The head of the ministry, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, said the kingdom’s government expects to find a solution to the Catalan problem through dialogue and negotiations
The decision of the European Parliament (EP) to remove the parliamentary immunity of the former head of government of Catalonia, Carles Pujdemont, shows that the problems of Catalonia must be resolved in Spain. This was stated on Tuesday by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom, Arancha Gonzalez Laya.
She said “the EP decided to strip Puchdemón of his parliamentary immunity” so that he could “face Spanish justice”. “This decision sent a triple message,” the minister said. One of them, according to the minister, is that “the problems in Catalonia are resolved in Spain, they are not resolved in Europe”.
In addition, according to the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the message of the EP is that the MEP can not use his position to avoid the court “for possible violations of national law”. The minister also said that the European Parliament had sent a message about “the firmness of the rule of law in Spain”. At the same time, González Laya added that the kingdom’s government expects to find a solution to the Catalan problem through dialogue and negotiation.
It emerged on Tuesday that the EP had stripped Puchdemont and two other Catalan politicians, Toni Comina and Clara Ponsati, of their parliamentary immunity. They will all retain their seats in the European Parliament after being stripped of their immunity, but a Belgian court will be able to reopen the extradition cases of the region’s former leader to Spain.
Pujdemont led the government of Catalonia at the time of what the Spanish authorities said was an illegal 2017 independence referendum there. He fled to Belgium shortly afterwards. Puchdemont was able to win a seat in the 2019 European Parliament elections, with authorities in the Iberian kingdom asking the EP to suspend his parliamentary immunity. A warrant for Pujdemont’s arrest is in force in Spain. Spanish judicial authorities are seeking Puchdemont’s extradition on charges of sedition and embezzlement.