Spain: Puigdemont demands "amnesty" for Catalan separatists

September 5, 2023

Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont, whose deputies in Spain are essential to Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez if he wants to be returned to power, demanded on Tuesday “amnesty” for separatists prosecuted by justice in exchange for his support.

Speaking to the press in Brussels, Mr. Puigdemont, a central figure in Catalonia’s 2017 secession attempt, demanded “the complete and effective abandonment of the legal process against the independence movement” via “a law of amnesty”.

He himself is claimed by the Spanish courts and fled to Belgium in 2017 to escape prosecution.

Once this condition and others have been met, Mr Puigdemont calls for the opening of negotiations with a view to reaching a “historic agreement” on the future of Catalonia which, according to him, must pass through the organization of a self-determination referendum.

The legislative elections of July 23 in Spain failed to achieve a majority.

Arriving second in the ballot, the socialist Pedro Sánchez is paradoxically the one who has the best chance of succeeding in gathering around him a majority in Parliament to be returned to power.

But for that he needs the votes of the 7 deputies of the party of Mr. Puigdemont, which is at the center of all attention, as proved on Monday by the visit paid to him in Brussels by the number three of the Sánchez government, Yolanda Diaz , leader of the far left in Spain.

This visit was the first paid to Mr. Puigdemont by a member of the government since his departure from Spain in 2017.

Winner of the legislative elections, the conservative rival of Mr. Sánchez, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, was instructed by King Felipe VI to present his candidacy for the post of Prime Minister before Parliament. Debates and voting will take place on September 26 and 27. 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 in turn, new elections would be called, probably in mid-January.