The Catalan president-in-exile, Carles Puigdemont, and the Parliament's speaker, Roger Torrent, have been in contact today to try to get things back on track after the controversy that arose yesterday after the announcement that Torrent will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights for interim measures to help reinvest Puigdemont as president. The proposed appeal has not yet been formally submitted to the court.
The announcement of the appeal, which Puigdemont was not aware of, caused certain unrest within Puigdemont's Junts per Catalunya candidacy, because they believe it interferes with his legal strategy, and that it has limited chances of success anyway. Also, last Friday, JxCat had presented a proposition to modify Catalan legislation to formalise the possibility of an investiture without him present in person in the chamber, which was not accepted by the Parliament's Board over an alleged error in form.
In today's contacts between Puigdemont and Torrent, they agreed on the need to do everything possible to coordinate strategies, and to smoothe out differences.
In any case, it's not expected that any significant advance towards an agreement between the two parties will take place until after next week's appearances before the Supreme Court of a number of Catalan politicians involved in the independence process. Summonsed for Monday are Marta Rovira (ERC) and Marta Pascal (PDeCAT), to be followed on Wednesday by former president Artur Mas (PDeCAT) and Neus Lloveras (PDeCAT). ERC have asked to wait until after Rovira, their secretary general, testifies, given that she is their highest-ranking leader currently free.