SPAIN has damaged its international reputation through its violent crackdown on Catalan voters, Holyrood heard yesterday.
In the strongest condemnation yet by a senior Tory, the party’s deputy Scottish leader Jackson Carlaw called the actions of the Madrid government “potentially deeply damaging to the reputation of Spain”.
He said: “Whatever the thinking of the authorities and government of Spain, there was clearly little rational about it.
“Whatever intentions they might have had, their actions will prove to have been wholly counterproductive.”
The comments follow an official UK Government statement which made no mention of the violence.
They were made after Sandra White MSP, who acted as an international observer in the independence referendum, questioned External Affairs Secretary Fiona Hyslop about the Scottish Government’s position on the weekend’s “horrific” events.
Elderly people were amongst those assaulted by police sent in by Spain, with others pulled from polling stations by their hair.
Hyslop said those “very brutal” scenes had “shocked so many people across the globe”.
She has written to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson calling for a more “robust” condemning of the use of violence and welcomed steps by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to begin investigations.
Hyslop went on: “This is a basic issue of human rights and democracy. The ability of people to express their political will and their political views without fear of violence is something that all of us as internationalists and, more importantly, as democrats, must uphold.”
Responding to Carlaw, she said: “The actions by the Spanish government have done it a disservice and will eventually prove to have been counterproductive.
“It is essential that the current situation is not allowed to pass and that it does not pass. I know that diplomatic statements have been made, but I hope that in the quietness of the private conversations that can and should take place, Spain can be brought to a more common-sense and respectful position than has been the case up to now.”
Meanwhile, 30 MSPs had last night backed a motion by White calling on EU members to invoke a rule which could see Spain’s voting rights suspended for using military force against its own citizens.
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