Former Catalan leader candidate for EP elections

By Yusuf Hatip

BRUSSELS (AA) - Ousted Catalan President Carles Puigdemont announced Wednesday he will run in next month’s European Parliament (EP) elections.

Speaking at a news conference in Belgium, where he fled after illegal elections, Puigdemont said he will be the first-row candidate of the Junts per Catalunya party.

Puigdemont also announced the candidate list for the party.

Former regional ministers Clara Ponsati and Toni Comin also participated in the news conference.

Spain dissolved the Catalan parliament after the government there held an illegal referendum on independence in October 2017.

Shortly afterward, then Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy implemented Article 155 of the Constitution, which allows Madrid to intervene in the internal affairs of the country’s autonomous regions.

Puigdemont then fled Spain to Belgium before being briefly held in Germany for 12 days under an EU arrest warrant.

He returned to Brussels after his release, where he has lived in exile.

Six former Catalan politicians also fled Spain, while 12 faced trials in Madrid, which is continuing since Feb. 12.

The prosecutor’s office in Madrid is demanding seven to 25 years in prison for nine detained and three provisional released suspects who were arrested on "the uprising against the state" charge.

"This is a trial in defense of democracy and the constitutional order, of a democratic political system that guarantees the rights and freedoms of all citizens who are part of this country," said Javier Zaragoza, the Supreme Court prosecutor on the second day of the trial.