Fugitives absent as new parliament meets

CATALONIA’S new parliament has convened amid looming questions about the role fugitive and jailed politicians will play in the chamber’s separatist majority as well as the future regional government.

Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium in October to avoid a Spanish judicial probe over a foiled secession attempt, wants to be reinstated in his old job.

But he faces arrest if he returns to Spain, as well as a number of legal hurdles if he wants to be voted in from abroad.

Seven more empty seats in the parliament belong to four former cabinet members sought by Spain’s Supreme Court who, along with Mr Puigdemont and three more elected MPs – including former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras – are being held 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 the north-eastern region following the unilateral declaration of independence by separatist MPs on October 27.

Triggering special powers, Spain sacked Mr Puigdemont’s government, dissolved parliament and forced a new regional election in the hope of halting the secession drive.

Contrary to Madrid’s hopes, separatists regained their slim parliamentary majority. In a first for Catalonia, a party that fiercely opposes independence gained the most seats.

In the inaugural session, there were yellow ribbons symbolising the protest against the judicial process in the seats of the absent MPs, while several hundred people rallied outside the parliament, waving pro-independence