Puigdemont turns himself in to Belgian police
Tight race expected in Catalan election
BRUSSELS: Catalonia’s sacked separatist leader Carles Puigdemont and four of his former ministers turned themselves in to Belgian police on Sunday after Spain issued a warrant for their arrest.
Brussels prosecutors said that the five men were taken into custody to start the process of their possible extradition to Spain.
It is the latest dramatic development in the crisis unleashed by the Catalan separatists’ push for independence from Spain that sent shock waves across Europe.
Puigdemont and his allies fled to Belgium last Monday after Spain sacked the Catalan executive and imposed direct rule on Madrid following the regional Parliament’s declaration of independence last month.
“They were deprived of their liberty at 9.17 a.m. (0817 GMT),” the Belgian prosecutor's office said.
“We were in regular contact with the lawyers of the five people and they agreed to turn up at the police station,” prosecution spokesman Gilles Dejemeppe said.
“They honored that commitment.”
Spain issued a warrant for their arrest on Friday after they failed to appear before a judge on claims of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds over the move to declare Catalonia an independent republic.
The judge in Madrid had on Thursday put Puigdemont’s deputy and seven other deposed regional ministers behind bars because of a risk that they would flee.
Puigdemont, 54, who insists that Catalonia earned the right to declare independence following a disputed referendum last month, had said Friday that he was willing to cooperate with Belgian authorities.
But he said he was not convinced by guarantees of a fair trial back home, denouncing the “enormous pressure and political influence on judicial power in Spain.”
The ousted Catalan leader, who still describes himself as “president,” has also said he is willing to run as a candidate in Catalonia’s Dec. 21 snap election, which was organized after Madrid fired the region’s government over the independence declaration.
“We want president Puigdemont to be the person who leads the big offensive we will carry out on the 21st at the polls,” said Marta Pascal, spokeswoman for his PDeCAT party.
She said the conservative, proindependence party was looking to put together a “big united list,” a day after Puigdemont himself called for separatists to unite in the election.
During the last regional election in September 2015, Puigdemont’s PDeCAT and the left-wing ERC party stood together in a “Together for Yes” coalition.
With the help of the separatist, far-left CUP party, they held an absolute majority in the Catalan Parliament, which has since been dissolved after it declared independence last month. But there have been growing tensions between the two allies over strategy and it is not clear if they will stand together again.
ERC leader Oriol Junqueras has been in custody since Thursday along with other members of Puigdemont’s dismissed government who did not flee to Belgium over their role in the independence drive.
An opinion poll published by Barcelona’s La Vanguardia newspaper forecasts a tight electoral race between parties for and against the independence of Catalonia from the rest of Spain.
Pro-secession parties held a majority of 72 of 135 seats in the Catalan Parliament before its dissolution. The new poll predicts that the three pro-secession parties would win between 66 and 69 seats in December. Sixty-eight seats are needed for a majority.
The poll quizzed 1,233 residents of Catalonia between Oct. 30 and Nov. 3. It had a margin of error of 2.8 percent.