Catalan President Puigdemont visits Finnish Parliament

Exiled Catalan President Carles Puigdemont has arrived to Helsinki today and will stay in Finland until Saturday. He has been invited by MP Mikko Kärnä and other members of the Friends of Catalonia Intergroup in the Finnish Parliament. He will meet with MPs from various parties and give a talk on the current political situation this afternoon. Tomorrow Friday he will give a conference at the University of Helsinki.

Kärnä has called Puigdemont a “champion of the defence of freedom, democracy, and human rights in Europe” and considers that his visit is an excellent opportunity to learn about the latest events in Catalonia. Kärnä has been very critical against the repressive actions of the Spanish state: “It’s a disgrace that there’s a country in the European Union, like Spain, where you can be incarcerated for your political ideas, burning the picture of the king or similar things”.

Puigdemont comes from a 4 days stay in Geneva, where he has taken part in a debate on human rights and other events at the United Nations offices.

No extradition

Since moving to Brussels last October, Carles Puigdemont has crossed the border three times. In January he travelled to Copenhagen for two days, amid concerns of a possible arrest by the Danish police in the event Spain reissued a European arrest warrant. In the end, he was not arrested despite the Spanish prosecution’s attempt.

As the Catalan leader headed to Geneva, the Spanish prosecution called upon Rajoy’s government to work in conjunction with Interpol and the Swiss authorities in order to detain him. However, a spokesman for the Swiss justice system stated last week that so far “there is “no legal basis” for his arrest. The prosecutor has also asked Spain’s Supreme Court, which is in charge of the case against independence leaders, to“restrict the validity” of his passport. No other Spanish authority has made any further move.