Spanish premier has 'great responsibility' says ex-president

Former president Carles Puigdemont has called on the Spanish head of state Pedro Sánchez to do his “homework” regarding Catalonia. He also warned that “the grace period is over.”

He held a press conference in Brussels alongside the current head of the Generalitat Quim Torra, sending a message direct to Sánchez. It is “logical” and “common sense” for the pro-independence parties that supported the Spanish Socialists leader’s investiture to ask him to to “put the facts on the table.”

After a vote of no confidence was called against Spain’s previous premier Mariano Rajoy, pro-independence forces in the Spanish congress played a crucial role in securing Sánchez’s bid for power.

Responsibility

According to Puigdemont, Sánchez has “a great responsibility” that would “not be fair nor correct to let pass.” That said, the ex-president remarked that he has “no complaints” with the Spanish president, while insisting that he work during the summer to find political solutions to the Catalan situation by “September or October.”

“We will not renounce sovereignty, it is dignified, which does not imply we will not continue thinking in the prioritized way, the best for everybody, reaching bilateral agreements. This is where we are,” he said.

President Torra also maintained the rhetoric for an independent Catalan republic stating that self-determination “is the subject of this legislature, and there can be no other.” They both called Puigdemont’s return to Brussels a “victory,” but asserted that they will continue working towards a “true return to normality” in which “there are no political prisoners” or “exiles,” until the “repression is over.”

According to Torra, the Spanish and Catalan governments are in “completely opposed positions, but they must converge” because it’s a question of “negotiating.”

“This repression must end immediately, and all charges must be dropped by the Spanish prosecutor,” the president said, referring to the Spanish Supreme Court’s case against pro-independence leaders for their roles in Catalonia’s push to become a free republic. 

Resuming political activity

The former president returned to Brussels on Saturday after four months in Germany. A European arrest warrant against him had been withdrawn by Spain after the German court accepted to extradite Puigdemont for misuse of funds, thus allowing him to travel freely lest he set foot in Spain where he would be arrested.

Alongside members of the former cabinet, Puigdemont left Catalonia for Brussels at the end of October last year after a declaration of independence and subsequent crackdown from Spain resulting in the imprisonment of various pro-independence leaders.

Despite his absence from the country and ongoing legal situation, Puigdemont was recently chosen as leader of the centre-right pro-independence group PDeCAT. 

The party is currently involved in a corruption scandal, however, with some members accused of influence peddling, bribery, and money-laundering in the so-called "3% case."