BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Parliament on Tuesday voted to lift the immunity of the former president of Spain’s Catalonia region, Carles Puigdemont, and two of his associates, a move that could pave the way for their extradition and reopen the scars of separatism in Spain.
The Spanish government immediately welcome the decision by the European Union’s legislature as a victory for the rule of law and against those who sought to break the rich northeastern region away from the rest of Spain.
The decision will likely also extend the 3 1/2-year legal saga on the fate of the three separatists by months, if not years, since many avenues for appeal remain open before any possible extraditions.
In the decision on Puigdemont, 400 legislators voted for the waiver of immunity, 248 were against and 45 abstained.
The measures to lift the immunity of his associates — former Catalan Health Minister Toni Comín and former regional Education Minister Clara Ponsatí — were by largely similar margins.
Puigdemont and a number of his separatist colleagues fled to Belgium in October 2017, fearing arrest after holding an independence referendum for the Catalonia that the Spanish courts and its government said was illegal.
In 2019, Puigdemont and his two associates won seats in the European Parliament and were afforded protection as members of the EU assembly.
Puigdemont’s lawyer in Spain, Gonzalo Boye, announced that the former Catalan president is going to appeal the assembly’s decision to the EU’s higher courts in Luxembourg.
Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said the assembly’s decision showed that Puigdemont and his two aides can’t shield behind their legislative seat to avoid appearing before the national justice. In a video statement, González Laya also said the decision meant that “the problems of Catalonia are solved in Spain, they are not solved in Europe.”
Dolors Montserrat, a European lawmaker with the center-right European People’s Party and a former Cabinet member of the Spanish administration that ousted Puigdemont, told Spanish broadcaster TVE: “Spain wins, Europe wins, democracy wins.” She added the decision certified that Puigdemont is “a fugitive who has to answer before Spanish courts.”
Iratxe Garcia Perez, the leader of the S&D socialist group said “the European Parliament doesn’t judge anybody. We just guarantee that justice does its job. A clear majority, absolute majority of the parliament, supported the fact that Spanish justice should be able to do its job.”
Despite the wide margin to lift the three lawmakers’ immunity, Boye said the assembly’s backing wasn’t as overwhelming as Spain wanted it to be.
“It’s evident that there are people in the conservative group, in the EPP, and among the Socialists that have voted against,” he told Spanish broadcaster TVE.
The 2017 independence vote in favor of Catalonia breaking away from Spain was a landslide but those in favor of Spanish unity spurned the vote. The central government in Madrid declared the vote illegal and unconstitutional. Hundreds of people in Catalonia were injured in a police crackdown on the day of the poll.
Spain has attempted to have Puigdemont returned for trial but failed to convince Belgian justice authorities to extradite him. Spain could well start new efforts now to have him extradited but Puigdemont has vowed to fight on.
