[ad_1]
Catalan police chief Edouard Salente said there was no “objective evidence” that former Catalan president and separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, who is currently under a nationwide arrest warrant, had managed to flee Spain for Belgium after a controversial visit to Barcelona on Thursday (Aug 8).
Jordi Turul, secretary general of the right-wing separatist party “Catalan Solidarity” (JxCat) led by Puigdemont, assured the audience on Friday (August 9) On Radio Catalunya RAC1, Puigdemont arrived in Barcelona on Tuesday incognito, flanked by loyal supporters, Euractiv partner EFE reported.
But he managed to escape after a brief political rally in Barcelona. According to Turul, the former Catalan president is currently in Waterloo, Belgium, where he initially fled in October 2017, sneaking out in the trunk of a car with the help of agents from the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan regional police.
Puigdemont’s lawyer Gonzalo Boyer stressed on Friday that “everything is going well. … had previously planned to be arrested” was changed to “He had no plans to be arrested on Thursday.”
“He came (to Barcelona) not to surrender but to fight,” Boyer told Catalan radio stations RAC1 and Catalunya Ràdio.
According to him, Puigdemont could make a statement or speak to his supporters on Friday or Saturday (August 10), possibly revealing his current whereabouts.
However, Catalan regional police chief Edouard Salente refuted Turul’s claims about Puigdemont’s hiding place at a press conference in Barcelona, stressing that there was no “objective evidence” confirming Puigdemont was in Belgium.
The Catalan police force said the claims about Puigdemont’s whereabouts were “false information” spread by people close to the former Catalan president.
“Unless we have evidence that he is outside our mandate, we will continue to look for him in order to comply with the arrest warrant,” Salent said, according to EFE.
The PP demands the resignation of two ministers and an explanation from Sanchez
Meanwhile, the vast majority of Spain’s conservative media and right-wing parties — including the Popular Party (EPP) and the far-right VOX (Patriot), the third largest force in the country’s parliament — said on Friday that the security forces’ failure (or unwillingness) to arrest Puigdemont was a “shame” and a “miserable failure.”
Despite the controversial amnesty law introduced last June, which pardons separatist activists for acts committed between 2011 and 2023 – from which Puigdemont also hopes to benefit – Spain’s Supreme Court judge Pablo Larena The country still maintains a nationwide arrest warrant for the separatist leader.
In July 2023, the Spanish Supreme Court rejected Application of amnesty law Puigdemont is suspected of embezzling public funds, which he used to pay for the “self-determination” referendum he organized in Catalonia in 2017.
The court found, among other reasons, that his actions “may” affect the economic interests of the European Union.
The scandal over the alleged involvement of some members of the Catalan police in Puigdemont’s prison escape reached a climax this week in a war of words and accusations between Catalan state and regional security forces.
Leader of the right-wing People’s Party (PP/EPP), Alberto Nunez FeijoOpposition leader Mohamed Mohamed on Friday demanded that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSO/PD) urgently appear before the National Assembly and “immediately dismiss” Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlasca and Defense Minister Margarita Robles for “negligence” in police operations and negligence at the National Intelligence Center (CNI), EFE reported.
“What happened yesterday (Thursday) is unspeakable and must not go unpunished. I demand that Sánchez appear in court and that Marlasca and Robles be immediately fired for their negligence in the police operation and the CNI. The government cannot continue to take a holiday in the face of such a farce, a mockery of all Spaniards,” Feijóo commented on X.
VOX Leaders Santiago Abascal On Friday, they also called for the resignation of Sanchez, the interior minister and the director of the National Intelligence Agency, considering all three of them “accomplices” in Puigdemont’s prison escape.
There was also a sense of frustration mixed with anger in the JxCat team.
They warned on Friday that if the amnesty law is not fully implemented so Puigdemont can return freely to Spain, they will withdraw the much-needed support of seven deputies in the Madrid parliament for Sánchez’s coalition with the leftist Platform Soumar, which could lead to the collapse of the progressive government.
(Editing by Rajnish Singh)
Read more by Euractiv
[ad_2]
Source link
