Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont on Tuesday set the conditions for his party’s possible support for the re-election of Pedro Sánchez to power in Spain by demanding, above all, “amnesty” for separatists prosecuted by the courts.
Speaking to the press in Brussels, Mr. Puigdemont, a central figure in Catalonia’s 2017 secession attempt, notably demanded “the complete and effective abandonment of the legal process against the independence movement” via “a law of ‘amnesty’ in order to ‘avoid new elections’.
“None of these preconditions is contrary to the (Spanish) Constitution and does not require a long process” in Parliament, assured the former Catalan regional president, who is himself claimed by Spanish justice and fled in 2017 in Belgium to escape prosecution.
Once this condition and others have been met, such as the establishment of a “mechanism” to ensure that these demands are respected, Mr Puigdemont calls for the opening of negotiations with a view to reaching a “historic agreement” on the future of Catalonia.
An agreement which must pass, according to him, by the organization of a referendum of self-determination which the Spanish government refuses on the grounds that it is contrary to the Spanish Constitution.
“Is there a different path to independence to guarantee Catalonia’s survival as a nation? All the evidence accumulated over decades has shown that no,” Puigdemont said again.
Arrived behind his conservative rival Alberto Núñez Feijóo during the legislative elections of July 23, Pedro Sánchez is paradoxically the one who has the best chance of managing to gather a majority around him in order to be reappointed as Prime Minister.
But for that he needs the votes of the seven deputies of Mr. Puigdemont’s party, Together for Catalonia (Junts per Catalunya), who already voted in mid-August for his candidate, the socialist Francina Armengol, during the election in the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies.
Propelled into an unexpected role of kingmakers, Mr. Puigdemont has been courted since the ballot by the left, as evidenced on Monday by the visit of the number three in the Sánchez government, Yolanda Díaz, to Brussels to meet him.
This visit was the first paid to Mr. Puigdemont by a member of the government since his departure from Spain in 2017.
Reacting to the conditions put forward by the separatist, government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez assured that a “world” separated him from the socialists and promised that any “dialogue” would fall within “the framework of the Constitution”.
Supporter of appeasement in Catalonia, Pedro Sánchez pardoned in 2021 the Catalan separatists sentenced to prison for their role in the attempted secession but has spoken out in the past against an amnesty.
However, he insisted on Monday that it was time to “turn the page” on the “mistakes of the past” made in the management of the Catalan crisis, without revealing what he was ready to grant to the separatists.
The possible concessions of Mr. Sánchez to the Catalan separatists were criticized on Tuesday by the former socialist Prime Minister Felipe González who judged on the Onda Cero radio that “amnesty and self-determination were not compatible with the Constitution” .
Right and extreme right for their part fired red balls on the conditions set by Mr. Puigdemont.
“Who is in charge and decides who will be the next head of government? Puigdemont”, denounced Alberto Núñez Feijóo, referring to a “democratic anomaly”.
“Puigdemont’s (?) demands are those of a delinquent and a fugitive,” said far-right Vox party leader Santiago Abascal.
Winner of the legislative elections, Mr. Feijóo was instructed by King Felipe VI to present his candidacy for the post of Prime Minister to Parliament at the end of September. But his chances are slim.
After the expected failure of the leader of the Popular Party, Mr. Sánchez would have two months to try in turn to be invested. If he failed to do so, new elections would be called, probably in mid-January.
05/09/2023 17:35:40 – Bruxelles (AFP) – © 2023 AFP