Catalan separatist leaders take up MEP seats in blow to Madrid

Catalan leaders Carles Puigdemont and Antoni Comin attend a plenary in the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg
Catalan leaders Carles Puigdemont and Antoni Comin attend a plenary in the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg Copyright AP Photo/Francisco Seco
By Euronews with agencies
Share this articleComments
Share this articleClose Button
Copy/paste the article video embed link below:Copy to clipboardCopied

Catalan separatist leaders Carles Puigdemont and Antoni Comin vowed to push their secessionist cause onto Europe’s agenda as they took up their seats in Strasbourg, despite facing an arrest warrant in Spain.

ADVERTISEMENT

Catalan leaders Carles Puigdemont and Antoni Comin took their seats as members of the European Parliament on Monday despite facing an arrest warrant in Spain.

Both vowed to use their new status to push the secessionist cause on Europe's agenda. Their parliamentary position also gives them immunity.

Puigdemont was at the forefront of the illegal referendum campaign in Catalonia in 2017 but he managed to flee to Brussels when Spanish authorities issued an arrest warrant for him.

'Free Junqueras'

The fugitive leader used the opening session of the plenary in Strasbourg to demand the immediate release from a Spanish jail of another Catalan official who was elected to the European Parliament, former Catalonia vice president Oriol Junqueras.

He waved a yellow poster demanding ''Free Junqueras.''

In October, a Spanish court sentenced Junqueras to 13 years in prison for sedition.

Puigdemont arrived at the legislature in the early afternoon, cheered by a few hundred supporters who had over a dozen Catalan flags fluttering in the midday winds outside the legislature in northeastern France. ''Puigdemont president,'' they shouted in unison.

Puigdemont and Comin, who are both wanted in Spain for their role in the 2017 secession bid, were only able to take up their seats in the European Parliament after the EU's top court ruled that they could.

But the ruling didn't solve the case of Junqueras. The European Parliament followed a Spanish Supreme Court decision and removed Junqueras' mandate, leaving him in jail.

“If the European Union was really a union of rights and freedoms, Oriol Junqueras would be here today,” Puigdemont said on Monday.

Spain’s top Court called on Friday for the European Parliament to strip Puigdemont and Comin of their immunity based on their European arrest warrants.

Immunity vote looms

Puigdemont said he was looking for a vote from the European Parliament ''within weeks'' over whether he can visit Spain without being arrested. He specifically wants to visit Junqueras.

“We hope, in a few, not too (many) months, probably weeks, we have a clear statement from the board of the European parliament,“ he told AP news agency.

Share this articleComments

You might also like

Catalan leaders recognised by European Parliament as MEPs

EU top court rules Catalan separatist Junqueras was MEP with immunity when jailed in Spain

The curious case of Carles Puigdemont and the suppression of democracy ǀ View