JxCat MPs travel to Berlin to meet deposed president Puigdemont

Members of Carles Puigdemont’s candidacy Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) have travelled to Berlin this Saturday morning to take part in a heavily anticipated meeting called by the dismissed president himself. They are expected to meet with Puigdemont, who is unable to leave Germany while an extradition request by Spain is being processed, at the Radisson Park Inn hotel at three in the afternoon.

According to sources, the group is to debate which steps to take next in order to swear in a president, after previous attempts have been blocked. There are three scenarios on the cards: proposing a fourth candidate; insisting on Puigdemont as presidential candidate after the parliament voted in favour of amending the presidency law allowing him to be sworn in from abroad; or forcing snap elections.

Nearly five months on from the election called by Madrid after the sacking of the Catalan government, the country remains without a leader. And now the deadline of May 22 to form a new government is looming. If the pro-independence majority is unable to do so by then, a snap election will be automatically called.

Previous investiture attempts

JxCat has so far put forward three candidates for the presidency of Catalonia: Carles Puigdemont himself, Jordi Sànchez, the jailed former activist who has twice been denied permission to attend an investiture debate, and Jordi Turull, the former minister who was jailed before he could attend the second round of his swearing-in vote.

Catalonia has effectively been without its own government since last year, when Madrid dismissed the cabinet following a declaration of independence on October 27, thus stripping the country of its self-rule.

After the election, held on December 21 and called by the Spanish government, pro-independence forces JxCat, Esquerra Republicana, and the CUP kept their overall majority in the parliament, while unionist Ciutadans emerged as the individual party with the most seats.