Sànchez can still be president, insists pro-independence party

There is still time and there is still a legal framework in place for swearing in jailed MP Jordi Sànchez as Catalan president. That was the conclusion of a meeting by the Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) pro-independence party in Brussels on Wednesday, which ruled out putting forward another presidential candidate after Spain’s Supreme Court denied Sànchez permission to leave prison to attend the Catalan parliament on Monday.

After a few tense days among Catalonia’s political parties over the lack of progress in swearing in a new president, forming a new government and restoring self-rule, a JxCat spokesman issued a “message of calm”, insisting that there will be a new government, that this new executive will guarantee a Catalan Republic and that there will be no need for another election. At the same time, the spokesman appealed for support from the other two pro-independence parties, ERC and CUP, who he asked to show “responsibility”.