Unlikely Puigdemont will be able to return to Catalonia if elected as president, he says
"Most direct way of not accepting Article 155 is to defeat it in the polls," says the deposed president in Belgium
Carles Puigdemont has said that he “certainly” would not be able to return to Catalonia to be invested as president, in the case that he comes out on top in the December 21 election.
“Being president requires that you go to the investiture debate,” said the Catalan president deposed by Madrid. “If the majority of Catalan people vote for me to be president, and there is a majority in the Parliament that wants me to be president, the normal would be for me to go to the investiture session.” Puigdemont went on to say that he wants to go, but will surely be unable to do so.
He also mentioned in an interview with TV3 that he could become deputy and therefore act as a parliamentarian from Brussels.
When asked if he accepted Article 155 of not, he said that “the most direct way of not accepting it is to defeat it in the polls.”
Regarding alleged threats of violence by Spain, he insisted that he has not heard anyone from the state “willing to renounce” this. He believes it is a “miracle” nobody died on the October 1 referendum day.
He also recognized that the coming election, called by Spain, will not take place under normal circumstances, as there are people in jail, and many who cannot campaign in equal conditions.
He also repeated claims that the government would put independence into effect. "Our forecast is that this was a democratic process and that in front of us there would be a State that would have to assume that we want to solve this question in the only democratic way. It is through this dialogue that we were prepared," he added.
On Sunday, Puigdemont took to Twitter to denounce the Spanish government and its application of Article 155. “The combination of Spanish McCarthyism and supremacism should shock everybody, whether they be pro-independence or not,” he tweeted.