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The withdrawal of the parliamentary immunity of MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, accused by the Spanish justice for their involvement in the 2017 secessionist attempt in Catalonia, is confirmed.
The sanctioned it General Court of the European Union, rejecting the request of those directly involved to maintain an immunity already suspended in 2021 by the EU Parliament. The decision could lead Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena to issue a new European arrest warrant demanding the handover of the independence activists to Spain.
Puigdemont announces that he will appeal against a sentence that risks harming the “fundamental rights” of the EU. «Nothing ends, indeed. Everything continues – writes Puigdemont – We will appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union, and we will fully defend our fundamental rights, which are also the fundamental rights of Catalans and Europeans. With the same spirit as on the first day, working to conquer freedom».
From the 2017 referendum to the withdrawal of immunity
The appeal had been filed by Carles Puigdemont, Casamajó and Antoni Comín i Oliveres and Clara Ponsatí Obiols against the European Parliament’s decisions to waive their immunity following allegations of rebellion and embezzlement over Catalonia’s self-proclaimed independence referendum in October 2017. At the time, the Spanish public prosecutor, the Spanish state lawyer and the radical right-wing political party Vox had initiated criminal proceedings against several people, including Puigdemont (at the time president of the Generalitat de Cataluña, political body of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia), Comín and Ponsatí (at the time members of the government of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia).
The three were then elected to the EU Parliament in the 2019 elections, but the Spanish authorities asked for their seat to be suspended for failing to take an oath on the Spanish constitution. The EU Parliament agreed with Madrid, arguing that it could not consider them its members “in the absence of official communication of their election by the Spanish authorities”. Hence Puigdemont’s appeal, now officially rejected in a verdict that reopens the way for a criminal investigation into the Catalan leader.