Parties react to Puigdemont’s nomination as candidate for president

Monday’s nomination of Carles Puigdemont as the candidate for Catalan president in the upcoming investiture debate split political opinion. After the newly-elected Parliament president, Roger Torrent, announced the nomination, the different political parties gave their reaction, while Puigdemont attended a conference in Denmark, leaving Belgium for the first time since seeking refuge there in late October.

Naturally, the news was welcomed by Puigdemont’s PDeCAT party. In a statement, the party asked Spanish president, Mariano Rajoy, “not to stand in the way” of Puigdemont’s candidacy. As far as the party is concerned, Puigdemont is “the only candidate” with majority support and that “this is the will of Catalan society.”

Sergi Sabrià, a spokesperson for left-wing Esquerra Republicana, stressed that "Puigdemont has all the legitimacy to be president of this country because he is the one who got the most votes within the republican [pro-independence] majority."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia (JxCat) candidacy -including PDeCAT and independent candidates- said it would be a “lack of respect” to try and block Puigdemont’s candidacy.