Puigdemont to head 'Together for Catalonia'

Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is to stand as the main candidate for the PDeCAT party in the December 21 election. The president, who remains "in exile" in Belgium, initially expressed interest in heading a combined pro-independence ticket. However, since the ERC and CUP parties decided to stand separately in the election, Puigdemont will now head the PDeCAT list. In fact, it will no longer be only PDeCAT but it will also include some independent candidates. The jailed president of the Catalan National Assembly, Jordi Sànchez, might be one of them. 

Puigdemont and the other candidates intend to stand under the name 'Junts per Catalunya’ (Together for Catalonia), a similar name to the Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes) pro-independence coalition that the former president led in the Catalan Parliament. The Spanish authorities dissolved his government in October 2017, and Puigdemont and some of his ministers sought refuge abroad.

The name of the party ticket and the list of candidates are to be officially unveiled on Wednesday at 7pm. In fact, when the former Convergència party restyled itself as PDeCAT, Junts per Catalunya was one of the names that was considered for the new party.

Puigdemont, along with deposed ministers Clara Ponsatí and Lluís Puig, attended an event in Brussels on Monday evening about the diplomacy during the Second Spanish Republic and the Civil War.