Carles Puigdemont in Brussels: "The journey will not end"

It is the return to his Belgian exile: Carles Puigdemont had left Germany on Saturday morning in the direction of Belgium. Upon his arrival in Brussels, the former Catalan regional president, accompanied by his successor Quim Torra, appeared before the public. He announced that he wanted to fight for the independence of Catalonia from Spain in the future all over Europe.

"My journey will end only when all political prisoners are free, the exiles can return and the people of Catalonia their right to self-determination can exert the threat of violence," said Puigdemont. "I am going to travel to the last corner of our continent to represent the just cause of the Catalans."

The 55-year-old man was dismissed last year as president of the autonomous region following the referendum on the banned independence in Catalonia. He escaped to Brussels before the Spanish courts. Upon returning from a representation in Scandinavia, he was arrested on 25 March in Schleswig-Holstein on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued by Spain. Puigdemont was briefly sent to a prison in Neumünster, but was later released under certain conditions.

Spain is punishable by imprisonment

Meanwhile, the Madrid Supreme Court waived his extradition. The reason was that the Higher Regional Court of Schleswig-Holstein had previously declared an extradition only because it was suspected of embezzlement, but not because of the rebellion, the main accusation of the Spanish judiciary. In Spain, however, Puigdemont is still threatened with imprisonment.

"We will internationalize the cause of Catalonia as best we can," said separatist regional leader Torra. With Puigdemont in Belgium, there are better opportunities for this. "We will not give up so long as the Catalans can not democratically decide their future."

In Spain, the Catalan conflict is now somewhat relaxed. The new Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who defeated his conservative predecessor Mariano Rajoy in the Madrid parliament on June 1 with a vote of no confidence, recently opened negotiations with Torra. However, Torra himself still refers to Puigdemont as "legitimate" regional president.