Puigdemont is not president thanks to Spanish government, says Rajoy

The Spanish president Mariano Rajoy has bragged about having prevented Carles Puigdemont, the deposed president of Catalonia, from reclaiming the office: ‘Thanks to the Spanish executive, a person prosecuted by the judiciary is not presiding over the Catalan government’.

In a speech at the national convention of Spain’s ruling People’s Party (PP) on Sunday, Rajoy said that his government ‘undertook the responsitibily of hampering the illegal investiture of Puigdemont despite all the criticism and the lack of understanding’.

Puigdemont and all his ministers were dismissed by Rajoy following a declaration of indepedence last October. Running from Belgium to avoid legal prosecution in Spain, Puigdemont became the most voted pro-independence candidate n a subsequent election. Yet, Spanish courts blocked his bid to reclaim the office from abroad last January.

Puigdemont free in Germany

‘Judicial decisions must be respected and accepted, both when we like them as well as when we don’t’ said Rajoy. ‘It has become clear that law rules over any president, any party, and any goal’.

Rajoy’s words come only a few days after the German judiciary released Puigdemont on bail. The pro-independence leader was detained following an European Arrest Warrant, when he was returning to Belgium from a trip to Finland.

In a hard blow to Spain’s judiciary, a regional court in Schleswig-Holstein rejected charges of rebellion and allowed Puigdemont to walk free while deciding on his extradition to Spain.

Schengen put into question

The decision sparked criticism by PP officials. Esteban González Pons, the vice chair of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, said that the free movement of people does not make sense if extradition mechanisms don’t work.

‘In order for Schengen to make sense, the European Arrest Warrants should make sense’ he said at PP’s national convention. ‘If someone tries to do a coup d’état and he is not returned to the country, lifting border controls up could become a bad decision’.

Puigdemont’s detention and subsequent release put him on the spot again, with major voices within the pro-independence movement asking for his appointment.

Yet, the main pro-independence parties, as well as Puigdemont himself, are currently backing Jordi Sànchez as the presidential candidate. Sànchez, an activist jailed in Madrid since mid-October, was Puigdemont’s number two in the last election.