The sudden return of Clara Ponsatí, who arrived directly in Barcelona yesterday without testifying at the Supreme Court, took most political actors by surprise. The reactions to her return, accompanied by her arrest for bringing her before the judge on duty, once again showed the friction between ERC and Junts. The former councilor herself and Carles Puigdemont opened the round of criticism of the Republicans.
The distance within independence was embodied in the different points of view on the scope of the reform of the Penal Code, promoted by the Government and by the ERC, which has allowed Ponsatí to face only a conviction for disobedience, which does not is punishable by prison.
From Brussels, Puigdemont and Toni Comín, along with Ponsatí in Barcelona, ??criticized Minister Meritxell Serret, who returned from Belgium in 2021, implying that she had turned her back on “exile” of Waterloo.
The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, who was imprisoned for the 1-O, affirmed in an appearance while the ex-councillor was waiting for the judge’s decision that his return has been possible thanks to the suppression of the crime of sedition, reason why “the State has the obligation to release her”. “Disobedience is a crime that is not punishable in any case with prison terms,” ??he said.
However, Puigdemont, with a very different perspective, spoke of “illegal detention” by the Mossos d’Esquadra and urged the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, to act to defend the immunity of the MEP and not to look “the other way”. For the former president, Ponsatí’s return is an “intelligent act of confrontation” with the State, and he praised that the former councilor “counted on exile” after having been abroad for the last five years before making the decision to return to Catalonia.
However, the return takes place at a complex political moment, with the municipal elections around the corner. A move – both the comeback and the decision not to go to the Supreme Court – that must be framed in this context. In the fight with ERC for a political space, we must also add that Junts’ flagship candidacy is led in Barcelona by Xavier Trias, far removed from the positions defended by Puigdemont. The ex-convergent mayor welcomed him via Twitter, but did not attend the rally of support.
In line with Junqueras, councilor Joan Ignasi Elena also claimed the reform of the Penal Code and defended the work of the Mossos, who had to arrest the former councilor in fulfillment of their “duty”.
In an institutional tone, President Pere Aragonès chose not to enter into battles with Junts, celebrated the return of the former councilor and deplored her arrest. Also, the president of the Generalitat pointed out that the return does not take place “in full freedom”, he slandered the judge Pablo Llarena and did not talk about the role of the Mossos.
Moncloa also analyzed the movement that has been carried out from Brussels, and the sources consulted pointed out that Ponsatí “has put on a show” with his return. In this sense, they recalled that both Serret and the ex-CUP deputy Anna Gabriel went to the Supreme Court, since they could not be arrested under any circumstances, and that, therefore, the gesture of arriving in Barcelona directly sought a reaction totally unnecessary. For the Central Executive, it is shown that a new stage has opened in Catalonia, and that after the years of PP government, when there was an exodus to Belgium, now the pro-independence supporters who left are Returning.
Carme Forcadell, who was sentenced to prison on October 1 and was released after the Government pardoned her, also celebrated Ponsatí’s return: “Welcome to your home, to your country. With you, counselor!” he said. For his part, the general secretary of Junts per Catalunya, Jordi Turull, expressed “all the support for Councilor Clara Ponsatí in her decision to return to Catalonia, a decision framed in the intelligent confrontation”.
At the opposite pole, Ciutadans did not take long to react to Ponsatí’s presence in Spain and with the label “We will not be silenced”, its leader in Catalonia, Carlos Carrizosa, pointed out on Twitter that the cause of the return of the pro-independence MEP was the recent “decriminalization of sedition” that the Government of Pedro Sánchez and ERC have promoted in Congress.
In a more circumspect tone, the president of the PP of Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, declared to La Vanguardia that “now is the time for the rule of law” and “for justice to do its job”.
