O Former president of the autonomous government of Catalonia and MEP Carles Puigdemont will be a candidate in the May 12 early elections for the Generalitat, for the Junts per Catalunya party. The confirmation came from him, at a press conference in the French town of Elna, near the border with Spain, this Thursday.
“I could not explain, not even to myself, that after having spent six and a half years defending the presidency in exile, now that there is the opportunity to make it possible to restore that presidency unjustly, illegally and unlawfully removed with the [artigo] 155, I would shirk this responsibility for reasons of personal comfort”, he said, quoted by the Spanish daily ABC and various media outlets, in front of close to a thousand supporters.
In the same statements, he made official: “That’s why I decided to stand for the next elections in Catalonia and present my re-candidacy for the Generalitat.”
In recent days, his party, Together for Catalonia (JxCat), has been promoting the possibility of Puigdemont leading the candidacy, having himself expressed his conviction that he could be in Catalonia for the investiture debate, despite this At the moment, a controversial amnesty law for Catalan separatists has not yet been approved.
“I’m not a conformist, I don’t like to resign myself, I don’t look for what is more comfortable and less risky on a personal level”, said Puigdemont, acclaimed by the participants amid shouts of “president” and “independence”.
It was under article 155 of the Spanish Constitution that the central government suspended Catalonia’s autonomy in 2017, following the unilateral declaration of independence, a measure then approved by the Popular Party and PSOE in the Senate.
In the announcement, the former Catalan president was accompanied by JxCat leaders, including the general secretary, Jordi Turull, the party president, Laura Borrà s, or the spokesperson in Congress, MÃriam Nogueras – the three negotiators of the law of amnesty -, as well as by former advisors to his executive who accompanied him in 2017.
Before Puigdemont’s statement, the president of the Spanish Government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, stated that a possible candidacy by Carles Puigdemont for the presidency of the ‘Generalitat’ would not affect his plans to try to turn the page in Catalonia.
“Mr. Puigdemont continues to be a candidate who already ran in 2017. There is nothing new in that,” he added.
The face of Catalonia’s unilateral declaration of independence in 2017, Carles Puigdemont fled to Belgium shortly afterwards, to this day evading Spanish justice, currently facing an arrest warrant on national territory.
Puigdemont was never convicted, so he could be a candidate in the elections, as happened in December 2017. He was also a candidate in the 2019 European elections and has been an MEP since then.
The amnesty was a demand from the independence parties Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC, currently in the regional government) and JxCat to make the last Spanish central government of the socialist Pedro Sánchez viable, last November.
The amnesty was already approved by the plenary of the Congress of Deputies last week, by an absolute majority of 178 votes, and is now in the Senate, the upper house of the Spanish Cortes, where the PP (right), which opposes the law, has absolute majority.
The Senate does not have the power to veto Congressional laws, but can extend consideration for approximately two more months. When this process is completed and the law comes into force, it will be up to judges to apply the law, assessing case by case.
The expectation is that the law will be published at the end of May or the beginning of June, with opinions being divided on the effects that possible requests for consideration to the Constitutional Court or other appeals from judges in charge of cases involving the separatists could have. .
Elections in Catalonia, a region with around eight million inhabitants, are becoming close. According to a survey published today, the Catalan Socialist Party, the regional section of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), would be in first place, with 35 to 42 seats, followed by the ERC (26 to 32) and JxCat (24 to 29), now declared enemies.
After Puigdemont’s expatriation to Spain, at the request of the Spanish justice system, was refused by several European countries, the former president of the Generalitat currently only has an active arrest warrant on national territory.
Countries such as Germany or Italy refused to hand Puigdemont over to Spanish justice because he was wanted for sedition, a crime that does not exist in most European criminal codes as it is considered a violation of fundamental rights and freedoms, such as free assembly. Sedition was removed from the Spanish Penal Code in January 2022.
[NotÃcia atualizada à s 19h35]
Read Also: Puigdemont. The essential points of the likely return to Spanish politics
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2525948/puigdemont-confirma-que-sera-candidato-pelo-junts-nas-eleicoes-catalas
