Catalan parliament elects a pro-secession speaker
Catalonia’s new parliament on Wednesday elected a pro-secession speaker, virtually guaranteeing that the push for independence for Spain’s northeastern region will continue as its lawmakers prepare to elect a new government.
The opening session of the new Catalan assembly came amid looming questions about the role that fugitive and jailed politicians will play within the chamber’s separatist majority and the future regional government.
Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium in October dodging a Spanish judicial probe over a foiled secession attempt, wants to be reinstated to his old job. But he faces arrest if he returns to Spain and legal hurdles if he wants to be voted in from abroad by the regional assembly.
Puigdemont’s and other empty seats in the parliament were adorned with a yellow ribbon Wednesday. Four ex-Cabinet members sought by Spain’s Supreme Court are also in Brussels and three more elected lawmakers — including former Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras— are jailed on provisional charges of rebellion or sedition.
Other former Cabinet members and parliamentary officials have been released from jail but remain under investigation.
Spanish central authorities took direct control of Catalonia following the unilateral declaration of independence by separatist lawmakers on Oct. 27.
Under special powers, Spain fired Puigdemont’s government, dissolved parliament and forced a new regional election on Dec. 21 in the hope of halting the secession drive.
But contrary to Madrid’s hopes, separatists regained their slim parliamentary majority despite receiving less than half of the votes, although Ciutadans (Citizens) — a party that fiercely opposes independence — gained the most seats.
Several hundred people rallied near the parliament in central Barcelona, waving separatist flags as they watched the new house speaker’s election on a large outdoor screen.
Roger Torrent, a lawmaker with the left-republican ERC party, was elected to head the assembly’s governing committee that plays a key role in deciding what issues are debated and voted on in parliament.
“I want democracy and coexistence to be the foundations of this term,” Torrent told fellow lawmakers from the speaker’s podium, vowing at the same time to restore the self-government of Catalonia that is now in the hands of Madrid. He also said that, as speaker, he would defend the right of “all 135 voices in the chamber,” including those fugitive or in jail.
But Ciutadans leader Ines Arrimadas criticized the inaugural session, saying, “We start the legislature as we finished the last one, with a parliament speaker who is going to work only for independence.”