Puigdemont or plan B? Catalan separatists divided

Catalonia’s separatist parties have to decide in the coming days whether to set their differences aside and back ousted, exiled leader Carles Puigdemont or seek an alternative. in their will to break with Spain but often at odds with each other. parliament’s speaker Roger Torrent, a separatist, postponed a vote meant to reinstate ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont.

Alternative candidates are now emerging in the press, even if Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia grouping insists he must make a comeback from self-exile in Belgium after winning big in December elections. Torrent said he had delayed the crunch parliamentary session to ensure it later went ahead in an “effective” manner after the Constitutional Court imposed restrictions to try and stop the reappointment of Puigdemont, who is wanted for his role in Catalonia’s independence drive.

But what really came to light were divergences between the three separatist groupings — Together for Catalonia, Torrent’s Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and the smaller far-left CUP party. declaration of independence in October, which saw Madrid sack the Catalan government, dissolve its parliament and call snap elections.

ERC wants to calm things down, get an effective regional government in place and try and increase the separatist camp’s support base, which is still under 50 per cent of Catalans.

Together for Catalonia, though, insist Puigdemont lead the region again after the election results, which saw his grouping come first out of the three separatist parties.