Puigdemont flees Spain
Catalan leader in Belgium as authorities in Madrid accuse him of rebellion and sedition
Spain’s state prosecutor has accused sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont of rebellion and sedition as the former regional president travelled to Belgium with other members of his ousted Administration and hired a lawyer there.
As Madrid began direct rule of Catalonia, Attorney-General Jose Manuel Maza called for charges of rebellion, sedition, fraud and misuse of funds to be brought against Catalan leaders who organised an illegal referendum on independence from Spain.
The October 1 vote in the prosperous region with its own language and culture has triggered Spain’s biggest crisis in decades. On Friday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sacked Catalonia’s secessionist Government and called a snap regional election for December 21, and said the central Government would take direct control. That process began smoothly on Monday as employees ignored calls for civil disobedience and turned up for work, while secessionist parties agreed to stand in the December poll.
A senior Spanish Government official said that Puigdemont had travelled to Belgium. He drove to the French city of Marseilles to catch a flight to Belgium with five other members of his sacked Administration, Spanish media reported.
Belgian lawyer Paul Bekaert, whose website says he is involved in a human rights organisation, said he had taken on Puigdemont as a client but would not confirm whether he was working with him on a political asylum claim.
“I can confirm Carles Puigdemont has appointed me as his legal representative, as he is currently in Belgium,” Bekaert told Reuters. “At the moment there are no specific dossiers I am preparing for him.”
The calm on the streets of Barcelona this week comes after a weekend of uncertainty during which it was not clear how the region would respond to central control.
Some of the most prominent ousted Catalan leaders, including Puigdemont and Vice President Oriol Junqueras, had said they would not accept their dismissal.
But their respective parties, the Catalan Democratic Party and the Republican Left of Catalonia, said they would take part in the election called by Rajoy, a tacit acceptance of direct rule from Madrid. The regional Parliament cancelled a meeting for yesterday, another signal lawmakers accepted they had been dismissed.
A call for widespread civil disobedience from the main civic groups behind the secessionist campaign failed to attract many followers. Public sector workers such as teachers, firefighters and the police mostly started worked as normal on Monday and there was no sign of widespread absenteeism.
A trade union, Intersindical-CSC, which had called for a general strike in Catalonia, said on Monday it had cancelled it.
Other regional leaders did not turn up to their offices though some of their staff did.
One of 140 senior officials appointed directly by the outgoing Government described the situation as “normal” and said he had not yet received any letter of dismissal.
“We civil servants want everything to be normal,” he said.
“Things have to carry on. The dayto-day work still has to be done.”