Catalan Separatists Seek to Re-elect Puigdemont
10, 2018
The main separatist parties of Catalonia have reached a preliminary agreement to re-elect Carles Puigdemont as leader of the
restive Spanish region, even as he remains in self-imposed exile in Belgium, the Catalan news media reported on Wednesday.
The deal — reached over dinner in Brussels on Tuesday — would allow Mr. Puigdemont to deliver his acceptance speech this month either by videoconference from
Belgium or by having another lawmaker read it in the Catalan Parliament on his behalf, according to the Catalan radio station Rac1 and other outlets.
Mr. Puigdemont’s party unexpectedly won the most seats among the main separatist parties in December,
even though Mr. Puigdemont has not made clear whether he plans to return from Belgium.
In a Catalan election on Dec. 21, the three main separatist parties won 70 of the 135 seats in the
regional Parliament, with 47.5 percent of the vote — almost identical to the result in 2015.
But the separatists will still struggle to form a coalition government, in large part
because eight of their 70 elected lawmakers are either in jail in Madrid or with Mr. Puigdemont in Belgium to avoid prosecution in Spain.
Marta Rovira, a deputy leader of the separatist party Esquerra Republicana, met with Mr. Puigdemont on Tuesday evening.
