Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Liberal and Democrat group in the European Parliament, today condemned the recent remarks made by EP Vice-President Alejo Vidal Quadras on Spanish TV in which he suggested sending the Spanish National Guard to Catalonia.

04/10/2012 Vidal-Quadras' remarks on Catalonia recall the darkest days of the 20th century Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Liberal and Democrat group in the European Parliament, today condemned the recent remarks made by EP Vice-President Alejo Vidal Quadras on Spanish TV in which he suggested sending the Spanish National Guard to Catalonia. Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Liberal and Democrat group in the European Parliament, today condemned the recent remarks made by EP Vice-President Alejo Vidal Quadras on Spanish TV in which he suggested sending the Spanish National Guard to Catalonia. "Such remarks are a relic of the past and entirely out of place in the European Union of today. They may recall the legal right of the Spanish state to defend the post-Franco Constitution but by citing the option of violent repression against a section of the population they fall into the same category as the indefensible actions of those regimes in the Arab Spring who have tried to suppress the will of the people by force. These kinds of careless remarks undermine everything democrats have fought for over the past 60 years and have no place in today's society."