Above: President Quim Torra and former head of government Carles Puigdemont. By Laura Pous from Catalan News.
Note: The following is a compilation of excerpts from a series of articles from Catalan News. KZ
On July 19, Spain’s Supreme Court has withdrawn all the European Arrest Warrants against pro-independence leaders abroad, including former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont.
Spanish judge Pablo Llarena decided not to pursue the extradition of Puigdemont after the German court of Schleswig-Holstein rejected to surrender him for rebellion.
The Supreme Court is prosecuting 13 pro-independence leaders for rebellion, nine of which are incarcerated in Catalonia. Yet four of them are at the moment out of his reach abroad, including Puigdemont.
Catalan leaders are prosecuted for their role in the political roadmap that led to a referendum and a declaration of independence last October, all deemed illegal by Spain.
Puigdemont to travel back to Belgium
Following Llarena’s decision, the former president plans to travel back to Belgium, where he was temporarily residing before being arrested last March in Germany while he was traveling.
From now on, Puigdemont and all pro-independence leaders abroad will be free to move around European countries. If they come back to Spain, they risk being arrested and sent to pre-trial jail.
Puigdemont urges Sánchez to offer solutions as ‘grace period will soon be over’
Former president Carles Puigdemont has called on the Spanish head of state Pedro Sánchez to do his “homework” regarding Catalonia. He also warned that “the grace period is over.”
He held a press conference in Brussels alongside the current head of the Generalitat Quim Torra, sending a message directly to Sánchez, calling on Spain’s president to offer solutions to the Catalan question. It is “logical” and “common sense” for the pro-independence parties that supported the Spanish Socialists leader’s investiture to ask him to “put the facts on the table.”
After a vote of no confidence was called against Spain’s previous premier Mariano Rajoy, pro-independence forces in the Spanish Congress played a crucial role in securing Sánchez’s bid for power.
According to Puigdemont, Sánchez has “a great responsibility” that would “not be fair nor correct to let pass.” That said, the ex-president remarked that he has “no complaints” with the Spanish president, while insisting that he work during the summer to find political solutions to the Catalan situation by “September or October.”
Catalan President brands lawsuit against pro-independence leaders a ‘farce’
Upon his return to Belgium, where he had previously been seeking refuge from the Spanish justice system alongside some members of the former government, ex-president Carles Puigdemont took part in an event in Waterloo to show support for the jailed pro-independence leaders. Some of them have been behind bars in preventive detention for over nine months now.
Although the event on Saturday was in part celebration of the fact the ex-president had travelled to Belgium, something that only weeks ago had been impossible, the main theme was the calling for the release of the imprisoned Catalan leaders.
“Today is a symbolically important day,” he said, referring to his return to Belgium. “But it is also charged with opposing feelings,” he added, recalling those who remain locked up. Until recently, the former head of the Catalan government, with a Spanish-issued European arrest warrant hanging over his head, had been unable to leave Germany while a decision on his extradition case was being made.
Puigdemont called for the “immediate” release of the jailed leaders. In a speech made from the balcony of the so-called ‘House of the Republic’ in the historic Belgian town, the ex-president said that the “political prisoners” should not “spend a single minute in jail.”
“The freedom we yearn for, for which we are fighting, begins to demand the freedom of the prisoners. It is an inexcusable duty,” he said at the event on Saturday afternoon. “It is not a matter of how long, short, easy, or complex the path, but there is a path and it has a good end,” he stated.
The current Catalan president Quim Torra, speaking from the same balcony with Puigdemont by his side, called the trial against the pro-independence leaders a “farce.” In his opinion, the fact that “exiled” Catalan politicians remain free justifies this. He also remarked that “the cause of independence is a just cause.”
“We have seen that in Europe, in a free Europe that judges freely and where there is a separation of powers, today our exiles are all here,” Torra said.
Also among those present were representatives of the grassroots pro-independence organizations Catalan National Assembly (ANC,) Òmnium Cultural, La Plataforma per la Llengua, some members of the current Catalan government, the daughter of a jailed ex-politician, a legal representative for imprisoned leaders, and Hip Hop MC Valtonyc (also wanted by the Spanish justice system.)
The Mallorcan rapper Valtonyc, who also headed to Belgium to avoid going to prison, referred to Spain as a “dictatorship.” He had been sentenced to jail over some of his song lyrics. “We cannot speak, we cannot sing, we cannot protest,” he said. “Today, I am the exiled, but tomorrow it could be you, a brother, a son, or a friend.
Spanish King willing to negotiate with pro-independence parties
Spanish King Felipe VI is willing to negotiate with pro-independence parties in order to “repair” their damaged relationship since the October 1 referendum. This, according to the president of the Balearic Islands’ Parliament, Baltasar Picornell, who met with the monarch in Mallorca on Monday.
According to Picornell, the Spanish King considers it necessary to start a mediation between pro-independence and unionist parties and is willing to “build bridges” in order to help find a solution to the conflict. “Now is the time to build bridges and he is willing to do it,” Picornell said.
The announcement came as a surprise for pro-independence parties, which accuse the Spanish King of having created “wounds” in Catalan society by not having condemned police violence on referendum day and having clearly taken sides with the former Spanish executive during the crisis.
The leader of the pro-independence group ERC in Barcelona, Xavier Bosch, wondered which King is urging dialogue now. “Is he the same Monarch that on October 3 said that all the force of the Spanish State had to respond against Catalonia and Catalans’ desire to decide their future by voting?” he said.
Meanwhile, pro-independence PDeCAT said that in order to engage in any conversations, Felipe VI should first “apologize” for his speech after the referendum. ”
An MP from Carles Puigdemont’s party Junts per Catalunya said the King is not the person to engage in negotiations. “Can you imagine a democratic process that would recognize as interlocutor someone who hasn’t been voted by anyone? Someone who is the son of a father appointed by a dictator? I can’t,” tweeted MP Francesc de Dalmases.
Meanwhile, from the unionist block, Ciutadans took the alleged willingness to negotiate of the King with caution. “It doesn’t seem to be a firm proposal,” said MP Sonia Serra. Cs is against any concessions to pro-independence parties and, in fact, has always advocated for the Spanish government to maintain direct rule over Catalonia.
Meanwhile, a party not aligned with neither the pro-independence nor unionist blocks welcomed the news that the Spanish King could be willing to engage in negotiations. However, Catalunya-En Comú Podem said the king’s speech on October 3 was an “unacceptable disloyalty” that “fractured” Catalan society, and urged the monarch to not repeat the mistakes of the past.
New poll: 46.7% of Catalans in support of independence, 44.9% against
The results are neck and neck. A new poll on Catalonia’s support for independence shows citizens are divided on the issue, with ‘yes’ voters slightly ahead: 46.7% of Catalans are in favor of independence, while 44.9% are against it.
The poll, published on Wednesday by the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO) also shows that pro-independence parties would maintain their majority in Parliament if a new election were to be celebrated.
According to the survey’s most conservative estimates, pro-independence parties would keep their current majority of 70 seats out of 135, but the number of pro-independence MPs could increase up to six extra seats.
Left-wing pro-independence Esquerra Republicana (ERC) would win the election, securing between 35 and 37 seats, between three and five more than in last December’s vote.