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“European parliament rewards Fariñas,” headlines El País. After a behind-closed-doors meeting in Strasbourg, 21 October, the leaders of the EP’s political groups agreed to award the 2010 Sakharov Prize, worth €50,000, to Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas who has spent the last 11 and a half years in jail, and who has gone on hunger strike more than twenty times against the Castro regime. Announcing the prize to parliament, Parliament President Jerzy Buzek declared, "Farinas is willing to sacrifice his health and life to bring about change in Cuba.” With the EPP having backed Fariñas’ candidacy, the Madrid daily notes that the “applause coming from the centre-right in the parliament contrasted with silence from the left, which then became verbal as talk broke out of the "disrepute" into which Parliament had fallen.” Complained one Spanish socialist, “It was decided to award the prize to a cause already known and being resolved." This is the third time in ten years the prize for Freedom of Thought has been awarded to a Cuban dissident.
