“I never want to turn myself in.” Puigdemont accused the Spanish judge of “playing politics”. With Video – Current Affairs

“I never had the intention of handing myself over to a judicial officer who is not qualified to persecute us (…) and is not interested in dispensing justice”, but that “want to be involved in politics”, he explained in a video. The former president (2016-2017) of this rich region in northeastern Spain published in Catalan on the social network.

The separatist leader, who says he has returned to the Belgian city of Waterloo, where he has lived in recent years, highlighted on Thursday that he “wants to enter parliament”. [regional] To attend the inauguration of the head of the Catalan administration and to exercise the “right to speak (…) and vote” as an elected deputy in the last regional elections.

“But it was clear from early morning that the interior department had organized a police device to prevent me from entering parliament,” Puigdemont added, speaking to supporters in a nearby park before disappearing despite the elaborate police device. It was established to protect it.

“In this environment, trying to enter Parliament would mean arrest and I would have little chance to speak in it, which was my intention. It would be tantamount to voluntary surrender, so my arrest would be effected,” he said. was added.

Against this “repression with a complete siege, the objective became to return to my Belgian home at Waterloo”, he continued.

The leader of the separatist party Junts per Catalunya (JxCAT, Together for Catalonia) promised he was aware of the “danger” and the “huge costs of failure”.

“But it is necessary to internationally condemn a Spanish government that does not behave democratically when it allows Supreme Court judges to mock laws approved by its parliament,” he pointed out.

Puigdemont referred to an amnesty law enacted by Spain’s Socialist government of Pedro Sánchez in exchange for its legislative support for separatists involved in an illegal secession referendum in Catalonia on October 1, 2017.

But in early July, a Spanish Supreme Court judge ruled that the amnesty did not apply to the fraud charges against Puigdemont.