Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has said he would return home “immediately” if a fair judicial process were guaranteed in Spain.
Spain’s chief prosecutor has announced he is seeking charges of rebellion, sedition, embezzlement and similar offences against leaders of the Catalan independence movement, including Mr Puigdemont.
Mr Puigdemont travelled to Brussels on Monday.
(AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)
Asked by reporters on Tuesday how long he would stay, he responded: “As long we consider it (necessary).
“The situation is developing every day.
“Here we have better guarantees for our rights here and we can meet our obligations from here.”
He added: “If they can guarantee to all of us, and to me in particular, a just, independent process, with the separation of powers that we have in the majority of European nations, if they guarantee that, we would return immediately.”
(PA Graphics)
Mr Puigdemont said he came to Belgium to act “in freedom and safety” and not to seek asylum and he chose Brussels because it is the capital of Europe.
He said he and his team will “continue our work despite the limits imposed on us”.
(AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)
Speaking to reporters, Mr Puigdemont also said he would accept the challenge of regional elections called for December 21 “with all our strength” and that Catalan nationalists would vote.
Spain wants Catalonia “to abandon our political project, and they won’t achieve it”, he said.
Mr Puigdemont said violence must be avoided and dialogue was a priority.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel