Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont, the main figure in the 2017 secession attempt, announced on Tuesday that he would leave the presidency of his party, during the congress scheduled for early June in the south of France.
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“I will not run for president of the partyJunts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia), said the 59-year-old MEP in a letter to activists, posted on his Twitter account.
Congress in June to appoint the new executive
“The party needs a more involved president” who “participate fully in the political decisions to be adopted“Explained the former Catalan regional president who fled to Belgium in 2017 to escape prosecution from Spanish justice.
The new leadership of the separatist party will be designated during the congress organized on June 4 in Argelès-sur-Mer, a coastal town in the south of France, located not far from the border with Spain at the level of Catalonia (north-east of Spain). “I would be very honored to be able to say my farewells as president face-to-face.“, said Carles Puigdemont again. Carles Puigdemont was deprived of his MEP immunity last year by the European Parliament.
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Spanish criminal proceedings suspended
The Vice-President of the General Court of the EU, however, considered that he had no reason to fear an execution of the Spanish arrest warrant in the EU because the Spanish criminal proceedings are currently suspended, pending response from the European Court of Justice to a preliminary question posed by the Spanish Supreme Court.
Catalonia was the scene in 2017 of one of the worst crises experienced by Spain since the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975. The separatists had organized a self-determination referendum despite its ban by the courts and unilaterally declared the regional independence.
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Nine pro-independence leaders, including members of Carles Puigdemont’s regional government, were sentenced in 2019 to up to 13 years in prison for their role in the secession attempt before being pardoned last year by the government. Spanish in the name ofreconciliation“. Carles Puigdemont’s party is still a member of the regional separatist government, now led by the other major pro-independence party, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC).
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