The deposed Catalan leader will no be returning to Spain for questioning, after Spain’s judiciary issued a European arrest warrant for Puigdemont.
Puigdemont, as well as four other former Catalan ministers have sought refuge in Belgium, his lawyer Paul Bekaert, confirmed on Thursday night. On Monday, Madrid had filed criminal charges against Puigdemont, suggesting that the ousted politicians might request political asylum.
Catalan government sources have confirmed to El Nacional that a elegation of ministers, headed by the president, are in Brussels, “met in a safe and discrete place” with Flemish nationalists. The Spanish government has also confirmed the reports.
The other ministers in the Belgian capital are reported to be Dolors Bassa, Joaquim Forn, Meritxell Borràs, Toni Comín and Meritxell Serret respectively Work and Families, Interior, Governance, Health and Agriculture ministers.
The reports of the ousted Catalan leader meeting with Flemish nationalists and other government parties, have caused an uproar in pro-EU circles.
As the crisis in Catalonia deepens, it is threatening to divide Belgian politics too. Flemish nationalists who have at times called for the breakup of Belgium sided openly with the Catalans, against the will of their coalition partners in the federal government.
The simmering divisions boiled over on Monday, after a prominent member of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), a Belgian nationalist party in the four-party ruling coalition, said the ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont could seek asylum in Belgium.
The same day, Spanish media reported that the six Catalans had arrived in Brussels to take up the Flemish minister Theo Francken on his suggestion.
Francken’s suggestion to harbor the Catalan leader was echoed on Twitter by Minister of the Interior and deputy prime minister from the N-VA, Jan Jambon, signalling a frank endorsement of Catalonia’s separatist agenda.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, a French-speaking leftist, is facing the breakup of his government as it rests on a fragile deal between liberals and nationalists, under which the nationalists have put their separatist agenda on the back-burner.
Michel riled against Francken imploring him “not to add fuel to the fire”. Belgian officials stressed that the junior minister was not speaking for the Belgian government.
Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie [New Flemish Alliance], Francken’s party, is currently the largest party in the coalition government in the Flemish Parliament.
Francken told Belgian channel VTM that the granting of asylum “isn’t unrealistic if you look at it” in an interview. “They are already talking about a prison sentence. The question is to what extent he would get a fair trial.”
Spanish daily, El Periódico reported that Puigdemont’s trip coincided with the Public Prosecutors’ Office announcing two lawsuits, one against the president and government, the other against the Board of the Catalan Parliament.
They have been charged with crimes of rebellion, sedition and misappropriation of public funds. According to El Periódico, the president and ministers drove to Marseilles by car, after which they booked a flight to the Belgian capital.
The journey also comes shortly after a diplomatic dispute between Belgium and the Spanish state over statements by the Belgian Immigration minister, Theo Francken, who suggested on Sunday that his country might grant political asylum to president Puigdemont, if this was so requested given the possibility he might not receive “a fair trial” if arrested after the proclamation of the Catalan Republic.
Puigdemont’s visit to the Belgian capital is reported to have been for meetings with leaders of the
Catalonia’s permanent representative to the EU, Amadeu Altafaj, was also removed by the Spanish government and he bid farewell to his office in Brussels, adding that it was a “sad moment”.
