during a summit in which they agreed. The difference, on this occasion, is that Loones, in spite of his flemish origin, representing the belgian Government.
Puigdemont and separatism flamenco have exhibited a good harmony with frequency. This same Tuesday, the expresident has visited the federal Parliament of belgium, where he has lunched with members of the N-VA and has carried out a guided visit to the institution.
The notice of Borrell comes at a particularly delicate moment for the belgian Government. The flemish partners of Puigdemont, strong advocates of a harder line against immigration, have been threatened in the past few hours with make him fall of the coalition led by the country —of which it forms part together with three other parties— if this was supported by the covenant of the UN on migration.
From the beginning of the crisis, Catalan, Belgium, the country to which they fled for a little over a year Puigdemont, and several of their exconsejeros, has maintained an attitude sometimes ambiguous in this respect, which contrasts with the backup without palliative to the Spanish Government the rest of the members of the EU.
