“I have decided to take part in the next Catalan parliamentary elections,” he told supporters in Elne, a small town in southern France near the border with Spain.
Important regional elections will be held on May 12.
The MEP fled Spain to Belgium to avoid prosecution over the failed 2017 Catalan independence bid.
“We want to finish the work we started so that Catalonia is recognized by the world community,” said the 61-year-old leader of the hardline separatist JxCat party.
It will be Puigdemont’s third run since fleeing Spain. He took part in regional elections in December 2017 and February 2021.
Last week, current Catalan leader Pere Aragones, who leads the more moderate separatist party ERC, called early elections in the wealthy northeastern region of Spain.
Mr Puigdemont’s statement came a week following Spain’s parliament passed a landmark amnesty law aimed at ending years of efforts to prosecute those linked to the independence bid.
The bill, which is expected to come into effect in two months, means Mr Puigdemont will be able to return home.
“I didn’t expect to be here a week ago,” he said in Elne. – Today until the amnesty, which, [anot jų]was impossible, two months left for approval.”
Puigdemont, a year following being named Catalan president in 2016, led a bid for independence that sparked Spain’s worst political crisis in decades before fleeing to Brussels. In 2019, he was elected as a member of the European Parliament.
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2024-04-02 18:51:39
