BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Parliament lifted on Tuesday the immunity of the former president of Spanish Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, and two of his associates, a measure that could pave the way for his extradition and reopen the scars of separatism in Spain .
The Spanish government immediately hailed the European Union’s legislative decision as a victory for the rule of law and against those who sought to separate the rich northeastern region from the rest of Spain.
The decision is also likely to extend the legal saga of three and a half years on the fate of the three separatists for months, if not years, as many remedies remain open before any possible extraditions.
In the Puigdemont decision, 400 lawmakers voted to waive immunity, 248 were against it and 45 abstained. The measures to lift the immunity of his associates – the former Catalan Minister of Health Toni Comín and the former regional Minister of Education Clara Ponsatí – had very similar margins.
“We have lost our immunity, but the European Parliament has lost more than that. And as a result, European democracy too, ”said Puigdemont later. “This is a clear case of political persecution.”
He said that “the European Parliament, unfortunately, fell into that strategy”.
Puigdemont and several of his separatist colleagues fled to Belgium in October 2017, fearing imprisonment after a Catalonia independence referendum that Spanish courts and the government said was illegal.
In 2019, Puigdemont and his two associates won seats in the European Parliament and received protection as members of the EU assembly.
Ponsatí said the three will appeal the assembly’s decision in the EU’s upper courts in Luxembourg.
“We are very convinced that we have very strong grounds for this appeal,” she said, adding that the legislative’s handling of the measure was “clumsy, sloppy and without proper procedure”.
“The conflicts of interest that interfere with the process are outrageous,” she said.
Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said the assembly’s decision shows that Puigdemont and his two advisers cannot hide behind their legislative seats to avoid appearing before the justice system. In a video statement, González Laya also said that the decision means that “Catalonia’s problems are solved in Spain, they are not solved in Europe”.
Dolors Montserrat, European legislator for the center-right European People’s Party and a former member of the Spanish administration’s cabinet who ousted Puigdemont, told Spanish broadcaster TVE: “Spain wins, Europe wins, democracy wins.” She added that the decision certifies that Puigdemont is “a fugitive who must answer before Spanish courts”.
Iratxe Garcia Perez, the leader of the socialist group S&D, said that “the European Parliament does not judge anyone. We just guarantee that justice does its job. A clear majority, an absolute majority of the parliament, supported the fact that Spanish justice must be able to do its job ”.
Despite the broad scope to lift the immunity of the three legislators, Comín said the vote showed two sides to the debate, noting that many European legislators “are telling the minister that they do not trust Spanish justice”.
The 2017 independence vote in favor of Catalonia’s break with Spain was an overwhelming victory, but supporters of Spanish unity rejected the vote. The central government of Madrid declared the vote illegal and unconstitutional. Hundreds of people in Catalonia were injured in a police crackdown on polling day.
Spain tried to get Puigdemont to be returned to trial, but failed to persuade the Belgian judicial authorities to extradite him. Spain may well start new efforts now for him to be extradited.
Since 2017, official elections have repeatedly shown that Catalan voters are equally divided over the issue of secession. In a regional election last month, the Catalan branch of the Socialist Party that leads the governing coalition at the national level won a narrow victory, although the separatist parties increased their majority in the northeastern assembly.
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Parra reported from Madrid.