Puigdemont: Independence not the only solution to Catalonia crisis
Catalonia’s deposed president Carles Puigdemont says he is prepared to accept a new relationship with Spain that does not involve independence.
File photo of Carles Puigdemont. Photo: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP
Puigdemont also said that he is prepared to “accept the reality of another relationship with Spain” and that even as someone who is pro-independence he had worked for many years to build such a relationship, but “the arrival of (former Spanish PM José María) Aznar to power stopped that process”.
“The PP is responsible for this pro-independence resurgence,” he insisted, pointing to 2006 when the party led a legal challenge against a new Catalan Statute of Autonomy which had been approved by Spain’s parliament then ratified by voters in Catalonia in a referendum.
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Despite that, after four years of deliberating, Spain’s Constitutional Court in 2010 declared large parts of the statute unconstitutional or inapplicable. That is seen as a watershed moment in the region’s shift towards a push for independence, and sparked a major protest in Barcelona soon after.
Puigdemont is currently in self-imposed exile in Brussels, awaiting possible extradition to Spain after an EU-wide arrest warrant was issued over charges of rebellion.
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Source:Thelocal.es