Reports are emerging in the Spanish and Catalan press that the ousted Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is now in Belgium. On Friday, the Catalan parliament declared independence only to see the autonomy suspended by the Spanish Senate within an hour.
He may be alongside other members of his government but at the moment it is unclear who they are. Early in the day, he posted a photo on Instagram from the interior of the Generalitat, the seat of the Catalan government, but the picture was not taken this morning.
What will the Spanish government do? The reports coming out of Madrid say that PM Mariano Rajoy is not too excited by Puigdemont’s trip to Brussels and that are happy that he did reject his destitution.
Earlier, Spain’s General Attorney announced he is pressing charges against Puigdemont and his government for rebellion and sedition. They were asked to provide over 6 million euros to secure their bail.
The speaker of the Catalan parliament, Carme Forcadell has accepted the dissolution of the parliament that was imposed by Madrid. One of the pro-independence parties, the ERC said it will participate in the elections that will be held on December 21st. There were doubts if the elections would be recognized b the parties. Also, Marta Pascal, a member of Puigdemont’s PDEcat party said she will participate in the elections.
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