Nigel Farage is feigning anger because the EU hasn’t done more to back Catalans campaigning for independence. But if it had, you can be sure the UKIP MEP would be hounding the EU for undermining Spain’s sovereignty.
Madrid’s crackdown on those voting in an unofficial referendum on Sunday – firing rubber bullets and dragging people by the hair from voting stations – was brutal. Although the Spanish courts have declared the referendum unconstitutional, it would have been far smarter for the government just to ignore it.
But Farage isn’t in a position to criticise the EU. After all, he has made his name by arguing that the EU is a superstate that intervenes excessively in the internal affairs of sovereign nations. What the EU is actually showing is that it isn’t a superstate.
The UKIP MEP has also got his facts wrong. In a column in today’s Telegraph, he wrote: “The EU’s Commission simply repeated the Spanish line that the referendum was illegal. It didn’t even condemn the shocking violence.”
This isn’t correct. The Commission called on the government to talk to the separatists and condemned violence. Meanwhile, Donald Tusk, the EU Council’s president, appealed to Spain’s prime minister to find ways to stop further use of force.
The EU has two important objectives, which can conflict. It mustn’t interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign nations. But it must also uphold the EU’s principles, including respect for human rights, as set out in Article 2 of its treaty.
In extreme situations, these principles have to triumph over considerations of sovereignty. If a state was killing peaceful protesters and putting politicians behind bars without trial, the EU would have to take action, as it’s allowed to under Article 7 of the treaty. And we should be glad that it has such principles and powers.
Although the situation in Barcelona hasn’t reached such a point, it is reasonable to ask whether the Commission has done enough with its fairly mild condemnation of violence that didn’t single out Spanish police tactics.
But any anti-European tempted to say it hasn’t done enough should also condemn how our own most prominent Brexiter reacted to Sunday’s violence. Boris Johnson did tell Reuters that he was “obviously worried by any violence”. But when he tweeted about the events he didn’t mention the violence; he gave his support for Spain’s unity and the importance of upholding its constitution.
Spain is a close ally and a good friend, whose strength and unity matters to the UK. (2/2)
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) October 1, 2017
Unsurprisingly, when giving his two barrels to the Commission, Farage didn’t mention Johnson’s intervention.
