Carles Puigdemont is not in Spain and can by no means give himself up, his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, mentioned after the fugitive former Catalan president’s dramatic flying go to to Barcelona on Thursday.
Lluís Llach, a Catalan singer and fervent nationalist, mentioned that Puigdemont was “protected and sound and above all, free” whereas Jordi Turull, the secretary-general of Puigdemont’s Collectively for Catalonia celebration, mentioned he had returned dwelling to Waterloo in Belgium, including that earlier than his public look on Thursday Puigdemont had arrived in Barcelona on Tuesday night.
Turull claimed Puigdemont had meant at hand himself over to the police as soon as contained in the parliament constructing however was postpone by the “more and more aggressive” police presence. Ultimately, in accordance with Turull, he determined to not flip himself in to spare the Catalan police the embarrassment of being photographed arresting him.
Nonetheless, video proof means that Puigdemont made no effort to succeed in the parliament and after his temporary speech went on to the ready automotive through which he made his escape.
Puigdemont has been dwelling in self-imposed exile in Belgium after fleeing Spain to keep away from arrest for masterminding an unlawful independence referendum in Catalonia in 2017 when he was president of the semi-autonomous Spanish area.
9 members of his authorities acquired jail sentences of as much as 13 years for his or her half within the independence push. All had been pardoned three years later in 2021.
A divisive amnesty legislation for these concerned within the symbolic independence referendum in November 2014 and the unlawful unilateral ballot that adopted three years later was handed by the Spanish parliament in Could after Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, struck a take care of Catalan separatist MPs to assist him return to energy.
Nonetheless, Spain’s supreme court docket upheld arrest warrants for Puigdemont and others who had been charged with misuse of public funds, ruling that the amnesty legislation didn’t apply to them. Puigdemont says the vote was not unlawful and that the fees linked to it due to this fact don’t have any foundation.
Pablo Llarena, the supreme court docket choose who has been making an attempt to arrest Puigdemont ever since he fled the nation almost seven years in the past, has demanded an evidence from the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police power, about how Puigdemont managed to evade arrest within the presence of a number of hundred cops.
Two Mossos had been arrested on Thursday and face expenses of aiding the escape of Puigdemont.
Eduard Sallent, the commissioner of the Mossos d’Esquadra, mentioned: “The officers who helped Puigdemont to flee don’t need to put on the uniform.”
He denied that there had been any form of “deal” between the Mossos and Puigdemont, saying: “The plan was to arrest him in Ciutadella park [where the parliament is], which we thought essentially the most appropriate location. Brokers tried to get to him however he was surrounded by a mass of individuals. We pursued the automotive through which he fled.”
Joan Ignasi Elena, the appearing Catalan inside minister answerable for the Mossos, gave a press convention on Friday morning through which he referred to as on politicians to exclude the police power from what he described as a political debate.
He criticised Puigdemont for “inappropriate behaviour” in attempting to disrupt the investiture of the brand new Catalan president – the occasion Puigdemont mentioned he went to Barcelona to mark. Elena mentioned he was launching an inner investigation into the failure to arrest Puigdemont and the existence of potential collaborators.
Puigdemont’s fast look and disappearance succeeded in stealing the limelight from the pro-union, Catalan Socialist celebration MP Salvador Illa, who was sworn in as president on Thursday.
Though Puigdemont instructed his supporters the battle for Catalan independence was not over, his return and swift departure is being considered as one thing much like a farewell live performance.
Félix Bolaños, the Spanish justice minister, described Puigdemont’s go to as “an incident that supplied nothing to Catalan society, designed to make us neglect the important proven fact that yesterday we put behind us a misplaced decade in Catalonia, a decade of sterile confrontation, a decade through which nobody was the winner, a collective failure”.
In Could’s regional election, Catalans voted overwhelmingly for Illa, a socialist with no nationalist agenda. Yesterday he referred to Spain as a “plurinational” state, including that “Catalonia must open its doorways, each inside and outdoors, and deal with out prejudice with unresolved political conflicts”.
“Catalonia has to look forward, there isn’t any time to waste and we’ve to rely on everybody,” he mentioned.
After 12 years of governance that had basically been a single-issue marketing campaign for independence, the brand new authorities is anticipated to deal with social points, particularly housing and schooling.
Regardless of being one in all Spain’s wealthiest areas, Catalonia has a number of the worst academic ends in the nation. In the meantime, it’s estimated that over the previous 10 years the price of housing in Barcelona has risen by 51% whereas salaries have elevated by 3.4%. On common, tenants within the metropolis spend 43% of their wage on lease.
Beneath a collection of separatist governments, these points have scarcely been addressed, with most political vitality being directed at what turned generally known as el procés, the drive for independence.
Laia Estrada, the spokesperson for the leftwing nationalist Common Unity Candidacy celebration, mentioned throughout Thursday’s investiture: “This marks definitively the top of the procés at an institutional stage.”
Illa was well being minister in Sánchez’s earlier authorities and presided over the Covid pandemic. Sánchez was fast to congratulate him on changing into president. In a message in Catalan posted on X, he mentioned: “We’ve labored collectively in essentially the most adversarial circumstances. I understand how a lot you like Catalonia. I understand how level-headed you might be, your widespread sense and capability for work. Simply what Catalonia wants. You can be an important president. Catalonia wins, Spain advances. Congratulations, Salvador Illa.”
Whereas the nationwide authorities has declined to touch upon Puigdemont’s go to, preferring to deal with Illa’s investiture, the opposition is attempting to make political capital out of it.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, chief of the opposition Folks’s celebration, referred to as on Thursday for the resignation of the inside and defence ministers over the failure to arrest Puigdemont.
“Confronted with such a farce, the federal government can’t go on trip laughing within the faces of the Spanish folks,” he tweeted.
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