Catalan president Carles Puigdemont considers that the decision by Spanish justice to withdraw the European arrest warrants against him and the Catalan government ministers with him in Brussels demonstrates the arbitrariness of the persecution that he and his executive are subjected to - and moreover, that this has now been clearly exposed to the world. "It is obvious that the Spanish state has withdrawn this arrest order because it was afraid", he asserted.
Puigdemont spoke while appearing in a press conference from the Hotel President Park in Brussels, accompanied by the four ministers Clara Ponsatí, Meritxell Serret, Antoni Comín and Lluís Puig, to comment on the Spanish Supreme Court's decision to withdraw the warrant.
Disgraceful and unacceptable
The president said that it was "dangerous and irresponsible" to first set in motion and then cancel a mechanism of this magnitude, and he attributed the change of mind to the European warrant conditions which include a prohibition on the pursuit of political offences. This reveals, in his opinion, "that what we have before us is a political persecution which is being carried out under political criteria", and as a result, the Spanish state has not dared to follow it through to the end. "It is disgraceful and unacceptable in terms of European good practices", he argued.
Given this situation, he demanded an explanation from the Spanish state of why it has been decided to maintain the ruling of preventive prison without bail for the Catalan vice president, Oriol Junqueras, the interior minister Joaquim Forn and the leaders of the pro-independence civil organisations, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart.
The right strategy
This decision demonstrates, according to the president, that it is a "useful and appropriate" strategy "to put an international spotlight on everything that is happening in the Spanish state". "Thirty days after having presented the European arrest warrant, the Spanish state has become afraid that the eyes of the world are on this issue, and they will start by cancelling the arrest warrant and end by cancelling article 155 and the repression", he predicted.
"When they make laws, and when they administer justice, they are very brave, they are willing to take on everything and everybody, but when they can't control the whole chain, without friendly judges or prosecutors who sing their tune, when they have half the world looking on, in fact the eyes of the whole world focused on them, then they aren't so brave. And they know they could end up looking ridiculous", he said.
#president @KRLS: "Quan les lleis les fan ells i, quan la justícia l’administren ells, són molt valents. Però quan ja no poden controlar tota la cadena, ni tenen jutges amics, ni fiscals que afinen i mig món mirant-los, aleshores, ja no són tan valents"#JuntsXCat pic.twitter.com/ujAVNLLq0P
— Together for Catalonia (@JuntsXCat) 6 of diciembre of 2017
Guarantees before returning
The president assured that he and the other members of the Catalan government in Brussels have “the intention and the desire to return” but he pointed out that whether this is actually possible is quite another matter. On this point, he once again demanded an answer to the question of whether the state will respect the mandate of the Catalan elections in the event that voters return the same government that article 155 interrupted. “We need to know the answer to that before deciding to return”, he stated.