The Spanish Constitution of 1978 established a parliamentary democracy of the highest caliber, which, to cite an example, Freedom House has classified as a full democracy, with the highest ratings in terms of political and civil liberties and rights. Last January, the Democracy Index prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit rated Spain among the top 20 democracies in the world.

Catalonia enjoys nowadays the highest level of self-government, freedom and prosperity of its entire history. The Spanish transition to democracy in the late 1970s created a system called “the Spain of the autonomies”, or self-governing regions, making it one of the most decentralized countries in the world.

There are no political prisoners in Spain. Nobody is prosecuted nor sent to prison in Spain because of his or her political ideas. I am not merely declaring this myself. This has been stated in reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

There are politicians who, despite being warned repeatedly by their own legal services, decided to twist the parliamentary rules and to contravene Catalonia’s Statute of Autonomy and Spain’s Constitution. If free reign were given to exercise politics outside the law — in violation of the law — it would mark the end of democracy itself. And this is why judges have taken action: to safeguard democracy and the rule of law. That is why there are politicians in prison: because they have broken the law.

Maria Matres Manso
Ambassador of Spain to Indonesia
Jakarta

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