2023-07-05 17:06:13
Back to square one or at least to the situation of 2018. The court of the European Union has just lifted the parliamentary immunity enjoyed by the European deputy Carles Puigdemont, former president of Catalonia, as well as two other former members of his regional government, Clara Ponsati and Toni Comin. This legal decision is a serious setback for the separatist, who has already announced that he will appeal this decision to the Court of Justice of the EU. In a tweet, the Catalan assures that «nothing ends, quite the contrary… We will defend our fundamental rights which are also those of Catalans and Europeans».
A referendum deemed illegal
This European decision awakens the memory of the attempted secession of Catalonia, during the referendum of October 1, 2017, deemed illegal by the Spanish courts. One of the worst political crises experienced by Spain since the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975. Since then, we had almost forgotten the fate of Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain took refuge in Belgium, where he has lived since in exile.
While he had been under arrest warrants issued by Spain since 2017, Belgium and Germany – where he had been arrested during his visit – had refused his extradition. His election in 2019 in the European elections had given him some protection, without the former President of Catalonia ever taking the risk of returning to Spain, going as close as possible to the border, to Perpignan, for a meeting which had displaced many Catalan activists.
In its judgment, the EU court therefore supported the decision of the European Parliament to lift the immunity of Carles Puigdemont. He estimated that the facts for which he is being prosecuted date back to 2017 and 2018 for his indictment by the Spanish courts, in other words “at a time when he was not yet a Member of the European Parliament”.
Sedition offense cleared
The decision of the EU court leaves the field open to Spanish justice to again issue a European arrest warrant against Carles Puigdemont. But this time only for embezzlement and disobedience, punishable by imprisonment of up to eight years. The offense of sedition, present in 2018, no longer appears, the recent reform of the penal code initiated by the government having repealed it. But nothing will be automatic and immediate.
Belgium have been reluctant on several occasions to hand over the former president of Catalonia to Spain. The lawyers for Carles Puigdemont and his fellow MEPs also hope that the Belgian judge who will decide to issue this future arrest warrant will only rule once the final decision of the Court of Justice of the EU is known. .
In the meantime, Carles Puigdemont finds himself in the situation of 2018: he can no longer travel to Europe at the risk of exposing himself to arrest. It will take six to eight months before the Court of Justice of the EU makes its decision. The showdown between Carles Puigdemont and the Spanish courts is far from over.
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