The new president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, has started with the wrong foot with Catalonia before taking office. During the debate before the vote on the new presidency, Scottish National Party (SNP) MEP Alyn Smith reminded him that three deputies were absent from the plenary, with reference to Carles Puigdemont, Oriol Junqueras and Toni Comín. From the ranks of the Spanish right wing PP, on the contrary, Esteban González Pons warned her that they count on her presidency to defend the unity of Spain.
The Scottish MEP and the President of the Free Alliance Europe (ALE) regretted that the House was not complete since three MEPs were missing, among them one of their group mates, Oriol Junqueras. "The only solution to this problem will be dialogue and you, personally, can be an honest mediator in this discussion. I hope you shall play this role," he has called for.
Diana Riba, ERC MEP and wife of Catalonia's ousted foreign minister and political prisoner Raül Romeva, has tweeted thanking SNP MEP Alyn Smith for his intervention asking for the absent Catalan MEP´s political rights to be guaranteed. Her tweet expressed her gratefulness to the Scottish deputy for having asked the new president to be part of an agreed and democratic solution and stated "This is the Europe we are working towards!"
For his part, González Pons celebrated Von der Leyen's "faith" in the rule of law and the primacy of the constitutions. "I am convinced that we count on you to defend Spanish rule of law and the unity of Spain, " he asserted.
From the ranks of the Greens/European Free Alliance, Vice-Chair Ernest Urtasun also took part in the plenary session, making no reference to Catalan MEPs' absence.