Catalan separatists agree deal to re-elect Puigdemont
MADRID — Catalonia’s main separatist parties said Wednesday they have agreed to re-elect fugitive Carles Puigdemont as president of the region later this month, although how to make that legally possible is still up in the air.
Puigdemont, who has been in Brussels since he was sacked in October over an attempt to secede from Spain, faces immediate arrest if he returns home. He wants the separatist majority in the new regional parliament to appoint him despite his absence.
The Catalan assembly’s regulations are ambiguous about that possibility, but the anti-independence opposition says that a president can’t govern from afar.
“It’s evident that for governing Catalonia you have to be in Catalonia, you can’t do that via WhatsApp or as a hologram,” said Ines Arrimadas, the leader of the anti-independence Ciutadans (Citizens) party. “A person who is fleeing justice can’t be the president.”