Whether you like the Catalonian politicians or not is irrelevant to my point. There are really only three questions that matter: 1) Are they violent? 2) Are t

Whether you like the Catalonian politicians or not is irrelevant to my point. There are really only three questions that matter: 1) Are they violent? 2) Are they supported by the local population? 3) Are they willing to work with the national government? The answer is clearly yes to all three. That means Spain needs to deal with them politically, by winning votes, not by calling them rebels and traitors and tossing them all in jail as if it were the 1600's. Go look at the UK for an example of how to do it. Scottish nationalists had their own problematic attributes from the perspective of many English, but the resolution was peaceful, democratic and accepted by both sides. Spain has utterly failed at this, and the rest of the EU has simply nodded their heads, let them get on with it and indeed is helping them by arresting the Catalonian leaders in preparation for extradition. In an article on China grabbing political dissidents to bring them back to China for incarceration this is highly relevant to any claim that Europe has a moral high ground.