Time to turn the page and open a new chapter

On the occasion of the recent ruling handed down by the Supreme Court of Spain, the ambassador of Spain to Qatar Belén Alfaro has issued the following statement:
“Yesterday we have finally heard the ruling handed down by the Supreme Court of Spain, related to the so-called ‘Procès’.
“First of all, I would like to highlight that the government of Spain respects and abides by the decision of the Spanish Supreme Court.
“As the president of the government has stated, this ruling marks the conclusion of judicial proceedings that have been carried out with every possible safeguard and with the utmost transparency, as befitting a country such as Spain, a social and democratic state under the rule of law with full separation of powers. In a democracy like Spain nobody is above the law and nobody is subject to trial for his or her ideas or politics but, rather, for criminal conduct as defined by the law.
“The Spanish Constitution is based on three key principles relevant to this case: equality before the law, a right to self-government by Autonomous Communities amongst the most far-reaching in the world, and the preservation of our national sovereignty and territorial integrity. In this sense, and as mentioned by our president of the government, the Catalan pro-independence movement has tried to subvert all those principles through the actions penalised by the Supreme Court: creating a fracture within Catalan society, refusing to recognise the rights of the majority who oppose independence, depriving Catalans who do not support them and all Spaniards of their rights, unilaterally breaching our democratic Constitution and the Catalan Statute, which are the sources of Catalan self-government.
“What really matters now is that the government of Spain will continue to work to repair the fractures created by the separatist movement in a diverse society. The Catalan government and parliament must govern for all Catalans, not just for a minority. We need to turn the page and open a new chapter based on peaceful coexistence in Catalonia through dialogue within the boundaries of the laws and the Spanish Constitution. I truly believe that if extremism is set aside, we can start a new chapter for a modern, plural and tolerant Catalonia taking its rightful place in Spain and contributing together to a stronger Europe.”