Carles Puigdemont Quotes
They are very brave when they talk about other countries where they have no competencies, but where are they when we citizens need them? Is Europe's solution to Catalans to turn its back?
Puigdemont, Carles. Speech to Pro-Independence Mayors. BBC News, BBC, 7 Nov. 2017.
The revolutionary government started out condemning annexation and insisting on self-determination for all. After WWII Stalin made a mockery of these original ideals by taking over most of Eastern Europe.
He was an Army Major at the time he wrote this article. In 1966 his positive view of Britain was overwhelmed by the anti-colonial fervor that existed in much of Africa.
America has quite often decided that foreign leaders were inadequate and detrimental to United States interests and then covertly and sometimes overtly attempted (and usually succeeded) to depose a foreign leader and manage a regime change. At the time of this quotation, we were in the aftermath of the George W. Bush regime change of the Iraq War. Judging a foreign leader from the outside and attempting a regime change is the most extensive form of interference in the internal affairs of another country.
The United States Senate must ratify all treaties before they can become effective. The Senate has been very reluctant to ratify treaties where the U. S. government or any of its citizens could come under the jurisdiction of any legal entity which did not abide by all the rights citizens are guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution. As a result, we do not recognize the World Court and the Treaty of Rome for example. The latter is the one that gives the World Court jurisdiction over a high level official who commits war crimes even in his own country. The result is that many dictators who do not want to be constrained by international law, do not sign the treaty fending off any pressure to do so by pointing to the United States. But Rothkopf and others who agree with him have not yet been able to come up with a mechanism that will assure American Constitutional rights to Americans who might be involved with the World Court and allow the court to punish the dictators who abuse their own population. The French would like their laws and constitution to control. The Russians, theirs. The Chinese, theirs. Every American public official takes an oath to defend The Constitution. That is their primary duty. Foreign policy and punishing international war criminals must take a lower priority.
The “proofs” were diplomatic assurances—treaties—that England would guarantee the territorial integrity of Belgium. The British made strong diplomatic efforts to persuade Germany not to occupy Belgium. The German’s none the less send armies in under the excuse that if they did not, the French would occupy the country and have a strategic advantage over them. Diplomacy could do no more good. England had to send troops or renege on its obligations. So England was in WWI.
Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó is a Catalan pro-independence politician and journalist from Spain. Since 2019 he has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). A former Mayor of Girona, Puigdemont served as the 130th President of Catalonia from 2016 to 2017 when he was removed from office by the Spanish Government following the unilateral Catalan declaration of independence. He is co-founder of the National Call for the Republic (CNxR), leader of the Together for Catalonia (JuntsxCat) electoral alliance and founder of the Together for Catalonia party.
