The case of Catalonia has reached the Bundestag. Political party Die Linke has tabled a motion in the lower house of the German parliament, asking the government of Angela Merkel to work for a negotiated solution to Catalonia's conflict with Spain, and to advocate for the EU's Council of Ministers to take initiatives in favour of a "peaceful and democratic solution" to the contention.
The motion also proposes that the Berlin government should offer asylum in Germany "to all those who are politically persecuted for rebellion or sedition that wish to take refuge there". It also calls on Merkel's executive to publicly demand that in the current Spanish Supreme Court trial of independence leaders, the norms "of a state under rule of law" and "fundamental rights" of the defendants must be respected, and that international observers should be explicitly admitted to the trial.
The text of the motion states that the "democratic solution" to the Catalan question should be negotiated "by mutual agreement between the two parties and in accordance with international law." Finally, it points out that the German government should avoid any participation in the "political persecution" of Catalan political representatives.
The parliamentary initiative, which is entitled Preserving democracy and the rule of law in the Catalan conflict, is personally subscribed by 17 deputies of the left-wing Die Linke and their parliamentary group. The text contains an explanatory statement that gives the background to the independence trial, and recalls that in 2018 a German regional court in Schleswig-Holstein "ruled in its decision on the extradition of Carles Puigdemont to Spain that the accusations of rebellion and insurrection were not admissible." It also states that the political prisoners spent long periods in custody prior to trial and to any actual sentence.
This move in the Bundestag comes in the wake of a growing internationalization of the Catalan process over the last few weeks, evidenced in such actions as the recent declaration made by 41 French senators.