13:54 – The Catalan Puigdemont promises to continue the separatist struggle from Brussels



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Back to Brussels for Carles Puigdemont. The former president of Catalonia, who no longer runs the risk of being extradited to Spain, announced Wednesday in Berlin that he would continue from Belgium his fight for the independence of his region.

Four months later his arrest in Germany while returning by car from Finland to Belgium, Carles Puigdemont, now free of his movements, announced at a press conference in Berlin that he would return to Belgium "this weekend".

"My political activity will be based in Belgium, naturally with the will to continue the mandate of the people" to an independent Catalonia, badured the former regional president.

Spain withdrew the European arrest warrant launched against him, after the German justice refused to extradite him for rebellion, accepting only the much less serious charge of embezzlement for using public funds to organize an illegal referendum of self-determination

Members of the Catalan government, now headed by his dolphin Quim Torra, and pro-independence organizations prepare a welcome ceremony in Waterloo, where he resided before his arrest.

Without effective power, Carles Puigdemont continues to exert a strong influence in Catalonia: he has appointed Quim Torra, a radical independence activist who still considers him the "legitimate president" of Catalonia, and keeps many faithful in the separatist majority in the Catalan Parliament. [19659002Lastweekendhemanagedtooverthrowtheleadershipofhisconservativeindependenceparty(PDeCAT)whichhadbeenmoreopentodialoguewithMadrid

– Internationalizing the cause –

After an unsuccessful attempt to secession of Catalonia on October 27, Carles Puigdemont, dismissed by the central government, had fled Spain and the lawsuits to r ébellion.

Based in Brussels, he now claims to set up a "Council of the Republic", the unofficial body of the separatist cause, to internationalize his cause.

"In Brussels, we must continue (… ) to develop activities related to what the people of Catalonia approved on 1 October, "said Mr Puigdemont, referring to the self-determination referendum banned by the courts and marked by police violence.

" Ce is no longer a Spanish case that can be solved internally, it takes a European look at the Catalan question, "badured the former president, which provides for travel to other European states.

Carles Puigdemont is free movement since the withdrawal of the European arrest warrant against him and five other independentist leaders installed in Belgium, Switzerland and Scotland.

However, they can not go to Spain, where they laugh For this, they will theoretically have to wait for 20 years, the statute of limitation for the offenses they are accused of.

But Carles Puigdemont, even at a distance, intends to continue to pull the strings of the law.

Catalan politics. He chose his successor, Quim Torra, who regularly communicates with him and leads discussions with the new central government in Madrid.

The Socialist Pedro Sanchez toppled early June, with the voices of independence parties, the conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, hated by a large part of the Catalans

He has since met Quim Torra in early July, promising to find a political solution to the crisis.

Puigdemont claims that Pedro Sanchez authorizes a referendum on the independence of Catalonia, which the Socialist categorically refuses, and release the nine separatists imprisoned in Spain.

"The change in the Spanish government has meant a change in style, climate (…) But this is not the the moment of the gestures, it is the moment of the facts ", he hammered.

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