2023-07-05 16:46:11
Three Catalan separatist MEPs, including former leader Carles Puigdemont, saw their parliamentary immunity lifted on Wednesday by European justice. The decision also concerns Clara Ponsati and Toni Comin, close to the former independence leader. The three elected officials have been in the sights of Spanish justice since the failed secession attempt of Catalonia in the fall of 2017.
They asked the Court of the European Union to annul the decision to lift their parliamentary immunity. These MEPs can thus be implicated by the Spanish courts.
No violation of the impartiality of the European Parliament
The institution rejected the argument of a supposed violation of the principle of impartiality of the European Parliament, which was at the center of the defense of the Catalan elected officials. The court also considers that the Parliament did not have to “examine the legality of Spanish judicial acts”, this falling “within the sole competence of the national authorities”, according to a press release.
“It’s not over,” reacted the former Catalan leader on Twitter, who announced an appeal “before the EU court of justice”. The independence government of Carles Puigdemont had organized in 2017 a referendum of self-determination which had been banned by justice, following which the local Parliament had unilaterally declared the independence of the autonomous community of Catalonia.
Several separatists had fled abroad after Madrid intervened to suspend the region’s autonomy. Ponsati, Puigdemont and Comin had taken refuge in Brussels. Since 2017, the Spanish Supreme Court has been asking for the extradition of separatist leaders that Belgian justice has still not authorized, five years later.
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