There are still more questions than answers arising from the detention of Catalan president Carles Puigdemont on Sunday in Germany while returning by car from Finland, after several days in the Nordic country to which he had been invited by a group of MPs. There will be plenty of time to find out the details of his road trip, which seems to have been unnecessary, given that he could have travelled by other means. There will also be time to analyse in detail what is happening with the extradition orders against the other Catalan politicians because, at the moment, we have little indication of what their fate may be.
It is normal that right now there is a great sense of apprehension in Catalan society - well beyond the independence movement - about what might happen to the president, who, we shouldn't forget, is fixed in the focus of a police, judicial and Spanish media persecution which is unprecedented in Europe. Everything, in addition, is effectively backed up by a false narrative of the events connected with the protests outside the Catalan government's economic ministry last September and also with the independence referendum on October 1st, held in the midst of exceptional violence from the Spanish police, which it is now trying to obscure. It has been the installation of this huge lie in public opinion by the Spanish extreme right, supported by the most disoriented political left on the continent, incapable of opposing a clearly reactionary discourse, which has led to this disgraceful situation. A president of Catalonia detained by police in Germany and an official candidate of the Catalan Parliament to be elected president, Jordi Turull, imprisoned in the middle of the investiture process - along with the jailings of a significant part of the Catalan government, leaders of major pro-independence civil groups, etc.
Although the gravity of these developments is extremely disturbing, we need to have confidence in the justice of the different countries of the European Union, the pronouncements of their political leaders and the position of their public opinion. And that all of this will topple the official lies and will lead to the ruling out of extraditions for non-existent crimes.
The detention of the president must also open a period of reflection on the election of a presidential candidate in the Catalan Parliament resulting from last December’s elections. It does not seem that this should be the priority if the end result has to be compliance with the script desired by the Spanish government.