The former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont has clearly distanced himself from his former minister Clara Ponsatí who yesterday, after learning of the ruling of the General Court of the EU (TGUE) that confirmed the lifting of the immunity of the Junts MEPs, attacked the judicial strategy that the independence movement has displayed up to now in the European courts.
In an interview given to the El Món program on RAC1, from Waterloo (Belgium), Puigdemont has acknowledged that he did not know the content of his colleague’s intervention and was upset by it. “I do not agree with the tone, nor with the substance, nor with the form, nor with the moment” explained the former president, who considered that Posantí “was wrong” when on Wednesday at the press conference to assess the TGUE ruling called for an end to “fictions” and to stop “feeding illusions that will not materialize”.
“As long as we don’t start speaking out and stop promising people that with judicial tactics we will make freedom, we will have neither the time, nor the space, nor the ideas, nor the energy, to dedicate ourselves” to making the independence of Catalonia, added the ex-minister.
On the other hand, Puigdemont has confirmed his judicial strategy in the European courts despite the setback of the TGUE, which for him has not meant a flight forward, as the former minister pointed out, but rather “a direct confrontation” with the State. In addition, the MEP has warned his classmate that she is a MEP precisely because of this strategy that he denies and has reproached him for giving this speech on a “hard day” when “the news was not good”.
At this point, the pro-independence leader, who has once again reiterated that they will submit an appeal to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) on their immunity and has explained that he expects a response from the court in just over eight months, has asked for “more empathy “to independence. “Independence when it has more strength when it goes through the central lane of society and not through the corners,” he insisted to reproach Ponsatí’s attitude, whom he has warned that “going along the margins is not compatible with the Junts strategy,” alluding to the lists for the upcoming European Parliament elections to be held in April next year.
Precisely on these elections, Puigdemont has admitted that if he had to appear today he would say yes and that “probably” this is his decision, although he has warned that “there is a long way to go until then.” In any case, he has defended his position as an MEP as one of the tools to defend the cause of independence.
The former president has reiterated that in 2017 he decided to go into “exile” and specifically to Brussels “not to live in peace”, in an allusion to the general secretary of Esquerra, Marta Rovira, who established her residence in Switzerland, but to “complicate herself more life” and “fight”, to rule out that he could change his residence to the Swiss country with the aim of preventing his extradition.
In this sense, Puigdemont has predicted that shortly the examining magistrate of the cause of the process, Pablo Llarena, will activate a Euro-warrant to extradite him, taking advantage of the loss of immunity and has shown prudent about his possible attendance at the plenary session of the European Parliament scheduled for Monday of next week in Strasbourg (France). “If things do not change” he will go but the MEP has revealed that they will send a letter to the European Parliament to ask if it is willing to guarantee their immunity, emphasizing that facing a Euro-order in France is not the same as doing it in Belgium or Germany due to the bilateral agreements that Spain has with its neighboring country.
And it is that for the independence leader, a new Euro-order from Llarena should lead to a new petition process in the European Parliament to lift the immunity of him and Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, given that the crimes for which they would be claimed, in his embezzlement case, are different from sedition and embezzlement for which the current petition was approved. “Our immunity was lifted due to a Euro-order that no longer exists, so our judicial journey starts from scratch,” warned Puigdemont, who believes that a new debate should take place on the lifting of immunity, which would take a few months processing.
The former Catalan president has once again explained that people linked to the PSOE contacted him “more than once” in the Eurocamara to explore the possibility of obtaining a pardon like the ones that the Pedro Sánchez government granted to the prisoners of 1-O. A possibility, he has said, that he has always rejected.
