The brief detention in Sardinia of Carles Puigdemont, independence leader and former president of Catalonia, risked influencing the climate of dialogue that the president of the Spanish government Pedro Sánchez and that of Catalan autonomy Pere Aragonès (from the party of Esquerra Republicana, Erc, left separatists) are trying to carry on. The current autonomous government is made up of “ministers” (consellers) of ERC and Junts, a center-right independence party, led by Carles Puigdemont from exile in Brussels.
The arrest of 23 September in Alghero (a city that has preserved the Catalan language since the Middle Ages), where Puigdemont had come to participate in a festival of popular culture, occurred a few days after the official meeting of the “dialogue table” between the Spanish and Catalan governments. At the center of the negotiations is the historic conflict, which culminated, in October 2017, in a declaration of independence, which, despite having no concrete effect, resulted in arrests and convictions for independence leaders, such as the leader of Erc Oriol Junqueras. Others, including Puigdemont and Junqueras’ deputy Marta Rovira, have chosen exile. These days are the fourth anniversary of the unilateral referendum of 1 October, repressed with the toughest positions of the police, ordered by the government of Mariano Rajoy.
It should be remembered that Puigdemont was subsequently elected MEP, but his parliamentary immunity was removed from him by the EU general court on July 30, on the grounds that the arrest warrant against him could not be executed. The state advocacy then communicated to the community justice that the various arrest warrants were suspended. Judge Pablo Llarena, the person responsible for Puigdemont’s extradition, has suffered a full-blown defeat and it is clear that his strategy leads nowhere.
Last Monday Puigdemont appeared before the Sassari judge, who suspended his extradition, pending the decision of the European courts on immunity. The independence leader, free without precautionary measures, said he was “very satisfied” and criticized Spanish justice. Aragonès has landed in Sardinia to show his support for Puigdemont. At the same time, the Catalan president tried to save the dialogue with Sanchez, in a climate of détente between Madrid and Barcelona inaugurated with the granting of an indult to the independence leaders. Esquerra thus attempts a difficult balance: to support Junts’ government allies, without breaking ties with the PSOE. For its part, the Spanish government said it had nothing to do with Puigdemont’s arrest. In the same vein as the Italian prime minister Mario Draghi, Sánchez insisted on reiterating that the arrest of Alghero is the result of an initiative by the judiciary. In Barcelona there were demonstrations in front of the Italian consulate.
In their last meeting, Sánchez and Aragones reiterated their bet for dialogue, as a solution to the Catalan conflict. However, no Junts executive took part in the meeting, after a clash with Aragonès: the president asked for the participation only of the members of his government and not of the former prisoners, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Turull, Junts managers. Thus, the negotiation remains in the hands of Esquerra’s pragmatism, while their allies (who have not abandoned the unilateral path) repeat that the Spanish government has no credibility. If Puigdemont had been extradited to Spain, the path of dialogue would have ended or at least frozen, given the irresistible pressure that Esquerra would have suffered from Junts and much of the independence world.
In the Spanish parliament, Esquerra is decisive for the majority that supports the coalition government, formed by the PSOE and Podemos. It is assumed that Junqueras’ party will approve the 2022 budget, even if the winds of Sardinia are a variable that can affect the stability of the Sánchez presidency. Despite the pandemic, Catalonia remains the center of gravity of Spanish governability.
This analysis was published in the Metternich newsletter, edited by Alberto Simoni, foreign editor of La Stampa. In order to receive it every Wednesday you can subscribe to our newsletter section