LEADER COULD BE RE-INSTALLED VIA VIDEO LINK

BARCELONA Independence parties are to re-install Carles Puigdemont as president of Catalonia but his inauguration may go ahead without his physical presence.

Puigdemont, of the party Junts Per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia), and Martina Rovira, of the Republican Left, hammered out an agreement at dinner on Tuesday night in Brussels, where Puigdemont fled in November to avoid arrest in Spain on sedition charges. The accord may offer a way out of the chaos of forming a Catalan government while many senior candidates are in jail or facing prosecution.

Options include Puigdemont attending Parliament via a video link or having a delegate read his inauguration speech on his behalf.

Puigdemont successfully campaigned for re-election from exile in the Belgian capital. The two main independence parties had already agreed to his return as president after his government was removed and snap elections called by Spain under direct rule.

The parties believe either method of reinstalling Puigdemont is prohibited under parliamentary law, but they would almost certainly face a legal challenge from the Spanish government and political opponents. Fernando Martinez Maillo, of the ruling Popular Party, said anything other than a traditional investiture would be “a mockery.”