Spain: the case of Carles Puigdemont complicates Pedro Sánchez | President needs Catalan nationalist voices to stay in government

From Madrid

One of the myths on which Catalan nationalism bases its aspirations for separation is the alleged existence of a national entity that predates the Kingdom of Spain. To this set of territories, which historical rigor brings together in the Kingdom of Aragon but which nationalist ingenuity baptized Països Catalans, until 1720 the Italian island of Sardinia belonged to, today converted into one of the most exclusive tourist destinations in Europe.

In Alghero, the city where the former president of the Generalitat (autonomous government) of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, 58, was arrested on Thursday evening, a language known in the place as the “Alghero dialect” is still spoken, which is very close to Catalan. It is one of the 12 officially recognized minority languages ​​in Italy. We do not know if driven by nostalgia for the country that never existed, Puigdemont was on hand to participate in a meeting of Catalan popular culture where also, apparently, he planned to meet the Sardinian independence leaders.

Sedition

He couldn’t do any of that. He barely set foot on Italian territory he was detained at the airport in accordance with an arrest warrant issued by the Supreme Court of Spain, a country he fled four years ago to avoid being brought to justice after the illegal referendum that led to the failure of the declaration independence of Catalonia in October 2017. Puigdemont is accused of the alleged crimes of sedition and embezzlement, for having used public funds to organize the referendum.

The independence leader was out this Friday afternoon by local justice and will be able to leave Italian soil immediately, with the obligation to return there on October 4, date of the first hearing scheduled to decide on his possible extradition.

Unlike nine of his colleagues, who remained in Catalonia and after appearing before the judicial authorities were tried, sentenced and imprisoned for three years, Puigdemont has been on the run in Brussels for all these years, from where he continued to act as the leader of the most conservative sector of the Catalan independence movement, currently grouped in the JuntsXCat party (Together for Catalonia).

Dual direction

Catalan secessionism, a conglomerate which includes political parties with the most diverse ideologies, as well as different cultural and civil society associations and which generally agglutinate half of the votes in electoral calls, has a dual direction on the political level. On the one hand, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, a left-wing party founded under the Second Republic which has evolved over the last two decades towards the independence to which the current President of the Generalitat belongs, Father Aragonès.

The other partner of the Catalan government is JuntsXCat, heir to training Democratic Convergence of Catalonia, a liberal and conservative economic political party that has exercised power in Catalonia almost uninterruptedly since the restoration of democracy and to which the numerous corruption scandals have forced a profound metamorphosis.

Not only did he change his name, but he also went from a formation considered a guarantor of the stability of Spanish politics – its historical leader, Jordi Pujol, now accused of corruption, It was characterized by an agreement with the PSOE and the PP in exchange for advantages for Catalonia– become a party reluctant to any dialogue and radical in the demand for Catalan independence.

Radicalization

Puigdemont, mayor of the city of Girona, became president of the Generalitat after the resignation of his predecessor, Artur Mas, and from there led the process of radicalization of this wing of Catalan independence until the proclamation of independence in 2017, who brought in the president of the Spanish government at the time, Mariano Rajoy, suspend autonomy and call elections.

After his flight, Puigdemont moved to Brussels, claimed by the Spanish justice, unlike his companions, taken by former vice-president Oriol Junqueras (d’Esquerra) who ended up being tried and sentenced to heavy prison terms, from which they came out this year after being pardoned by Pedro Sánchez.

As an MEP, Puigdemont could benefit from immunity, but last July the General Court of the European Union has decided to maintain the suspension of his legislative immunity decided by the European Parliament.

Puigdemont’s arrest represents an unexpected problem for the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, that after the granting of the thanks to the nine jailed separatists had managed to seat the Catalan government at a dialogue table with which it aspired to resolve a territorial political crisis whose genesis dates back to the economic crisis of 2008.

Sánchez does not have the support of the JuntsXCat parliamentarians in the Congress of Deputies, but he has those of Esquerra, which he needs to execute next year’s budgets and thus guarantee the stability of his government until 2023, when the legislature ends.

JuntsXCat has already tried to boycott this dialogue table with Madrid by proposing that its representation be assumed by some of the politicians first condemned and then pardoned by Sánchez, a situation that was unacceptable for the Spanish government. Only the firmness of Aragonés and his party, Esquerra, finally made it possible to hold the table, all in a context where every movement of the Spanish president vis-à-vis Catalonia is seen under the critical magnifying glass not only by the opposition parties, but also by the rest of the regional governments, who fear being harmed if there is an excess of concessions to the Catalan government.

crossroads

Sánchez, who has already assured that he would respect what justice decides, is at a crossroads where no outcome is favorable to him. With a precarious majority in Congress based on regional alliances, he depends on the votes of Catalan independence deputies from Esquerra. He also needs those votes to avoid defeat in a possible no-confidence vote the opposition might come up with.

If Puigdemont is not extradited, he will be suspected of collusion and of having operated to get there; but if he is finally taken to Spain to appear in court, it is predictable that the protests will set the streets of Barcelona and other Catalan cities on fire make the sustainability of its agreement with Esquerra impossible.