Puigdemont’s candidacy to meet in Brussels on Friday

Carles Puigdemont has summoned the elected MPs for Together for Catalonia (JxCat) to meet in Brussels on Friday to discuss about the candidacy's position over the negociations underway with the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and CUP parties. The Catalan president, deposed by the Spanish government after the enforcement of Article 155, will focus the meeting on drafting a proposal regarding the composition of the next Parliament Bureau. The meeting in Brussels will be held only five days before the constitutive session of the Catalan parliament takes place. 

At the meeting, Puigdemont and the elected JxCat MPs will draft a proposal for ERC and the CUP to assess this weekend. According to Puigdemont’s candidacy, the first agreement that pro-independence parties have to reach is regarding the composition of the Parliament Bureau, as they consider that’s it’s a key parliamentary body, since it would be the body allowing Puigdemont to be sworn in as a president at a distance.

After the negotiations regarding the composition of the Parliament Bureau, the three pro-independence parties are going to negotiate who will be appointed as Catalan president. JxCat insists that Puigdemont might be sworn in as a president at a distance, even though the possibility of his coming back to Catalonia has not ruled out. 

Catalan parliament’s constitutive session on January 17

On January 17, the Catalan parliament will hold its constitutive session. That day, a new term will officially start in the Catalan parliament, a date unprecedentedly set by the Spanish president, Mariano Rajoy.

It is expected that during the session a new president and bureau for the chamber will be appointed. Yet this is not going to be that straightforward for the parties in favour of a Catalan state.