Related news
The former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont left the Sassari prison (Sardinia) this Friday at 6:00 p.m. with a triumphant gesture and a phrase of contempt: “Spain does not miss the opportunity to make a fool of itself“.
His visit to the Italian island has allowed Puigdemont to become for a few hours the hero of the Catalan independence movement who, in need of new epic episodes, failed to fill the streets of Barcelona in the past Diada.
After his release and the presumable bathing of crowds this weekend in Sardinia, the fugitive will return to the irrelevance of Waterloo, where he has created his own Court, the Consell de la República, which plays spy with the emissaries of Putin.
The reality is that the entanglements of the Puigdemont clique with the Kremlin and its attempt to stir up secessionist movements in other regions of the Continent, such as Sardinia or southern France, has exhausted its credit before the main European governments.
For 20 and a half hours, Puigdemont believed that it could be delivered to Spain. And there are those who point out that it is what they were looking for.
21.15 The arrest
Carles Puigdemont arrives at L’Alguer airport (Sardinia) at 9:05 p.m. on Thursday aboard the flight FR6732 of the company low cost Ryanair, which took off two hours earlier (at 19:10) from Brussels. Its purpose is to participate in the Aplec International Adifolk folklore festival, together with the president of the Parliament, Laura Borràs, and the counselor Foreign Action of the Generalitat, Victoria Alsina.
A few hours before taking the flight, Puigdemont publishes his umpteenth insulting message on Twitter: “Spain is a banana monarchy“But as soon as he has descended the ladder of the plane, he is approached by several plainclothes officers of the Italian border police who, after confirming his identity, inform him of his arrest in compliance with the international search and arrest warrant against him.
Puigdemont agrees to accompany the agents, with apparent disappointment. In recent months he has moved with absolute freedom, waiting for the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to resolve the lawsuit he filed against the decision of the European Parliament to withdraw his immunity.
For this reason, while the agents take him to the police station of the airport to carry out the procedures for his arrest, Puigdemont is convinced that it is a mistake. Then he facilitates the police with the contact of his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye.
The Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena He will not have knowledge of the arrest of the independence leader until half an hour later. Officials from the Italian border police have acted on their own initiative, after an alert informed them that a passenger was traveling on the flight from Brussels, bearing a European Arrest Warrant (OED) issued on October 14, 2019 .
22:40 The news breaks out
The news comes at 10:40 p.m. on Thursday, when EL ESPAÑOL exclusively reports that Carles Puigdemont has been arrested at the Sardinia airport.
Minutes later, at 11:19 p.m., Puigdemont’s lawyer confirms the news on his Twitter profile: “President Puigdemont has been arrested upon his arrival in Sardinia where he was attending as a MEP; this arrest is based on the euro order of October 14 October 2019 which, by legal imperative – according to the Statute of the CJEU, is suspended “.
While the fugitive is taken to the Sassari prison, political reactions take place in Spain. The leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, trusts that Puigdemont will be tried in Spain and demands that Pedro Sanchez that he undertakes to “respect the judgment of Justice without pardons in exchange for remaining in power.”
From United We Can, Jaume Asens describes as “illegal” the arrest of the leader of the 1-O coup. Meanwhile, the Government is silent. It will not be until early in the morning when Moncloa issues a brief statement in which it states that the former president “must submit to the action of Justice exactly like any other citizen.”
It is a nervous night for President Sánchez’s team that, after speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, has returned to the island of La Palma to accompany Felipe VI and Letizia in his visit to those affected by the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano.
Another volcano has just exploded for the Government on the island of Sardinia, which can blow up the entire political board. The arrest of Puigdemont threatens the continuity of the Dialogue Table with Catalonia, which is essential to carry out the State’s general budgets.
The news widens the gulf between the badly agreed partners that govern the Generalitat. Junts is betting on the rupture to expose ERC, in a drift that would lead to ungovernability in Catalonia and the rest of Spain. Just what Puigdemont wants.
8:00 The mobilization
The news of the arrest of Puigdemont is the trigger that the independence movement needed to lift the spirits of its faithful. After the night of anxiety that Puigdemont has spent in the Sassari prison, the president Pere Aragonès announces at 8:00 that he has suspended his entire schedule scheduled for Friday, in order to meet with his Government Council and keep in touch with the Puigdemont environment.
Pilar Rahola sings Bella Ciao on the Diagonal, after the Mossos prevent a group of protesters from protesting at the headquarters of the Consulted of Italy in Barcelona. A pilgrimage of Catalan independentists to Sardinia is announced, to watch over their leader while he remains in prison.
Almost at the same time, shortly after 1 in the afternoon, Pedro Sánchez and José María Aznar speak, with a very different tone. From the island of La Palma and (once again) in an appearance without questions, the President of the Government maintains his commitment to the Dialogue Table with the Generalitat to overcome the “trauma” that the Catalans suffered in 2017.
Also without anyone asking him, Aznar says at the closing of the FAES Campus: “He is a fugitive from Justice to be tried by the Spanish courts.”
Judge Pablo Llarena has just sent Eurojust (the European agency for criminal judicial cooperation) an official letter in which he recalls that the Euroorder against Puigdemont is still in force: “the judicial procedure from which the euro order derives is active and pending the capture of the defendants in rebellion “.
18:00 Free again
The denouement of the drama is known. Shortly before 4 in the afternoon, the head of Puigdemont’s office in Brussels, Josep Lluís Alay, announced that the Court of Sassali had resolved to release the former president without precautionary measures. May declare by videoconference from Waterloo at the hearing called for October 4, after which the court will decide whether it should be delivered to Spain.
Carles Puigdemont leaves the Sassali prison at 6 in the afternoon. At the door, the president of the Parliament, Laura Borràs, the councilor Victoria Alsina and several dozen independentistas who have traveled to the island await him. Puigdemont appreciates the treatment given to him by the Italian Police and the prison officials.
His surroundings confirm that the former president will remain in Sardinia for the weekend to participate in the Catalan folklore festival, as planned, before returning to the House of the Republic of Waterloo. Another epic page in the history of independence.
Follow the topics that interest you
Reference-www.elespanol.com