BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Parliament on Tuesday withdrew the immunity of the former president of the region of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, and two of his associates, a measure that could pave the way for his extradition and reopen the scars of the separatism in Spain.
The Spanish government immediately welcomed the decision of the legislature of the European Union as a victory of the rule of law and against those who tried to break the rich northeastern region of the rest of Spain.
The decision will likely also extend the 3-and-a-half-year legal saga over the fate of the three separatists in months, if not years, as many avenues of appeal remain open before possible extraditions.
In the decision on Puigdemont, 400 lawmakers voted for the waiver of immunity, 248 were against and 45 abstained. The measures to lift the immunity of its members – the former Minister of Health of Catalonia, Toni Comín and the former Minister of Regional Education, Clara Ponsatí – had very similar margins.
“We have lost our immunity, but the European Parliament has lost much more. And, consequently, so has European democracy,” Puigdemont said later. “This is a clear case of political persecution.”
He said that “the European Parliament has unfortunately fallen into this strategy.”
Puigdemont and some of his fellow separatists fled to Belgium in October 2017, for fear of being arrested after holding an independence referendum for Catalonia that Spanish courts and government said was illegal.
In 2019, Puigdemont and his two associates won seats in the European Parliament and received protection as members of the EU assembly.
Ponsatí said the three will appeal the assembly’s decision to the EU’s higher courts in Luxembourg.
“We are very convinced that we have very strong reasons for this appeal,” he said, adding that the management of the measure by the legislature was “clumsy, careless and without due process.”
“Conflicts of interest that interfere with the process were outrageous,” he said.
Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said the assembly’s decision showed that Puigdemont and his two aides could not hide behind their legislative seats to avoid appearing in court. In a video statement, González Laya also said that the decision meant that “Catalonia’s problems are solved in Spain, not solved in Europe”.
Dolors Montserrat, a European parliamentarian from the European center-right party and a former member of the cabinet of the Spanish administration that dismissed Puigdemont, told the Spanish station TVE: “Spain wins, Europe wins, democracy wins”. He added that the decision certified that Puigdemont is “a fugitive who must answer before the Spanish courts.”
Iratxe Garcia Pérez, leader of the socialist group S&D, said that “the European Parliament does not judge anyone. We simply guarantee that justice will do its job. A clear majority, the absolute majority of the parliament, supported the fact that the Spanish judiciary should be able to do its job. “
Despite the wide margin to lift the immunity of the three legislators, Comín said the vote showed both sides of the debate, noting that many European legislators “are telling the minister not to trust the Spanish judiciary.”
The 2017 pro-independence vote in favor of Catalonia moving away from Spain was a landslide, but supporters of Spanish unity rejected the vote. The central government of Madrid declared the vote illegal and unconstitutional. Hundreds of people in Catalonia were injured in a police crackdown on election day.
Spain has tried to get Puigdemont back on trial, but has failed to persuade the Belgian judicial authorities to extradite him. However, Spain could begin new efforts to extradite him.
Since 2017, the official elections have repeatedly shown that Catalan voters are equally divided on the issue of secession. In last month’s regional elections, the Socialist Party’s Catalonia arm, which leads the ruling coalition at the national level, won a narrow victory, although the separatist parties extended their majority in the assembly in the north-eastern region. .
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Parra reported from Madrid.