Read in Catalan

After Wednesday's rejection by the European General Court Union (EGC) of the appeals by Catalan MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, there were all kinds of positions were taken and evaluations made, but there was one criticism that made a particularly strong impact. In a joint press conference held by the three MEPs and their lawyer Gonzalo Boye, Ponsatí publicly attacked the strategy pursued by the Catalan independence movement in exile. In an interview with radio station RAC1 this Thursday, Puigdemont acknowledged that he did not know what his colleague was going to say and he did not hide his displeasure with her words: "She was wrong, nobody is perfect." 

"I don't agree with the tone, the form she used, the background or the moment," explained Puigdemont, who has backed a strategy of confrontation from exile. "Not only have we not shied away from that, but we have directly confronted. She is an MEP because of this confrontation," he recalled.

"Independence needs empathy," added Puigdemont. "Yesterday was a tough and difficult day. She will go onto the list [for the 2024 European elections] if she wants to continue with the central current of the independence movement, if someone wants to go to the margins, she won't that."

This followed Ponsatí's harsh criticism of the exile strategy in yesterday's press conference. "Enough of kicking the can. Enough of feeding illusions that will not materialize. Until we start speaking clearly and stop promising people that with judicial tactics we will achieve freedom, we won't have the time, nor the space, nor the ideas, nor the energy to dedicate ourselves to the only task that history demands of us, which is to liberate our homeland from the Spanish powers", she said.

A hard day, but prepared

Puigdemont acknowledged that yesterday's European General Court rejection was a tough blow, despite having foreseen this scenario. "We thought that this time the TGUE, where we have always gone ready to lose, would recognize our arguments." In particular, he was surprised that the court did not consider the partiality of the positions of members of the judicial process such as Adrián Vázquez, MEP of Ciudadanos and president of the European chamber's legal affairs committee.

"It is quite surprising that Vázquez, in the same utterance, says that he is the one who most guarantees neutrality at the same time as he is referring to us as clowns and pariahs", Puigdemont pointed out regarding Vázquez's comments praising the General Court decision, and he added: "It surprised us that this was not considered by the court as a lack of impartiality." Despite all of this, Puigdemont restated what he already mentioned yesterday: that they are appealing against this decision to the higher court, the European Court of Justice. "The sentence has some spaces in which an appeal narrative can be built," he said.