A year after threatening the unity of Spain with an attempt to declare independence, former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont launched a new party on Saturday, as he tries to rally separatists from his base in Belgium.
The new group, named “The Call,” held a founding congress on Saturday evening, marking the one-year anniversary of the secession push, but it has struggled to attract a groundswell of support, with some allies languishing in Spanish jails and others choosing a more moderate political path.
The meeting of Puigdemont’s new party was held in the pro-independence town of Manresa, in the center of Catalonia, near the prison where independence leaders are being held.
“A year ago we decided that we would continue the fight, whatever the conditions and circumstances, and that we would commit ourselves to building a better country, a republic,” Puigdemont said in Brussels of the new party.
In a speech relayed on a giant screen to his supporters, he alluded to divisions within the separatist camp, insisting on “moving forward united” rather than apportioning blame.
MODERATES
However, many of his former allies who have adopted more moderate and pragmatic positions have refused to join the new party.
Catalan President Quim Torra, in a somber televised address to mark the Oct. 27, last year declaration of independence, said “the year that separates us from this historic date did not unfold as we wished,” but added that “turning back is not an option.”
The independence declaration threw Spain into political turmoil, with the central government ousting Puigdemont, who then fled to Belgium, dissolving parliament and imposing direct control over the wealthy northeastern region.
Snap polls in December last year saw separatist parties once again win an absolute majority in the regional parliament.
However, Torra, who regularly seeks counsel from Puigdemont, presides over a Catalan government divided between those who back disobedience to advance the cause of independence and those who favor dialogue with new Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
The trial of 18 former Catalan leaders over their role in the separatist push, expected to start early next year, helps to keep the separatist camp mobilized.
‘BITTERSWEET’
Several dozen activists from the powerful grassroots separatist organization ANC, which has previously staged massive pro-independence street protests in Barcelona, gathered at the city’s regional administration offices in the rain to demand the official publication of the independence declaration.
“This anniversary is quite bittersweet, a day of great hope that did not materialize,” ANC president Elisenda Paluzie said.
Later, more radical elements rallied in front of the regional government building, berating Torra for his cautious approach, but their numbers never swelled beyond 200.
They chanted: “One year of relinquishment, one year of submission, that is enough.”
Madrid continues to refuse to allow any referendum on self-rule in Catalonia, despite Sanchez’s reliance on Catalan separatist parties to pass legislation.
This has helped further fracture the independence movement.
Puigdemont is due to present a “Council of the Republic” — a sort of Catalan government-in-exile in Belgium — in the coming days aiming to rally support for a continued independence push.
“We are not talking about a dream, we are talking about a reality, we are talking about the Catalan Republic,” a TV clip for the new party says.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in