Three Catalan independence MEPs, including Carles Puigdemont, lost their parliamentary immunity on Monday.
The Spanish government welcomed this vote by the European Parliament on Tuesday March 9, considering that this outcome showed that "Catalonia's problems were being resolved in Spain".
The European Parliament's vote "sends a triple message," Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said in a very brief statement, one of them being that "Catalonia's problems are resolved in Spain, they cannot be resolved in Europe ".
"This is the line adopted by the Spanish government, that of reaching out to Catalan political forces to find a solution through dialogue and negotiation," she concluded.
Measure approved by 400 elected officials against 248
The other two messages of this vote, continued the minister, relate to the fact that an MEP "cannot take advantage of his statute to avoid appearing before a national justice" and on "the solidity of the rule of law in Spain".
The European Parliament voted on Tuesday to lift the immunity of the former President of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont and two other Catalan MEPs, claimed by Spain for the 2017 secession attempt.
The measure was approved by 400 elected against 248 and 45 abstentions at the end of a vote by secret ballot opened Monday evening, specified the Parliament.
In numerous interviews granted in the days preceding the vote, Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in exile since the failed secession attempt, announced that he would appeal to European justice if the European Parliament ruled in Madrid.
With AFP
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