From his Belgian home, Carles Puigdemont spoke on Saturday about his brief appearance in Barcelona while he was the subject of an arrest warrant.
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Back in Belgium, Carles Puigdemont explains. The Catalan independence leader, who set foot in Spain on Thursday for the first time in seven years despite an arrest warrant, assured on Saturday 10 August that he had no intention of surrendering. “I never intended to surrender myself to a judicial authority that is not competent either to persecute us (…) or to deliver justice, but is motivated by political objectives”he explained in a video published on the social network X.
From his home in Waterloo, near the Belgian capital, where he claims to be, he claims to have wanted “enter the Parliament” of Catalonia, in Barcelona, to attend the investiture session of the head of the Catalan executive and to be able to exercise his ““right to speak” and of “vote”. The police presence nearby dissuaded him, he says.
“In this context, trying to access Parliament would have meant certain arrest, I would not have had the slightest possibility of addressing the chamber, which was my objective”he said again. Carles Puigdemont clarifies that he then decided to flee. The leader of the Junts party explains that he was aware of the “risks” and some “huge costs if it fails.”
“It was necessary to denounce at the international level a Spanish State that does not behave democratically when it allows the judges of the Supreme Court to mock the laws approved by its Parliament”he comments. He is referring to an amnesty law that was hard-negotiated with the Spanish government in exchange for the support of the independentists in Parliament, and which does not apply to him for the moment.
