OE. You h ave the honour of being the first foreigner who is prosecuted for insulting Erdogan and you are the number one suspect in the document. How does it feel?

It is a nightmare that makes me go back more than 40 years, to the time of the dictatorship of Franco in Spain, when we were persecuted, tortured and imprisoned for exercising our right to demonstrate and to publicly express our opinions. Then, like today with Erdogan, any opposition to the regime was punished by an absolutely undemocratic law banning the slightest criticism to the Government. But also it is necessary to say that they could not beat with us, as they will not be able with you.

I hope that, at least, my case will serve to ensure that all of Europe will know the real situation in which the Turkish people lives, the Kurdish people, the main victim of the attacks by the government, the social and political opposition of the left and the journalists that, as you do, have the courage to denounce the situation.

From Brussels we are, and always will be, spokespersons for the voices suppressed in any corner of Europe and the world, and of course in Turkey. And here I would like to remind you that the Party of the European Left, of which I am vice president, is formed by 33 parties of Europe, which are already aware of the situation. Together we will work against this attack on freedom of expression and demonstration in a country aspiring to be member of the European Union.

At the moment, the President of the Party of the European Left, Pierre Laurent, has sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament Martin Schultz, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and to the European Council, Donald Tusk, urging them to make public the seriousness of the case and to stop immediately all the legal proceedings against me, the Vice President of the EL.

And we have also asked them to put an end to the preferential economic treaties with Turkey, since it is a country that with impunity violates not only the civil and human rights, but democracy itself.

O.E.You're prosecuted because of walking behind a banner which quotes Erdogan's words "We're trying hard to hold the millions at home". He told these words for the pro-AKP people who were against Gezi protesters and in the banner the words were used for referring the millions of dollars which came out of the AKP ministers' houses. What is your comment on being prosecuted for a political and satirical criticism?

When a government wants to silence the opposition, any excuse is good, including that one about that I could pronounce cries against Erdogan, something difficult because, unfortunately for me, I don't know even a word in Turkish. The argument is completely absurd.

Paradoxically the demonstration was to criticize the adoption of this law, which was pending in Parliament, and that allows the police to shoot at protesters who go with their faces partially covered or that they interpret that they can attack a public building. A law that would extend the pre-trial detention up to 48 hours and that allow the Government to increase its authority to declare a State of emergency, with the violation of civil and human rights.

That February 23, during the manifestation, at my side, holding the banner, was the mother of a teenager that had been killed by the police in a demonstration. I will never forget it. It is unacceptable that in the previous weeks more than 50 people had died during various demonstrations in support of the struggle of the Kurdish in Kobane. We are now seeing how they are using the anti-terror law.

O.E. What do you think about the growing pressures of the regime in Turkey?
 

These are the formulas that the dictatorships and authoritarian character Governments have always used to silence and punish the protests of the people. In Spain they have also been toughened much repressive measures under the right- Government of Mariano Rajoy in order to punish and intimidate to those who demonstrate against the terrible austerity measures and the disastrous Government cuts that is commodifying education and health.

People demonstrating against it is identified by the police and punished economically, in a country in which the third of the population is at risk of exclusion and half of the young people are unemployed. There are dozens of people in Spain who are awaiting trial for having participated in the last general strike that took place in Spain, or who are in prison.

The elections of November 1 in Turkey have been held in conditions of war, with hundreds of political prisoners, attacks to headquarters and militants of the HDP and attacks with dozens of deaths which the authorship is not known. People voted under fear and the party of Erdogan, the AKP, used fanatical nationalism, which has imposed itself over democratic principles

We cannot allow the Europe of the dictatorship of the markets will be imposed on the peoples with repressive and anti-terrorism legislation. This is the Europe with which we have to finish. We fight for the Europe of the peoples and of the solidarity and obviously of the democracy and in this struggle we are with the Turkish people.

O.E. If the prosecutor opens a court case against you along with the other comrades written in the document, would you come to the court?

I have not yet received any official notification from the Turkish authorities informing that they go to apply me, also retroactively, the Turkish anti-terrorist law. I have received the documentation by Turkish friends, since in this process are 11 people, I am the only foreign. We will wait to see how and when the Turkish authorities make contact with me and how the case develops.