Catalonia wants out; Spain says no

A judge in Madrid has ordered eight members of the deposed Catalan government to be remanded in custody pending possible charges over last week’s declaration of independence, while Spanish prosecutors are seeking a European arrest warrant for the region’s ousted president, Carles Puigdemont.

On Thursday afternoon, a judge at Spain’s national court jailed the eight former ministers - including Puigdemont’s deputy, Oriol Junqueras - while they are investigated on possible charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds.

A ninth, who resigned the day before the Catalan parliament voted to declare independence last Friday, can remain at liberty on bail of €50,000.

Puigdemont, who is in Brussels, had been summoned to attend Spain’s national court to give evidence on Thursday and Friday.
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Earlier on Thursday, Puigdemont’s lawyer said that although his client would cooperate with the courts, he intended to remain in Brussels.

“The climate is not good, it is better to take some distance,” Paul Bekaert told Reuters. “If they ask, he will cooperate with Spanish and Belgian justice.

A parallel supreme court session for six Catalan lawmakers was postponed for a week.

Some members of the separatist government had appeared at the national court early on Thursday morning. The hearing, which deals with major criminal cases, began at 9am and will continue on Friday.
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Supporters outside court cheered and shouted: “Freedom, Freedom” and “we are not afraid”.

Across the street, half a dozen protesters with Spanish flags were stopped by police. Addressing the Catalan politicians, they shouted “cowards” and “to jail, to jail.”

In Barcelona, thousands of people rallied outside the Catalan presidential palace on Thursday afternoon in a show of support for the ousted officials.
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But Catalans remain deeply divided about independence, polls indicate.

The international community has swung firmly behind Rajoy, and uncertainty about Catalonia’s future has prompted companies to move their legal headquarters outside the region.

In addition, there are signs of growing divisions in the separatist camp, with many unhappy with Puigdemont and his handling of the situation.
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Fernando Vallespin, a political scientist in Madrid, said he believed Puigdemont, a former journalist, was “more interested in obtaining media attention than escaping justice”.

“It’s a media war. The aim of [the Catalan executive] has been to try and present the Spanish state as an oppressor state and Puigdemont needs to feed this narrative,” he said.

Rajoy has called snap elections for 21 December to replace the Catalan parliament. Puigdemont said he would respect the result and appealed to Madrid to do the same.

MADRID (Reuters) - Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who left Spain for Belgium after his regional government was sacked, said on Friday he was “ready” to stand in a snap regional election called in Catalonia for Dec. 21.

“I am ready to be a candidate... it’s possible to run a campaign from anywhere,” Puigdemont told Belgian state television RTBF.

“We consider ourselves a legitimate government. There must be a continuity to tell the world what’s going on in Spain... It’s not with a government in jail that the elections will be neutral, independent, normal,” he also said.

MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Pro-Catalonia independence parties will combine for the most votes in regional election in December though may fall just short of a majority needed to revive the secession campaign, two polls showed on Sunday.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called the Dec. 21 election after firing the previous government and imposing direct rule over the autonomous region following a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalan lawmakers on Oct. 27.

Catalonia’s statehood push has tipped Spain into its worst political crisis since its return to democracy four decades ago as surging pro-secession sentiment in the region has in turn kindled nationalism across the country.

According to the GAD3 survey of 1,233 people conducted between Oct. 30 and Nov. 3 and published in La Vanguardia newspaper, pro-independence parties ERC, PDECat and CUP would take between 66 and 69 seats in the 135-seat parliament.

A second poll taken over the same period for the conservative newspaper La Razon echoed the GAD3 survey, showing pro-independence parties would capture the most votes though still fall just shy of a parliamentary majority with 65 seats.

Voter participation would rise to a record of 83 percent, the GAD3 poll showed.

The ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and four associates have turned themselves in to Belgian police, the Brussels prosecutor’s office has said.