Armando G. Tejeda

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 10, 2024, p. 24

Madrid. The former president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, last night published his first message on social media from Belgium after starring, with his surprise appearance at a rally in Barcelona and then his escape, in the parliamentary debate on the investiture of the socialist Salvador Illa as president of the Generalitat, who will govern the region for the next four years.

Puigdemont, who has an arrest warrant against him for the crime of misappropriation of public funds, lashed out at the Catalan government by accusing it of unleashing a witch hunt and to sponsor a wave of repression.

He also demanded to be subject to the amnesty law: I have already said that I have never had the will to surrender voluntarily or to facilitate my arrest because I find it unacceptable that I am being persecuted for political reasons and that, on top of that, the amnesty law is not being applied..

The outgoing government, headed by the pro-independence Pere Aragonés, and the police leadership of the Mossos d’Esquadra described improper the conduct of the nationalist leader the day before yesterday, when he evaded police control and avoided being arrested.

The Catalan authority explained to the public that it tried to follow Puigdemont but, The green traffic lights helped him and it was impossible to keep up with him among the city traffic. Full note in The Day On-line https://bit.ly/3WXS1Y5