2nd April 2023
Pedro Sanchez
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No Catalan independence ‘offline or online’, warns Pedro Sánchez

There will be no Catalan independence ‘offline or online,’ acting Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, warned on Thursday, ahead of a cabinet meeting to pass a new government decree aimed at preventing a ‘digital republic’ in Catalonia.

Talking on the radio ahead of the meeting, Sánchez said the use of online technology by the independence movement is an ‘attack’ on the Spanish state, and he warned that the authorities would be ‘just as forceful in the digital world as in the real world’.

ALSO READ: Pedro Sánchez greeted by ‘Sit and Talk’ protestors in Catalonia

The decree would force all public administrations in Spain to use servers based in Europe rather than in ‘digital havens’, added Sánchez, with the aim of avoiding a ‘spurious’ use of data, as they ‘suspect’ the Catalan government is doing.

Pedro Sanchez
Pedro Sánchez during an event in Viladecans near Barcelona on 30 October 2019. (Alex Recolons / ACN)

The announcement comes a day after Microsoft subsidiary GitHub complied with a request from Spain’s Guardia Civil police to block the app of the Tsunami Democràtic protest group, which the police said is ‘a criminal organisation that promotes terrorist attacks.’

ALSO READ: ‘October 14 Generation’ start indefinite protest in Barcelona

The Catalan digital policy minister, Jordi Puigneró, responded to the latest developments on Twitter, accusing Spain of being in a ‘race’ with China to become the ‘champion of digital repression’, and he warned that he would report the matter to the EU authorities.

In summer 2018, Puigneró said Catalonia must create ‘a digital nation in the form of a republic’ ahead of implementing the Catalan Republic in ‘physical form’. He said Spain still functions in an ‘analog format’ and that online Catalans could become ‘invincible’.

ALSO READ: Spain now investigates ‘Tsunami Democràtic’ for terrorism

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