Puigdemont leaves the European Parliament to run in Catalan elections

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont announced on Thursday (21 March) evening that he will run as head of his separatist party, Together for Catalonia (JxCat), in a snap election, to be held in Catalonia on 12 May.

The announcement by Puigdemont, currently a member of the European Parliament, means that he will not run in the upcoming June European elections, Euractiv´s partner EFE reported.

The politician, who fled Spain in 2017 after Catalonia’s unlawful secessionist attempt, announced his candidacy from the French town of Elna, just a few kilometres from the Spanish border, together with many of his JxCat comrades.

The pro-independence leader announced that he is running “for the restitution of the presidency” of the Catalan government (Generalitat) and to “conclude the process of independence that began in 2017,″ when he was the president of the Catalan regional executive.

After the failure of the secessionist attempt in 2017, Puigdemont fled Spain. The then-Spanish government –of the Spanish People’s Party (PP/EPP) activated a special article of the constitution (article 155), by which the Catalan executive was dismissed and new elections were subsequently called.

“I am not a conformist, I don’t like to resign myself, I don’t look for what is the most comfortable and least risky on a personal level,” said Puigdemont on Thursday night, amid chants of “president” and “independence” from his followers.

He further added, “I could not explain, not even to myself, that after spending six and a half years defending the presidency in exile (Belgium), now that an opportunity is opening up to make possible the restitution of that presidency unjustly, illegally and unlawfully removed with 155, I would shy away from this responsibility for reasons of personal comfort.”

His return to politics in Spain comes at a time, when he, like others involved in the pro-independence process, is awaiting the amnesty that the Spanish Congress approved this month, but has not yet come into force, pending the completion of all parliamentary procedures in just two months.

The amnesty was a condition of JxCat and his left-wing rival, ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, Republican Left of Catalunya) to support the swearing-in of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D), as president of the government, as his party does not have a majority in the parliament.

[Edited by Rajnish Singh]