Catalonia: the arrest of Puigdemont threatens to undermine the fragile talks between Spain and regional leaders

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont will appear next week in a court in Italy after his arrest on a visit to the island of Sardinia threatened to undermine the fragile efforts by Spain and Catalonia to resolve a deep political crisis.

The 58-year-old MEP was detained on Thursday as he stepped off a plane at Alguero airport in Sardinia and was released on bail the next day by an Italian judge, to reappear in court on October 4.

The Catalan leader, who lives in self-imposed exile in Belgium but was visiting Italy for a Catalan folk meeting, could face extradition in Spain over his alleged involvement in the unilateral independence referendum and the subsequent declaration of independence in October 2017.

He is accused of sedition and misuse of public funds, for which Spain’s Supreme Court issued a European and international arrest warrant almost two years ago.

The arrest of Mr Puigdemont came just days before October 1 when Catalan separatists plan to mark the fourth anniversary of an independence declaration which triggered Spain’s worst political crisis since a failed military coup in 1981.

After his quick release from custody on bail, Mr Puigdemont quickly claimed a propaganda victory over the Spanish state.

"We will continue fighting. We will never give up and I will continue travelling around Europe," he told reporters at the weekend.

“I am happy with the final result. Because our political and legal arguments have been proven. I will be back for the hearing on October 4 and, if the Italian justice will decide for my freedom, I’ll go back home to Belgium,” he said.

Gonzalo Boye, a lawyer for the Catalan leader, said the arrest was made on the basis of a warrant issued in October 2019 that had since been suspended.

In March, the European Parliament rescinded immunity for Mr Puigdemont and two other pro-independence MEPs, a decision that was upheld in July by the EU’s General Court.

The exiled separatists have appealed against this decision and a final ruling by the EU court has yet to be made.

Spain’s Justice Ministry conceded that the detention of Mr Puigdemont could only happen after the decision of the European court.

Four years on from the heady images of Mr Puigdemont declaring the birth of Europe’s newest state, the wealthy northeastern region seems a very different place.

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On the streets of Barcelona, there are far fewer independence esteladas, the red and yellow striped flags with a blue triangle and a white star. The yellow ribbon symbols daubed everywhere for the nine jailed Catalan prisoners, who have since been pardoned, are fading.

Like everywhere else, an economy like Catalonia’s, in which tourism is an important player, has been battered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many restaurants or bars are closed for good.

Support for independence among young Catalans, who bore the brunt of clashes with police during the 2017 referendum, has fallen from 60 per cent in 2014 to 39 per cent, according to a poll for the Catalan government in June.

The two separatist parties behind the independence ‘procés‘ are engaged in open political warfare.

Catalan Republican Left (ERC), the moderate, left-wing party which leads the regional government, restarted talks earlier this month with the Socialist Spanish government, excluding Mr Puigdemont’s more hardline party, Together for Catalonia (JxCat) from the negotiating table.

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Yet Mr Puigdemont remains a personality whose journey from mayor of Girona, a small city near the French border, to international symbol of the separatist struggle, can galvanise some in the movement.

Pere Aragonés, the new moderate Catalan regional president, travelled to Sardinia to see Mr Puigdemont on Saturday as a show of unity.

“The repression of the state continues. The only solution is an amnesty,” said Mr Aragonés, referring to Catalan separatists who have been jailed for taking part in the 2017 independence push or still face charges.

Despite these words, the present leader of Catalonia has a radically different vision of how to deliver independence than Mr Puigdemont who still favours direct confrontation with Spain.

Instead, Mr Aragonés has said he backs the “Scottish route” to independence, through a referendum agreed with Spain.

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It seems many Catalans agree. A poll on Sunday for La Vanguardia, a Barcelona-based paper, found support for ERC had risen from the current 33 seats to a possible 40, while JxCat saw its share of the vote drop to 27 from 32. The Socialists remained constant on 33 seats in the 135-seat parliament.

“The fundamental point is whether Puigdemont is extradited to Spain. I do not think it is likely to happen while he is appealing against a decision by the European Court of Justice which ruled he does not enjoy immunity from prosecution. It may turn out to be a storm in a teacup,” Pablo Simón, a political analyst at the University Carlos III in Madrid, told The Independent.

“At the moment all sides in the independence camp are paying symbolic support to Puigdemont even though in reality they are involved in open warfare.

Mr Simón added: “However, if he were extradited to Spain it would be hugely symbolic for all parties in Catalonia. It would raise the (political) costs of ongoing talks for the Socialist governments and ERC who have come under criticism from JxCat for supporting the talks.

“Beyond Puigdemont, support for independence is at its lowest point for five or six years, standing at about 43-45 per cent. There is a general tiredness with the procés."

Catalonia is split on the issue of independence, with a recent poll for La Razon newspaper which found 49.4 per cent did not want to break away from Spain, while 45.7 per cent were in favour.

Lluis Orriols, a doctor of political science at the University of Oxford, said there was a distinction between the legal process and the political reality in Catalonia.

“Whatever happens with the legal process, it is separate from the political situation. Spain appears to have made a mess of the legal situation with regard to the independence procés,” he said.

“However, there is no doubt that Spain remains strong in Europe and the arrest of Puigdemont has not reinforced the position of the independence movement across Europe.”