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Catalan parliament speaker latest separatist to step down

Catalonia's parliamentary speaker said on Thursday that she would step down as she is investigated for sedition and rebellion over her role in the independence drive, the latest separatist leader to leave their post.

Published: 11 January 2018 15:38 CET
Catalan parliament speaker latest separatist to step down
Carme Forcadell presiding over a parliamentary session in September.Photo: AFP

Speaking to reporters in Barcelona, staunchly pro-independence Carme Forcadell said she would not stay in the post despite having been offered to do so after regional elections on December 21st that saw separatist parties retain their absolute parliamentary majority.

“I think this new political moment requires a new person who is, above all else, free of legal proceedings,” she said.   

Forcadell was a key figure among Catalan leaders who attempted to break away from Spain, a process that culminated with the regional parliament declaring unilateral independence on October 27th.   

But this was short-lived as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy imposed direct rule on the semi-autonomous region, sacked its government, dissolved its parliament and called snap elections.

Forcadell's decision to step down as parliamentary speaker — she will continue on as lawmaker — comes just two days after one of the main candidates to replace her announced he was leaving politics.

Carles Mundo, the former regional justice minister, is also being probed for sedition and rebellion, which could fetch up to 30 years in jail.   

That same day, Artur Mas, who as Catalan president from 2010 to 2016 was the instigator of the independence drive, announced he was stepping down as president of his PDeCAT party.


Artur Mas announced his resignation as president of the PdeCat party. Photo: AFP

He said he had taken the decision to make way for new people and to face the judicial cases against him.

Separatist parties have an absolute majority of 70 seats out of 135, but eight of their elected officials are either in self-imposed exile in Belgium or in jail in Spain.   

They want to elect Carles Puigdemont as president again, but in theory he would need to be present at the official parliamentary session where the vote takes place.

He is in Belgium, however, and will be arrested if he comes back to Spain on charges of rebellion and sedition.   

Separatist parties insist he be allowed to appear by videolink or write a speech and have someone else read it in the session, but the opposition insists that is illegal.

Ultimately, the parliamentary speaker and his or her deputies have the power to decide.

POLITICS

First pardons granted under Spain’s amnesty for Catalan separatists

A politician and police officer on Tuesday became the first people to benefit from Spain's divisive amnesty law for Catalan separatists involved in a botched 2017 secession bid.

Published: 26 June 2024 07:58 CEST
First pardons granted under Spain's amnesty for Catalan separatists

The amnesty law – approved last month – is expected to affect around 400 people facing trial or already convicted over their roles in the wealthy northeastern region’s failed independence push, which triggered Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez agreed to grant the amnesty in exchange for the key support of Catalan separatist parties in parliament to secure a new term in office following an inconclusive general election last July.

READ ALSO: Spain’s contested Catalan amnesty bill comes into force

The separatist parties have threatened to withdraw their support for Sánchez’s minority government unless the amnesty is applied.

Catalonia’s High Court said it had decided to “declare the extinction of criminal responsibility” for former Catalan regional interior minister Miquel Buch, as well as to Lluís Escolà, an officer in Catalonia’s regional police force, since the crimes they were convicted of “have been amnestied”.

Buch was sentenced last year to four and a half years in jail for embezzlement and misappropriation for hiring Escolà in 2018 and paying him out of public coffers to act as a bodyguard for the former head of the regional Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, while he was in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Escolà was handed a four-year prison sentence for working as Puigdemont’s bodyguard.

Puigdemont fled Spain to avoid arrest shortly after his government led Catalonia’s failed secession push, which involved an independence referendum that was banned by the courts followed by a short-lived declaration of independence.

Spain’s conservative opposition has staged massive street protests against the amnesty law, which judges must decide to apply on a case-by-case basis.

Puigdemont had said he hopes to return to Spain but there is still a warrant for his arrest and a Spanish court continues to investigate him for the alleged crimes of embezzlement and disobedience related to the secession bid.

He also remains under investigation for alleged terrorism over protests in 2019 against the jailing of several referendum leaders that sometimes turned violent.

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