The former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont rejects any “personal benefit” from the reform of the crime of sedition and assures that he does not see that “it could have any benefit for the resolution of the political conflict between Spain and Catalonia”, in a letter in which he criticizes to ERC for trying to resolve his situation, when he has not “authorized” it. In a text made public yesterday through social networks, Puigdemont recalls that it is the fifth anniversary since he arrived in Brussels, on October 30, 2017, after the application by the Spanish Government of article 155 of the Constitution. He affirms that in these five years he has not sought “any personal solution” nor has he asked anyone to do so on his behalf: “I have not sought how I would spend less time in a Spanish prison, nor have I expected for myself the benefits that would be others apply”, in a clear allusion to the pardon granted to those convicted by the procés.
Puigdemont explains that he has always been clear on this issue, both in public and in private, before “all the interlocutors”, among whom he has cited “people from the PSOE” who, on several occasions, he assures, have visited him to give him ” expectations of good treatment, via reform of the Penal Code, and a pardon.” “As long as, of course, he agreed to appear before the Supreme Court. Surely Pedro Sánchez knows what I am talking about, ”adds the former president, without specifying what he is referring to.
“I do not seek it nor do I want it, this personal benefit,” Puigdemont continues in his letter. Nor do I intend to ask for it ‘on my knees’, as an independence politician dared to warn during the negotiations to resolve the crisis of the Government. And although he assures that, for his personal life, it would be a “relief” to testify before the Supreme Court and be pardoned, he specifies that “it would be a political resignation that I am not willing to accept.” The former president recalls that he left to continue with the process for independence initiated in Catalonia, in the face of “repression unleashed” by the government and with the aim of appealing to “non-politicized” courts.
