The Catalan separatists agree to support Puigdemont as president

USPA NEWS - When only one week is left for the constitution of the regional Parliament of Catalonia emerged from the elections held on December 21, 2017, the independence parties intensify their contacts in search of the majority who did not give them the ballot boxes to form a government and achieve the goal of the independence. With their main leaders in jail or fled abroad, they are made to find the formula that allows investing a pro-independence president and control the regional Parliament.

On Tuesday night, in Brussels, the former escaped Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, and the number 2 of the left-wing Republican formation ERC, Marta Rovira, met at a work dinner to bring positions closer. And they approached them, failing to confirm that all the steps taken are legal to avoid the answers of the Constitutional Court and the Spanish Government. From that dinner came the commitment of ERC to support the investiture of Puigdemont as president. Puigdemont confirmed that he will not return to Spain because he would be arrested and sent to prison. To avoid this, he intends to deliver his speech via Skype and vote electronically or through an authorized representative.

In any case, it is an unpublished and irregular situation in accordance with current Catalan and Spanish laws. What was ruled out in Brussels was the boycott of the constituent session of the Catalan Parliament, which will be held next Wednesday, January 17. The term to invest president will end on October 31, just one year after the former president's flight to Brussels. For the independence plan to work, it is necessary to control the Parliament, something that the Constitutionalist parties are fighting against. Among them, the centrist Citizens, who won the elections on December 21 and will not attempt the investiture of his candidate, Inés Arrimadas, to be aware that they do not have the necessary support.

Citizens wants to preside over the Catalan Parliament to be a wall of contention for the pro-independence proposals. The Spanish electoral laws are defective and give rise to situations such as the one created in Catalonia, where Citizens was the most voted political party, garnered the largest number of votes and, however, has no majority in Parliament to try to form a government. This party, which plans to steal voters from the conservative Popular Party that supports the Government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, has become the strongest option for opponents of the independence of Catalonia. But that condition has provoked the reaction of the pro-independence parties, which want to avoid the loss of the Parliament and intend to use it to give a sense of legality to their secessionist project.