Puigdemont lands in Denmark as Spain seeks new warrant
COPENHAGEN/MADRID: Spain’s prosecutor sought to reactivate a European arrest warrant against Carles Puigdemont, as the former Catalan leader landed in Denmark for his first trip away from Belgium in three months of self-imposed exile.
Puigdemont fled to Brussels in October after authorities in Madrid sacked him and accused him of sedition over an illegal referendum and a unilateral declaration of independence from Spain by the Catalan parliament.
He is the top candidate to lead Catalonia again after regional elections last month gave separatists a majority.
A Reuters reporter saw him come through customs at Copenhagen airport a little after 0700 GMT and, without being detained, get in a car and leave. It was not clear where Puigdemont, who is in Denmark to take part in a university debate, was headed.
Shortly after his arrival in Copenhagen, Spain’s state prosecution service said it had asked the Supreme Court to reactivate the warrant, on charges of sedition and rebellion, originally issued – and later lifted – after he fled to Belgium.
The Danish state prosecutor declined to comment. After weeks of uneasy calm, the political crisis triggered by Catalonia’s independence drive flared up again last week when the new regional parliament elected a separatist speaker at its first sitting.
Speaker Roger Torrent is due to announce at around 1030 GMT the candidate to lead the regional government – and it is expected to be Puigdemont.
Puigdemont said he could be re-elected and govern remotely from Brussels, but the Spanish government said it would not let that happen.
Despite the tension over Catalonia, Spain’s borrowing costs fell to six-week lows yesterday after credit agency Fitch upgraded its sovereign rating to gave Spain its first ‘A’ grade since the euro zone debt crisis.