Puigdemont to return to Spain after Catalan elections, doesn’t rule out separatist alliance

4 months ago 18

Former Catalan president and leader of the right-wing separatist party JxCat, Carles Puigdemont, confirmed on Tuesday that he would return to Catalonia after the regional elections even if the police arrest him, as he did not entirely rule out a possible alliance of ideologically opposed separatist forces.

Puigdemont, who has been in self-exile in Waterloo since Catalonia’s 2017 secession attempt and now lives in France, said that while police could arrest him upon entering Spain, it would be a “short-haul detention”, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported on Tuesday.

“I do not fear an arrest (on entering Spain), but I envisage that it could happen,” the separatist leader said.

“I have already thought about how it (his return to Spain) should be”, Puigdemont elaborated at a press conference organised by EFE in the French town of Argelès-sur-Mer.

“The context (of the possible return) is different, with the approval of the amnesty law, the risk of arrest is not zero, but it drops a lot,” said Puigdemont, commenting on the recently approved extraordinary amnesty rule, which Spain’s main opposition Partido Popular (EPP) and the far-right VOX party, the third-largest force in the parliament, say is unconstitutional.

Both JxCat and its left-wing rival, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), provide crucial parliamentary support for the stability of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s coalition government of his Socialist Party PSOE (EPP) and the left-wing Sumar platform, led by Labour Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz.

In return for this support, which includes the approval of national budgets until the end of Sánchez’s current term in 2027, both JxCat and ERC have demanded that the executive approve an amnesty law to pardon those responsible for unlawful separatist actions in Catalonia between 2012 and 2023, including the serious secessionist attempt of 2017, as well as other generous economic concessions.

A big pro-independence coalition?

The extraordinary amnesty law—which would theoretically ensure that Puigdemont and other Catalan separatist leaders in self-exile abroad could return to Spain without fear of arrest—is currently being processed by the Spanish parliament. According to some estimates, it could be approved just before or after the European elections in Spain on 9 June.

The future amnesty law will create a “different context” and open the door to a return to Spain with full guarantees, the former Catalan president said on Tuesday.

Puigdemont, who is running in the regional elections under the multi-formation platform Junts + Puigdemont per Catalunya, hinted a few weeks ago that if he does not win the race, he will leave politics.

However, according to a fresh poll published on Monday, the winner would be the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) candidate and former health minister Salvador Illa, EFE reported, while second place would be hotly contested between JxCat and ERC, although Puigdemont’s party has an advantage over its left-wing separatist rival, according to the poll.

Despite the good electoral omens, it is not certain that Illa will be able to lead Catalonia’s regional executive.

Analysts foresee a very complex post-election scenario, even warning of the possibility of having to repeat the elections if the PSC fails to forge alliances and if neither JxCat nor ERC manage to overcome their strong ideological differences to form a “100% separatist” – but ideologically opposed – government.

According to several analysts, a hypothetical alliance between the PSC and the ERC would have more chances among the hypothetical post-election pacts, given their similar ideology, although the Socialist Party is not strictly speaking a “separatist” party.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)