Court pressures fugitive Catalan leader to return to Spain

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Catalonia's fugitive separatist leader Carles Puigdemont was under pressure Sunday to return to Spain after the country's top court ruled he could not govern the region from abroad.

Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium in October after the Catalan parliament declared independence, will in the "coming hours" ask the Supreme Court for permission to attend a debate and vote in the Catalan parliament on Tuesday on his bid to form a new government, a lawmaker with his Together for Catalonia party, Josep Rull, told Catalan radio.

The newly elected speaker of the Catalan parliament, Roger Torrent, named last week Puigdemont as the candidate to head the Catalan government after separatist parties again won an absolute majority in the Catalan parliament in a December regional election.

Dismissed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont (R) and Roger Torrent, Speaker of Catalan regional Parliament, shake hands before their meeting in Brussels, Belgium, January 24, 2018. /Reuters Photo

However, Puigdemont faces arrest for rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds over his attempt to break Catalonia away from Spain as soon as he returns.

Puigdemont had said he could be sworn in to office via video conference from Brussels, a plan Spain's central government opposes.

But Spain's Constitutional Court late Saturday ruled Puigdemont must return to the country and be present in the regional parliament to receive the authority to form a new government.

The court said that its 11 magistrates had decided unanimously "to preventively suspend the investiture of Puigdemont unless he appears in the (regional) parliament in person with prior judicial authorization".

It also warned all members of the Catalan parliament of "their responsibilities" and warned against disobeying the order to suspend any investiture.

The magistrates said they needed six more days to consider a government bid to annul the nomination of Puigdemont as a candidate for the regional presidency.

Puigdemont 'sacrificed?'

Catalonia's fugitive ex-president also faced pressure from the Catalan separatist camp to step aside in favor of another candidate to form a government.

"It is essential to have a government, if President Puigdemont has to be sacrificed, we will have to sacrifice him," Joan Tarda, a top lawmaker for Catalan separatist party the Republican Left (ERC), said in an interview published Sunday in Catalan daily La Vanguardia.

Torrent, the speaker of the Catalan parliament, has not yet reacted in public to the Constitutional Court's ruling.

Arrests

A Spanish policeman stands in front of the Spanish Constitutional Court building in Madrid, January 27, 2018. /Reuters Photo

Catalonia's independence declaration on October 27 was short-lived as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy moved to stop the crisis in a region deeply divided over secession.

Rajoy imposed direct rule on the semi-autonomous region, sacked its government including Puigdemont, dissolved its parliament and called snap elections.

Several days later, separatist leaders were charged for their attempt to break from Spain via a banned independence referendum, but by then Puigdemont and several of his former ministers were already in Belgium.

Deposed vice president Oriol Junqueras, however, remained in Spain and was jailed along with others pending a probe into their role in the independence drive.

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters