In self-exile in Belgium and wanted in Spain, former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont on Thursday abandoned his bid to return as regional leader in an attempt to unblock the region’s political crisis.
“I will not put myself forward as candidate to be appointed regional president,” Puigdemont said solemnly from Belgium in a video posted on social media, standing in front of Catalan and EU flags.
The 55-year-old called for a new candidate to be chosen “as soon as possible” from Catalonia’s separatist bloc, which won elections in December last year in a region deeply divided over independence.
This could pave the way for Catalonia to get a fully functioning government and regain its autonomy after Madrid took full control of the region over its secession bid in October last year.
Madrid welcomed Puigdemont’s move, with a Spanish government source saying that Catalonia needed “to have a regional president as soon as possible.”
Vowing to continue drawing the global community’s attention to Catalonia’s cause, as separatists accuse Madrid of repression in its crackdown, Puigdemont said his lawyers had taken the case to the UN Human Rights Committee.
He also put forward Jordi Sanchez, president of the Catalan National Assembly, a hugely influential pro-independence citizens’ group, as his preferred choice to lead Catalonia forward.
However, that will likely be difficult, as Sanchez has been in prison for more than four months as he is investigated for sedition, one of four separatists in jail over their role in the independence drive.
Sanchez stands accused of encouraging a major protest in September last year as Spanish police raided the Catalan administration’s economic offices in the run-up to a banned independence referendum on Oct. 1.
Marred by police violence, Catalan authorities said turnout in the vote was about 43 percent, of which 90 percent backed independence, even if Madrid dismissed the referendum.
Weeks later, separatist lawmakers declared independence on Oct. 27.
The Spanish government moved in immediately, stripping Catalonia of its prized autonomy, dismissing its separatist government, dissolving its parliament and calling snap elections on Dec. 21.
Puigdemont left for Belgium shortly after the declaration and was charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.
However, he still ran in the December polls from abroad, leading the separatist bloc to victory as they retained their absolute majority in parliament.
After the regional election, Puigdemont remained the separatists’ favored candidate to lead Catalonia again. He argued that he could govern the region remotely, with the help of super-fast new technologies.
However, the Spanish Constitutional Court made his appointment conditional on his physical presence in the regional capital, Barcelona, with permission from a judge.
Faced with these obstacles, the Catalan parliament’s speaker — also a separatist — postponed a key assembly vote to reappoint Puigdemont as president in January.
Since then, separatist parties have been locked in tense talks on how to move forward.
Suggestions had started to emerge that Puigdemont could be given a “symbolic” role in Belgium while another candidate would be picked to lead Catalonia from Barcelona.
On Thursday, Catalonia’s majority separatist parliament approved a motion defending him as the “legitimate” candidate for the regional presidency — a move widely seen as a way to encourage him to step aside without losing face.
The motion also stated that the separatists were “favorable to the constitution of Catalonia as an independent state.”
In his video, Puigdemont said he was renouncing his bid to lead Catalonia again so that the region could get a new government and shake off direct rule from Madrid.
“We won’t surrender, we won’t give up,” Puigdemont said. “I know that the path we have ahead is long and fraught with difficulties.”
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion