Esquerra Republicana denounces in Brussels that certain Spanish unionist parties compare language immersion in Catalonia with Nazism

MEPs warn that the Council of the European Union calls for trivialization of Nazism to be made a criminal offence

Esquerra’s MEPs Jordi Solé and Diana Riba conveyed a report on Thursday to the European heads of the bodies for the protection of fundamental rights and to organizations preserving the memory of the Holocaust, denouncing the trivialization of Nazism by representatives of Spanish unionist parties such as the PP (EPP), Ciudadanos (Renew), Vox (ECR) and the PSOE (S&D) when comparing the linguistic immersion policy of Catalan schools with Nazism.

“In Europe, trivializing Nazism and the Holocaust is a red line that cannot be crossed. In fact, the Council of the European Union has repeatedly called on all member states to consider it a criminal offence, which is why the fact that the heinousness that we have had to hear from the mouths of the most rancid Spanish nationalism can go unpunished is incomprehensible for Europe,” denounced Mr Solé.

In the report—which Mr Solé and Ms Riba have sent, among others, to the European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, the director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Michael O’Flaherty, and UN Special Rapporteur on Racism Tendayi Achiume—the MEPs refer to the umpteenth political and judicial offensive against Catalan as the language of instruction in schools. They cite as an example the comments of the PP's deputy secretary of organization Ana Beltrán, who in December compared the case of a school in the town of Canet de Mar with the persecution by the Nazis. “We will see those who ask to study in Spanish made to wear an armband so that they can be identified in the street, just as the Nazis did with the Jews,” she said.

“Out of respect for democracy and memory, and out of respect for our dignity as a people, we cannot let pass these signs of hatred or ignorance, or both,” added Mr Solé.