Puigdemont willing to return after vote
President says it would be worth risk of arrest to return to the post; move would be “difficult for Spain to justify”
The president of the Generalitat and head of the list of candidates for Together for Catalonia (JxCat), Carles Puigdemont, said yesterday that “perhaps it is worth the risk” of being arrested if he returned to Catalonia to be invested president by virtue of the elections on December 21.
At a press conference held in the headquarters of the Catalan news agency (ACN) with a direct connection to Brussels, the JxCat candidate again asked that the “155 coalition” (referring to Cs, the PSC and the PP) express their commitment to respect the election results. “I don’t understand how a democrat who says he will respect the results can send me to prison, we work on the hypothesis that this won’t happen,” Puigdemont asserted.
In line with this, the head of the JxCat list made it clear that respecting the decision of the Catalans “is not compatible” with keeping him and part of the executive in Belgium or behind bars. Puigdemont’s intention here was to link the respecting of a hypothetical victory for independence on 21-D with the withdrawal of legal charges against members of the government and the leaders of the ANC and Òmnium.
He also pointed out that it will be “very difficult” for the Spanish State to continue presenting itself to the world as a country that respects the “rules of democratic play” if it is prepared to “automatically” arrest a president after his investiture.
Not content with that, Puigdemont went on to appeal for “permanent” negotiations with the State “with no expiry date”. However, he warned that for this to become a reality there is a need for both sides to recognise one another, adding that he was “hopeful” that some sectors of Spanish politics would change their understanding to allow this.