Former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont returned to Spain on Thursday, August 8, greeted by some 3,500 separatist supporters gathered in Barcelona, and deplored the “repression” which he has been the victim of since the failed independence referendum attempt in 2017.
“Today I have come to remind you that we are still here because we have no right [d’abandonner nos idées] »declared Carles Puigdemont.
As a reminder, Carles Puigdemont fled Spain after the failure of the Catalan independence referendum in October 2017. Subject to an arrest warrant for his participation in this initiative, he first went into exile in Waterloo, near Brussels, until April of this year, before settling in the south of France.
“They have been persecuting us for seven years because we want to listen to the voice of the Catalan people. Seven years ago, they began a harsh repression that has led us to prison and exile, affecting the lives of thousands and thousands of people, because they were pro-independence, or sometimes just because they speak Catalan, and they have turned being Catalan into something suspect.”, denounced the former Catalan president.
Highly anticipated by the Spanish and international media, the leader of the right-wing separatist party Together for Catalonia (JxCat) announced a few days ago that he intended to go to the Catalan parliament in Barcelona on Thursday, despite the risk of arrest.
He planned to attend the investiture of Salvador Illaleader of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), as the new president of the regional executive (Generalitat).
“Today, many will celebrate my arrest and think that contempt will discourage us, that it is even worth breaking a law passed by your parliament to mock me. But they are wrong. And in their error, they will once again undermine the credibility of Spanish democracy.”continued Carles Puigdemont.
JxCat leader maintains that “It is not, nor has been, nor will it ever be a crime to hold a referendum and obey the mandate of the Catalan parliament.”
According to public broadcaster RTVE, Carles Puigdemont did not enter the Catalan parliament to attend the inauguration and, as of 11am, there was no information indicating that he had been arrested.
Manhunt
According to EFEthe Catalan regional police have deployed a vast operation – dubbed Cage (“cage”, in Spanish) — throughout the city of Barcelona in an attempt to arrest the separatist leader.
Until recently, the pro-independence parties had managed to form alliances to prevent the socialists from coming to power. However, the general elections of May 12 were won by the socialist Salvador Illa.
The latter, however, did not obtain a sufficient majority to govern alone. Carles Puigdemont’s party, JxCat, which came second in these elections, refused to give him its support, but the separatist Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party supported his candidacy in exchange for concessions, including greater budgetary autonomy for Catalonia.
Despite the amnesty law for Catalan separatists promoted by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, PSOE), embezzlement and personal enrichment are not covered by the amnesty.
Carles Puigdemont remains under a national arrest warrant for the crime of personal enrichment.
Both JxCat and ERC have seven seats in the Spanish national parliament, and support for Pedro Sánchez’s coalition government with the Left Platform summer depends on these legislators, among others.
[Édité par Anne-Sophie Gayet]
