Questions of the MEPs of the KKE to the EU Council and the EU Commission

The KKE continues its interventions against anti-communism and initiatives which are aimed against the CPs. So, on the 2^nd of February 2011, the MEPs of the KKE tabled the following two questions, which concern the persecutions of cadres of the Socialist Popular Front of Lithuania and the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain. The content of the two questions were as follows: To the EU Council concerning the Lithuanian Socialist People’s Front and to the EU Commision concerning the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain to the EU Council.

Subject: Criminal proceedings against the leader of the Lithuanian Socialist People's Front

The Lithuanian authorities have initiated criminal proceedings against Algirdas Palecksis, leader of the Lithuanian Socialist People’s Front, for casting doubt on the ‘official’ version of the tragic events which occurred in January 1991 in Vilnius, claiming 14 lives. According to first-hand testimony backed up by forensic evidence, which prove that the victims were not killed by Soviet soldiers. Referring to the events of 1991, Mr Palecksis observed that ‘it now appears that they came under fire from their own people’. Acting under a law which is in fact a distortion of history, since it refers to the ‘occupation’ of Lithuania by the USSR, the Lithuanian authorities accordingly initiated proceedings against Mr Palecksis for this utterance.

Does the Council condemn the political persecution initiated against a political party leader on baseless charges? What view does it take of the restriction of basic freedoms in Lithuania on the basis of a distorted version of historical events?

Subject: Prosecutions of officials of the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain

Prosecutions have recently been brought, in Spain, against three members and officials of the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) for ‘incitement to civil disorder’ during a demonstration in Barcelona in 2007. The officials concerned claim that the accusations against them are based on a plot fabricated by the police and maintain that only two of their number were in fact anywhere near where the police charges took place, the third official not having even taken part in the demonstration. The PCPE makes the accusation that these prosecutions stem from the will of the Spanish bourgeois class, the national government and the local authorities to incriminate and stifle Communist opponents on the basis of charges trumped up by the police.

Will the Commission condemn this legal action taken against three Communist officials and this attack on fundamental freedoms such as the right to freely participate in a demonstration and to express one’s protest?