Socialist leader says Puigdemont has ‘no intention’ of return

Catalan Socialist leader, Miquel Iceta, rules out any agreement between the Spanish government and Carles Puigdemont to allow the dismissed Catalan leader to return home. In fact, in an interview with Catalan television on Friday, Iceta said he believed that Puigdemont “has no intention of coming back,” after he asked to delegate his vote in the upcoming session to choose a new president.

Puigdemont, in Brussels since the Catalan Parliament declared independence in October, gave an interview to Catalan public radio on Friday arguing that his idea of governing Catalonia from abroad is feasible. Yet, Iceta says that Puigdemont’s situation is no longer a political issue but a legal one, and he called the decision by the currently imprisoned vice president Oriol Junqueras to submit to the courts as “normal”.    

In fact, the socialist leader said that in Puigdemont’s position he would have followed the example of Junqueras to appear in court. Yet, Iceta also said he thinks neither man is suitable as Catalan president as long as they are involved in legal proceedings. It is the same line Iceta expressed in his meeting on Wednesday with the newly appointed Parliament president, Roger Torrent.

While admitting that Torrent and the Parliament bureau he heads have “complicated” decisions to make as the session to choose a new president approaches, and with Puigdemont the presidential candidate with the most support, Iceta said he does not agree with Torrent travelling to Brussels to meet with the ousted leader. “We have to get used to the fact that the institutions have to be managed here and by people who are here,” he said.