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News > World

Puigdemont: Catalan Independence is the 'Best' Option

  • Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont speaks as he takes part in a pro-independence rally for Catalonia, in Brussels, Belgium December 7, 2017

    Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont speaks as he takes part in a pro-independence rally for Catalonia, in Brussels, Belgium December 7, 2017 | Photo: Reuters

Published 13 December 2017
Opinion

The self-exiled Catalan presidential candidate added from Brussels, “dialogue is absolutely essential” among all the Catalan parties.

Independence is the "best social policy" solution for Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont said in a campaign speech recorded in Brussels and projected in Barcelona Wednesday.

The Catalan president was revoked of his title when the Spanish government direct judicial control over the region in late October.  He will run on the Junts per Catalunya, JxCat, political party ticket.

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The self-exiled Catalan presidential candidate added from Brussels, “dialogue is absolutely essential” among all the Catalan parties, particularly if the pro-separatists win the Catalan Congress majority in the Dec. 21 regional elections. “The majority of us in the political independence movement want to negotiate and dialogue.”

Political tensions arose among pro-independence and other parties including JxCat, Catalan Republican Left, or ERC, and Podemos in the weeks leading up to the Catalan assembly vote independence that took place in late October. 

The candidate said that he’ll return to Spain, "If the government respects the (electoral) results.” He added cryptically that “if the people of Catalonia (elect me) president I have to be in Palau.” Puigdemont has tweeted via the JxCat account that "to risk being detained for ideas that can make you president is possibly a risk worth taking.”

Fearing political imprisonment from the Spanish government, Puigdemont and several of his cabinet leaders fled to Brussels in late October. The government put out an international warrant for his arrest, which it later revoked.

Puigdemont said he also wants to see the Spanish government stop the investigation into pro-independence movement leaders and release separatist political prisoners who have been in jail for nearly two months, including Puigdemont’s former vice president, Oriol Junqueras, who is now campaigning for the ERC presidential candidate.

The Spanish Supreme Court said it will widen the investigation of sedition, rebellion and misappropriation of state funds regarding the Catalan regional elections on Oct. 1. The government is moving ahead with questioning members of the CDC-PDeCAT and ERC political parties along with the Omnium independence movement.

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