My Take | A tale of two Western standards
- The complicity and silence of Western governments in Spain’s crackdown on Catalonian secessionists have exposed not just their hypocrisy but ill intentions behind their reactions over Hong Kong
You say whataboutism, I say hypocrisy.
Several lawmakers helped to organise a referendum which their government considered a seditious act. Warrants were out for their arrests. They fled and now face extradition.
Sorry, did I mention I wasn’t talking about Hong Kong, but Spain and the European Union? The European Parliament has just voted to strip three of its members, all from Catalonia, of parliamentary immunity.
They did so at the request of the central Spanish government to pave the way for their extradition to face sedition-related charges over the 2017 Catalonia independence referendum, declared illegal by Spain.
The trio are former Catalonian president Carles Puigdemont, former Catalan health minister Toni Comin and former regional education minister Clara Ponsati. Unlike ex-lawmakers in Hong Kong, though, they would not receive any help or sympathy from Western governments.