Catalan politicians, some in jail, launch campaigns

MADRID — Political parties in Catalonia started campaigning Monday for the early regional election called by the Spanish government in hopes of quashing the region’s independence movement and featuring candidates who are either in jail or living abroad to avoid detention.

The highly polarized parliamentary election set for Dec. 21 is shaping up as a plebiscite between Catalans who support secession and those who favor remaining in Spain. Voters are choosing regional lawmakers and top government officials to replace the ones the central government removed from office in late October.

Hours before pro-secession parties held evening rallies to launch their bids for seats in the Catalan parliament, a Supreme Court judge in Madrid ruled that four prominent members of the region’s independence movement must remain jailed without bail.

They include former regional Vice President Oriol Junqueras, who is heading he slate of the left-republican ERC party in the upcoming election. Junqueras was unseated along with ex-president Carles Puigdemont after regional lawmakers passed a declaration of independence that Spanish authorities deemed illegal.

Six other Catalan politicians who had been jailed with Junqueras since early November were released from jail late Monday after bail was posted.

Meanwhile, Puigdemont and four of his separatist allies learned Monday that a decision on Spain’s request for their extraditions from Belgium will be made Dec. 14.

However, a final decision may not come until well after the election because of appeals.

The five Catalan officials fled to Belgium and are refusing to return to Spain to face possible rebellion, sedition and embezzlement charges.