EU parliament strips Carles Puigdemont and two other Catalans of immunity

The European parliament has voted to lift the immunity of the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and two of his ministers, taking them a step closer to extradition and prosecution in Spain.

MEPs voted by 400 to 248 with 45 abstentions in the case of Puigdemont and 404 to 247 with 42 abstentions regarding Antoni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, respectively the former health and education ministers in Puigdemont’s government.

The three fled to Belgium in 2017 to avoid arrest in relation to their role in organising a 2017 independence referendum deemed illegal by a Spanish court and have been the subject of European arrest warrants issued by Spain.

Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, said the decision showed that “an MEP can’t use their position to avoid justice in their home country and demonstrates the solidity of the Spanish judicial system”.

She said it vindicated Madrid’s view that “Catalonia’s problems will be resolved in Spain, not in Europe”.

The vote, however, reflected a further rift in the Spanish coalition government, with the leftwing Unidas Podemos MEPs voting to retain the immunity while their Socialist partners voted for it to be removed.

Nine independence leaders who remained in Catalonia, including the regional vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, received sentences of up to 13 years over their role in the failed bid for independence at the end of a trial in October 2019.

It is expected that new European arrest warrants will be issued on charges of sedition and, in the case of Puigdemont and Comín, misuse of public funds.

Ponsatí lives in Scotland, and Puigdemont and Comín in Belgium. The Belgian courts threw out an arrest warrant against the two in 2018 on grounds that the charge of rebellion brought did not exist in Belgian law. The three were elected to the European parliament in 2019, since when they have enjoyed immunity.

The three told a news conference at the parliament in Brussels that they would appeal against the vote at the the European court of justice, the EU’s top court. The move could extend legal proceedings for at least a year. Ponsatí said they had strong legal grounds.

Puigdemont said: “It’s a sad day for the European parliament. We have lost our immunity, but the European parliament has lost even more than that: as a result it has also lost European democracy.” .

Puigdemont’s party, Junts, tweeted: “We will not give up. The political conflict between Catalonia and Spain has stopped being an internal affair. We have brought it to the heart of Europe to continue denouncing the repression and political persecution of the Spanish state.”

The appeal will not impede the Spanish courts from issuing a fresh warrant. The question is whether their Belgian counterparts will look on it any more sympathetically than they have before.