Carles Puigdemont in Brussels: ¡°We all know we can end up in jail¡±

A team from Catalunya R¨¤dio, a regional publicly funded radio network, traveled to Brussels on Tuesday to interview former premier Carles Puigdemont and the four ex-ministers who fled with him to Belgium last week to avoid legal action in Spain over their independence drive.

The interview is part of a new communications campaign launched by Catalan separatists to attract international support for their cause. ¡°This is no longer a Spanish problem, this is an issue that interests media outlets from all over the world,¡± said Puigdemont.

On Monday, The Guardian ran an opinion column by Puigdemont denouncing ¡°the mass imprisonment and criminalization of candidates¡± for the regional election scheduled for December 21. The election was called by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after his government invoked emergency powers in the wake of Catalan secessionists¡¯ unconstitutional independence declaration of October 27.

The Constitutional Court is ultra-partisan, it has a single vision and it imposes it

Carles Puigdemont

The former premier said that he went to Brussels to ¡°unmask the Spanish state.¡± Puigdemont and his aides failed to appear before a Spanish judge for questioning last week. They are wanted on charges including rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds in connection with their secession push. The Audiencia Nacional, Spain¡¯s High Court, issued a European arrest warrant for them, and all five turned themselves in to Belgian authorities on Sunday. They are due to appear in a Brussels court on November 17, and could be ultimately sent back to Spain, although Puigdemont¡¯s Belgian lawyer has pledged to appeal such a move.

¡°We all know we could end up in jail if extradition is granted,¡± said Puigdemont. His former deputy Oriol Junqueras and eight other former cabinet members who showed up at the High Court last week are being held in pre-trial custody inside Madrid penitentiaries.

Speaking on the radio, the ousted premier denied that secessionists violated the Spanish Constitution with their self-made breakaway laws and October 1 referendum, and said that he and his colleagues are being persecuted for their ideas.

It is false that we have ignored the Constitution

Carles Puigdemont

¡°It is false that we have ignored the Constitution... because there are international treaties that contemplate the right to self-determination, and constitutions are favorable to interpretation under international law,¡± he said, alluding to the United Nations resolution 50/6, which only acknowledges this right for people ¡°under colonial or other forms of alien domination or foreign occupation.¡±

Puigdemont described his own ousted Catalan government as perfectly legitimized to do what it has done. ¡°On September 26, 2015, in a historic vote, Catalans elected the most legitimate parliament in history [¡­] and that is why we are the legitimate government of Catalonia.¡±

At that election, the separatist Junts pel S¨ª coalition won 62 seats in the 135-seat assembly, short of a majority. Forced to seek alliances for legislative support, it turned to the small far-left CUP party, which is a strong advocate of immediate secession from Spain and anti-capitalist economic policies. Together these groups represent 48% of the votes that were cast on election day.

On Tuesday, Puigdemont also said that Spain¡¯s Constitutional Court is ¡°ultrapartisan, it has a single vision and it imposes it.¡± This court recently struck down the Catalan breakaway laws and the October 1 referendum. Earlier, it had also outlawed a non-binding referendum held in November 2014. And before that, in 2010, the court ruled that parts of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy ¨C the regional charter of rights ¨C were unconstitutional, a move that triggered widespread protests in Catalonia at the time.

English version by Susana Urra.