Article published by Catalan News Agency, 6th July 2016
Photo: Image of the Swiss Parliament (by Le Conséil Federal)
Barcelona (CNA).- A group of Swiss MPs from the main political parties in the Federal Assembly will set up a friendship group with Catalonia. According to the Delegate of the Catalan Government to France and Switzerland, Martí Anglada, the initiative has a strong “plural and transversal component” which shows the interest that the political process in Catalonia has awoken in the Swiss Parliament, regardless of the MPs’ ideologies. Indeed, the group has been launched by MPs from the Socialist Party (PS), the Christian-democrats (PDC), the Liberal Party (PLR) and the Swiss People’s Party (Union Democrátique du Centre, in French). Anglada also emphasised the importance of a country such as Switzerland, “which is a point of reference in terms of democratic quality, direct democracy and international mediation tradition”, showing its friendship to the Catalan people “in the middle of the independence process”.
“The friendship group Switzerland-Catalonia shows the progressive international support towards the Catalan process”, stated Anglada. The MPs who launched the initiative aim to gather the attention of other MPs and also that of the Swiss Government in relation to the Catalan process. In this vein, they see the creation of the friendship group as a useful tool to follow the political process in Catalonia and strengthen the binds with the different actors in Catalan society.
There are currently a hundred friendship groups in the Federal Assembly, since all Swiss MPs and senators are free to join or even create friendship groups, whose activities are not subject to parliamentary control.
Some of the members in this new friendship group have previously defended the right of self-determination and the need to find a political solution to Catalonia’s push for independence. They have called for holding a referendum, a democratic resource quite normal in Switzerland. Moreover, they claim that Switzerland is a country which aims to promote dialogue and listen to all the parties involved.
The Catalan process previously gathered Swiss attention
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