Exiled Puigdemont ‘sole candidate’ for Catalan presidency

CARLES PUIGDEMONT was officially proposed as the new Catalan president yesterday as Spanish authorities failed to secure the detention of the fugitive leader during a risky trip to Denmark from his self-imposed exile in Belgium.

A fresh stand-off now looms in Catalonia’s independence crisis after Roger Torrent, the speaker of the Catalan parliament, defied warnings from Madrid against declaring Mr Puigdemont “the only candidate” for the presidential inauguration due next week.

The announcement drew an angry response from Catalan opposition parties. Inés Arrimadas, of the Ciudadanos party, said it could not accept the nomination of a president who is “a fugitive from justice”.

Spain’s attorney general had earlier requested the reactivation of a European arrest warrant for Mr Puigdemont who left Belgium for the first time in 80 days to speak at a debate in Copenhagen. But the Spanish Supreme Court rejected the petition, judging Mr Puigdemont was seeking to “provoke” his own detention so as to qualify to attend parliament through a delegate.