Tag: Puigdemont

Puigdemont or plan B? Catalan separatists divided

by Daniel Bosque © Agence France-Presse BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Catalonia’s separatist parties have to decide in the coming days whether to set their differences aside and back ousted, exiled leader Carles Puigdemont or seek an alternative. Unlike other major independence movements in Scotland and Quebec, concentrated in one party, three different groupings make up Catalonia’s separatist camp, united in their will to break with Spain but often at odds with each other. These quarrels burst into […]

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Catalan separatists split as Puigdemont’s comeback bid delayed

by Diego Urdaneta with Marianne Barriaux in Madrid © Agence France-Presse BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Divisions in Catalonia’s separatist bloc burst into the open Tuesday after the region’s parliamentary speaker postponed a crucial vote to reappoint ousted president Carles Puigdemont. Roger Torrent, who like Puigdemont is pro-independence but hails from a different party, announced last minute he had delayed the parliamentary session to ensure it could later go ahead in an “effective” way after Spain’s Constitutional Court […]

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Pro-separatist Catalan parties back ex-leader for top job

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — The two largest pro-independence parties in Catalonia said Tuesday they had agreed to nominate sacked regional leader Carles Puigdemont for president, despite his self-imposed exile in Belgium and Madrid’s insistence he cannot rule remotely. The separatist ERC and Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia party reached an accord to support him “as a candidate for president of the Catalonia region,” a joint statement said. The central government in Madrid has warned it would maintain direct […]

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Ex-Catalan leader demands regional govt be reinstated

MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont on Saturday demanded Madrid reinstate his regional government, which was deposed after an independence referendum that Spanish courts judged illegal, as part of a political settlement. “As president, I demand the Spanish government and those who support it… restore all they have expropriated from the Catalans without their say-so,” Puigdemont said from Brussels as he called on Madrid to “negotiate politically.” Puigdemont’s administration followed up the October 1 […]

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Spain’s most wanted: Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont

by Daniel Bosque © Agence France-Presse BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Catalonia’s deposed leader Carles Puigdemont, who has fled to Belgium and is facing an EU arrest warrant, has been a convinced secessionist since his youth, long before the issue moved to the centre of Catalan politics. Spanish prosecutors want to charge Puigdemont, with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds over his role in the region’s tumultuous independence drive. The 54-year-old has ignored a summons to appear […]

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Axed Catalan leader urges resistance to Madrid rule

  by Jordi Zamora Barcelo with Marianne Barriaux in Madrid Agence France Presse BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Catalonia’s secessionist leader Carles Puigdemont stood defiant Saturday against Madrid’s moves to depose him, urging “democratic resistance” to direct rule imposed in a bid to stop the region breaking away from Spain. In a televised statement, Puigdemont accused the central government of trampling on the will of independence-seeking Catalans who rejoiced at Friday’s vote by regional lawmakers to […]

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Catalan leaders defy king over independence

by Marianne Barriaux with Roland Lloyd Parry in Madrid Agence France Presse BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Tension mounted in Spain on Wednesday after Catalonia’s leader vowed that the region would declare independence within days, defying a stern warning from the country’s king that national stability was in peril. The courts meanwhile placed Catalan police officials and pro-independence civil leaders under investigation for alleged “sedition” as Spain sank deeper into its worst political crisis in decades. […]

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