Thread by @ClareDalyMEP

Citizens protest against Spanish state's imprisonment of a #Catalan rapper @PabloHasel for "crimes of expression" (speech!) that wouldn't bat an eyelid in Ireland. But for the #EU, if it's not happening in #Russia it's not happening. #LlibertatPabloHasel

pscp.tv/w/1MnxnlLAALyGO

For comparison, under laws like these you could throw half of Ireland's folk singers in jail for "glorifying terrorism." It would have a massive chilling effect. Even humour wouldn't be safe. Would @Rubberbandits have self-censored their song "Up the Ra"?

#Spain's alarming lurch into repression of artistic freedoms and freedom of political expression has repeatedly earned it "country of concern" status from civil society watchdogs like @freemuse98, alongside such countries as #Turkey, #Egypt & #SaudiArabia

freemuse.org/spain-country-…

Any attempt to draw attention to this in @EP_Justice is blocked by Spanish MEPs from big groups, who will brook no discussion of Spain's slide into #authoritarianism. Last year references to Spain were expunged from the report on #FundamentalRights.

https://twitter.com/ClareDalyMEP/status/1331222284896509952

Worse, Spain systematically abused the EU's #EuropeanArrestWarrant system trying to have artists in other EU countries shipped back to Spain for prosecution. When EU courts refused Spanish MEPs pushed to "reform" the EAW system to make abusing it easier

https://twitter.com/ClareDalyMEP/status/1351852167737581568

With #Guernica, #Picasso made an eternal statement on the role & power of artistic expression in the face of political violence & repression. Now #Spain throws scores of her artists in jail or forces them into exile, egged on by Spain's deeply authoritarian "liberals." #democracy