“In the context of the pardons, they told me that this could be discussed,” acknowledged Puigdemont, who has always defended that he is not looking for a “personal solution” to his situation but “a solution to the conflict” between Catalonia and the State. In fact, he has specified that if to settle the conflict “we are left hanging, no problem.” “This was reasonable for them to propose because they were going to do it with political prisoners and, therefore, it was credible that they would do it, but I am not willing to do this, I am not looking for a pardon. I already know that if I had accepted this, surely I would be on the street, in Girona, but I have not gone into exile for this”, he stressed. “I will never turn myself in or be offered to spend just one month in jail,” he has settled.
“This is not going to be resolved with pardons, it is going to be done with amnesty”, the former president reiterated in relation to the solution of the conflict, which he has called on to return it to the political path. “Amnesty is not the solution, but yes, a necessary condition to negotiate”, he indicated, adding that “the solution will come in two ways: either a political negotiation with the State that recognizes Catalonia as a nation and its rights, or a confrontation -democratic, non-violent- with the State “. On this point, Puigdemont has ruled that it is necessary to negotiate with the State, because, in his opinion, “the government, especially if it is from the left, does not rule.” “You have to agree with the deep state, doing it with the Spanish government is useless,” he concluded.
Regarding the future of the appeal that they will present before the CJEU within a period of two months against the ruling of the TGUE, Puigdemont has been hopeful. “It is possible that he is not right and in fact it has already happened in our case”, he recalled to emphasize that the CJEU has more interest in issues of fundamental rights unlike the other court that he has defined as “more administrative”. In any case, regarding the judges who lifted his immunity yesterday, he has pointed out that “they are human and can make mistakes”, while he has pointed out “contradictions” with his own jurisprudence and that of the CJEU.
Puigdemont has been especially hurt that the TGUE ruling does not include the allegations about the lack of impartiality of the rapporteur of the petition report, the Bulgarian Angel Dzhambazki, who is part of the same group as Vox, or the president of the Legal Affairs Committee , Adrián Vázquez, from Ciudadanos, and more so when the latter branded them yesterday as “clowns” and “outcasts” after learning of the court’s decision. And with respect to Dzhambazki, the former president has declared himself surprised that someone who “was in an act shouting Puigdemont to prison” is described as impartial.
Puigdemont has also admitted that he has felt politically alone and has singled out Esquerra for, in his opinion, making things easy for the PSOE and the State with his agreements with Pedro Sánchez, while he has despised the achievements obtained by Oriol Junqueras as the pardons or the reform of the Penal Code because “they affect very few people”. And facing the post-electoral scenario after July 23, the Junts leader has opted for the independence movement to put the State “in difficulties”, preventing an investiture of either Sánchez or Alberto Núñez Feijóo. And it is that for the former president of the Generalitat, Sánchez’s balance is “catastrophic” for Catalonia in matters such as the Rodalies trains, the investments made or the defense of Catalan in Europe. For this reason, he has put the PP and PSOE in the same bag: “The PSOE obtains the benefit of the good people who believe it and vote for it and there is no risk of believing it for the PP.”
Puigdemont has acknowledged that he has not spoken to the Esquerra president for a long time, Oriol Junqueras, who was his vice president until 2017, and that the last message that the ERC secretary general, Marta Rovira, was in October 2021. Instead, he revealed that yesterday the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, sent him a “very affectionate” message.
However, he has shown himself to be in favor of a large pro-independence mobilization this 23-J despite the fact that the electoral date is in the middle of summer against some sectors that appeal to abstention or null vote. And he has considered the creation of a civic list that Ponsatí could lead outside the parties for elections to the Parliament a mistake.
The Junts leader has also charged against the independence pacts with the PSC in the municipalities, in the councils and especially in the budgets and has been in favor of “throwing them all back.”
Regarding his possible return to Catalonia, the former president has acknowledged that he has considered that perhaps “he will never return again” but what he does not intend to do is fall into the temptation of returning for a few hours and taking a selfie in Girona, for example. “This would not be serious,” said the former president, who sees his return as “a complex path.” “It’s our priority, but we want to give it a lot of political significance, it’s not something personal,” he said.
