RIGHT-WING Spanish MEPs today welcomed a vote to lift immunity from three former Catalan officials who sit in the European parliament, which could see them deported to Spain for prosecution.

But the Council of the Republic of Catalonia, a symbolic body created in Belgian exile, called it a “black day for European democracy.”

The parliament’s legal-affairs committee voted 15-8 to waive the immunity of Carles Puigdemont, the former president of the Spanish region, as well as its former health and education ministers Toni Comin and Clara Ponsati.

The committee’s vote will need to be agreed by the European parliament to take effect. 

But it will prompt charges of hypocrisy when Greek fascist MEP Giannis Lagos has not yet had his immunity as an MEP revoked. He was sentenced to 13 years in jail in Greece last year for his role in running the now banned neonazi Golden Dawn party while it organised violent terror against immigrants, communists and trade unionists including the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas.

Spain has pursued officials of the elected Catalan regional government over an unconstitutional independence referendum they held in 2017. Pro-independence politicians have received sentences of up to 13 years in jail. 

But Mr Puigdemont, Mr Comin and Ms Ponsati fled abroad and were elected in 2019 to the European parliament. Ms Ponsati now resides in Scotland and lectures at the University of St Andrews.

Spanish Popular Party MEP Esteban Gonzalez Pons said their ability to seek refuge in the European parliament when wanted in Spain “endangers the unity of the EU as a whole.”

But the decision will further inflame protests raging in Spain over the jailing of rapper Pablo Hasel on charges including praising separatist terror organisations in his songs.