The separatist Junts per Catalunya party has threatened to review its support for Spain’s coalition government after its leader Carles Puigdemont evaded arrest in Barcelona on Thursday.
To secure a second term, prime minister Pedro Sanchez had agreed to a controversial amnesty for secessionist leaders including Mr Puigdemont in exchange for their support in parliament.
But the supreme court maintained a charge for misuse of funds against the former Catalan president, who led the region’s failed bid for independence in 2017 and has since been living in Belgium and France.
The “situation had changed a lot” since the amnesty deal was struck and “we have to see whether it makes sense”, Junts secretary-general Jordi Turull said in a radio interview on Friday.
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Continued parliamentary support for Mr Sanchez’s government had “a very narrow path forward or no path at all”, Mr Turull said, unless Madrid defended the full application of the amnesty law by judges.
Parliamentary work has all but ground to a standstill in recent months as the Junts awaited several judgments that have tested the amnesty law.
Mr Turull said Mr Puigdemont was on his way back to Belgium after giving a speech in the Catalan capital and avoiding capture by police on Thursday.
Mr Puigdemont wanted to “claim his political rights” as a member of the Catalan parliament, but he could not because of the police operation targeting him, Mr Turull said.
Two police officers suspected of aiding the fugitive have been arrested, according to local officials.
The Junts secretary-general also claimed that Mr Puigdemont “slept in Barcelona on Tuesday night”, meaning he had been on Spanish soil for two days, despite the outstanding arrest warrant against him.
Spanish opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whose right-wing Popular Party repeatedly criticised the amnesty deal, said on Friday the events were “unspeakable and cannot go unpunished”.
He called on Mr Sánchez to immediately explain himself and sack the ministers of interior and defence. “Faced with this farce, the government cannot continue to stay on vacation and laugh at the Spanish people.”
The Spanish government did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr Sánchez on Thursday congratulated the newly elected Catalan president, Salvador Illa, who is a member of his own Socialist party and served as minister of health during the Covid-19 pandemic. “You will be a great president. Catalonia wins, Spain advances!” Mr Sanchez wrote on X. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024
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