Esquerra Republicana welcomes the Council of Europe’s urging Spain to guarantee politicians’ and activists’ free speech both “in law and in practice”

Esquerra Republicana draws attention to the Council of Europe’s enjoinder to the Spanish state and highlights the work done by Esquerra at the organisation.

Esquerra Republicana values the report by the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights which recommends that the Spanish state take measures to correct inequalities in housing and access to health, protect freedom of expression and assembly, and provide legal and safe access for those seeking asylum.

Esquerra specifically applauds that the Council of Europe:

  • Urges Spain to ensure the freedom of expression of politicians and activists both “in law and in practice”.
  • Highlights the reform of the Penal Code elicited by Esquerra. According to Esquerra, these first two points suggest that despite the measures applied by the Spanish executive, the protection of political rights is still not effective. Esquerra attributes this to the judges’ misinterpretation of the reform.
  • Forbids pushback of migrants and proscribes the migration policy applied at the North-African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
  • Urges review of Spain’s Gag Law to comply with human rights standards.


Senator Laura Castel, the only pro-independence member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), considers this report “positive” because it “points out to the Spanish State its many democratic shortcomings that we denounce from Catalonia.” “As a member of the PACE, a large part of my work consists of getting this information to the different bodies that make up the Council of Europe,” explained Ms Castel, “and I have done this with the Commissioner as well.” Ms Castel has thus expressed her satisfaction with the commitment that the Commissioner has shown in processing and interpreting all this information, in short, to “urge the State to get its act together in terms of democracy and human rights.” “The Spanish state has a serious backlog of work to do regarding democracy, and it is falling further behind,” concluded Ms Castel.

With regard to the recommendations on the Penal Code, the Council of Europe recalls that back in 2021 it had already expressed the need to reform the crimes of rebellion and sedition. In this vein, they also point to the recommendations of the Cilevics report approved by the PACE. Likewise, the Commissioner urges the Spanish State to make changes to the rest of the Penal Code to strengthen the protection of the right to free speech regarding the offences of insults to the crown, extolling terrorism and affront to religious sentiment.

As to the Gag Law, the Council of Europe recalls that it has repeatedly sent Spain recommendations on reforming the statutes to conform to European standards and to human rights which, Esquerra adds, have been disregarded by the Spanish executive.