SALVADOR Illa, the Catalan president and key Socialist ally of Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez, will meet with Carles Puigdemont, the exiled separatist leader and fugitive from Spanish justice, in Belgium on Tuesday.
Junts per Catalunya, the conservative, pro-independence party of which Puigdemont is president, have been calling on Illa to meet with the former Catalan leader ever since his inauguration last summer.
Illa has already met with a range of former Catalan presidents since taking office, including Pere Aragones, Artur Mas and even Jordi Pujol, the former regional leader for over two decades recently indicted by Spain’s National Court in connection with alleged money laundering and tax fraud.
But Illa has repeatedly snubbed meeting Puigdemont – with the former national health minister still aggrieved at the exiled leader’s infamous return to Barcelona last summer which overshadowed Illa’s investiture as Catalan president.
“I said I would meet with President Puigdemont when it was time, and now it’s time,” Illa told Catalan radio this morning.
“I’m doing it to send a message: that dialogue is the engine of democracy.”
A key ally of Puigdemont, Junts per Catalunya secretary-general Jordi Turull, blasted the move as ‘coming too late’, but added: “Out of institutional respect, it will take place.”
Tuesday’s gathering will take place behind closed doors at the Catalan government’s delegation in Brussels, rather than at Puigdemont’s current residence in Waterloo, with government officials eager to give the meeting a formal, institutional image.
The meeting will go ahead without a fixed agenda, although the pair are likely to discuss a range of topics including the controversial amnesty law, the Catalan language’s status in the European Union, tax arrangements and immigration.
Attention could also turn to affairs in Madrid, with embattled prime minister Pedro Sanchez reliant on Junts’ support in Congress to command the majority required to pass a budget.
After an inconclusive national election in July 2023, Sanchez turned to Puigdemont’s separatists to source the votes needed to become prime minister.
As part of the deal, Sanchez agreed to approve an amnesty law designed to quash criminal charges against those involved in the independence push in 2017, known as the procés.
As regional president, Puigdemont followed a ‘road-map’ for independence kickstarted by his predecessors.
On September 7, 2017, despite the steadfast opposition of the conservative Partido Popular (PP) Madrid government led by Mariano Rajoy, he approved laws permitting an independence referendum.
On October 1, the referendum took place with 92% of voters opting for independence, albeit with a turnout of under 50%.
The referendum hit headlines across the world after videos and pictures spread of the Policia Nacional and Guardia Civil violently shutting down polling stations and removing voters.
Across Catalunya, over 1,000 civilians were injured in the violence.
The Constitutional Court declared the referendum to be a breach of the Spanish Constitution, and therefore illegal.
On October 27, after much deliberation, the Catalan parliament, known as the Generalitat, voted to unilaterally declare independence, prompting the most significant political crisis in Spain since the Franco dictatorship.
The Rajoy-led government immediately dismissed Puigdemont and his allies, and imposed direct rule on the region before calling new elections.
Criminal charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds were brought against Puigdemont and other members of his government, prompting him to infamously flee Spain in the boot of a car.
Ever since, Puigdemont has lived in exile in Belgium.
The current Junts per Catalunya leader was expected to become the most high-profile beneficiary of the amnesty pact, which was fiercely criticised by the PP and far-right Vox, but a court ruling last year judged that the amnesty did not apply to the charge of embezzlement of public funds.
As such, an arrest warrant against him remains active.
Illa has been pushing for the amnesty law to include Puigdemont and others as part of a process of ‘democratic normalisation’, insisting that the pact is ‘constitutional’.
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