BARCELONA: Catalonia’s former leader Carles Puigdemont, who was sacked by Madrid over his attempt to break from Spain, said Friday he can govern the region from Belgium where he is in self-exile as he eyes a comeback after scoring big in elections.
“There are only two options: in prison I would not be able to address people, write, meet people,” Puigdemont, who risks arrest on charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds if he returns to Spain, told Catalunya Radio.
“The only way is to continue doing it freely and safely.”
“Nowadays big business, academic and research projects are essentially managed using new technology,” he added.
His comments came as Catalonia’s new parliamentary speaker, Roger Torrent from the pro-independence ERC party, held talks with party representatives to pick a candidate for the regional presidency.
Puigdemont, who was sacked along with his cabinet on October 27 after the regional parliament declared independence, is the only candidate from Catalonia’s separatist grouping to lead the region.
And given pro-independence parties won an absolute majority in elections on December 21, he in theory stands a good chance to be voted in at a parliamentary session due by the end of the month.
But there is a huge stumbling block in the way: he is in Belgium and won’t come back to Spain.
The Catalan parliament’s legal experts say the contender has to be physically present.
But Puigdemont insists he has the legitimate mandate of the people to rule after his Together for Catalonia list won the most votes within the separatist camp in the elections.
He wants to present his candidacy and government program to parliament — a prerequisite to being voted in — remotely via videolink or by having someone else read it for him.
The central government in Madrid, though, has warned it will take the matter to court and keep direct control over Catalonia if Puigdemont tries to govern from Belgium.
Ultimately, it will be up to Torrent and his deputies — three of whom are pro-independence and three others against it — to decide whether to allow lawmakers to vote for a president even if he is not present.
In the interview, Puigdemont said he wanted to reinstate his sacked government as well as its policies, marked by disobedience toward Spanish courts and a failed strategy to break from Spain while he was president.
“We have a plan to restore democracy, the institutions and policies,” he said.
“The result of these elections validate our government program.”
Madrid’s direct rule, imposed after the independence declaration, has caused resentment in a region that had enjoyed considerable autonomy before its leaders attempted to break away from Spain.
According to Economy Minister Luis de Guindos, the secession crisis that kicked off in earnest on October 1 when Catalan leaders held an independence referendum despite a court ban has taken a financial toll.
He has said the crisis has slowed economic growth in the region at an estimated cost of one billion euros ($1.2 billion).
More than 3,000 companies have moved their legal headquarters out of the region as uncertainty persists.
Ex-Catalan leader says can govern from Belgium
Ex-Catalan leader says can govern from Belgium
Ex-CNN journalist Don Lemon pleads not guilty to Minnesota protest charges
- A magistrate judge ordered Lemon released to await trial, after a night in custody following his arrest late on Thursday by the FBI
LOS ANGELES: Former CNN news anchor Don Lemon entered a not guilty plea on Friday to federal charges over his role covering a protest at a Minnesota church against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, the Republican administration’s latest move against a critic.
Lemon, now an independent journalist, livestreamed a protest against Trump’s deployment of thousands of armed immigration agents into Democratic-governed Minnesota’s biggest cities. The protest disrupted a January 18 service at Cities Church in St. Paul.
A magistrate judge ordered Lemon released to await trial, after a night in custody following his arrest late on Thursday by the FBI.
Dressed in a cream-colored double-breasted suit, Lemon spoke only to say “yes, your honor” when asked if he understood the proceedings. One of his attorneys said that he pleaded not guilty.
“He is committed to fighting this. He’s not going anywhere,” said Lemon attorney Marilyn Bednarski.
“I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now,” Lemon told reporters after the hearing. “I will not be silenced. I look forward to my day in court.”
A grand jury indictment charged Lemon, who is Black, with conspiring to deprive others of their civil rights and violating a law that has been used to crack down on demonstrations at abortion clinics but also forbids obstructing access to houses of worship. Six other people who were at the protest, including another journalist, are facing the same charges.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis and other US cities on Friday to denounce an immigration crackdown in which federal agents fatally shot two US citizens, sparking one of the most serious political crises Trump has faced.
PRESS ADVOCATES ALARMED
Free press advocates voiced alarm over the arrests. Actor and activist Jane Fonda went to show support for Lemon, telling journalists the president was violating the Constitution. “They arrested the wrong Don,” Fonda said.
Trump, who has castigated the protesters in Minnesota, blamed the Cities Church protest on “agitators and insurrectionists” who he said wanted to intimidate Christian worshippers.
Organizers told Lemon they focused on the church because they believed a pastor there was also a senior US Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee.
More than a week ago, the government arrested three people it said organized the protests. But the magistrate judge in St. Paul who approved those arrests ruled that, without a grand jury indictment, there was not probable cause to issue arrest warrants for Lemon and several others the Justice Department also wanted to prosecute.
“This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand,” Abbe Lowell, Lemon’s lawyer, said in a statement, invoking constitutional free speech protections.
In the livestream archived on his YouTube channel, Lemon can be seen meeting with and interviewing the activists before they go to the church, and later chronicling the disruption inside, interviewing congregants, protesters and a pastor, who asks Lemon and the protesters to leave.
Independent local journalist Georgia Fort and two others who had been at the church were also arrested and charged with the same crimes.
US Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster on Friday ordered Fort’s release, denying prosecutors’ request to hold her in custody, according to court documents.
TRUMP CRITICS TARGETED
The Justice Department over the past year has tried to prosecute a succession of Trump’s critics and perceived enemies. Its charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who both led investigations into Trump, were thrown out by a judge.
Lemon spent 17 years at CNN, becoming one of its most recognizable personalities, and frequently criticizes Trump in his YouTube broadcasts. Lemon was fired by CNN in 2023 after making sexist on-air comments for which he later apologized.
Trump frequently lambastes journalists and news outlets, going further than his predecessors by sometimes suing them for damages or stripping them of access-granting credentials.
FBI agents with a search warrant seized laptops and other devices this month from the home of a Washington Post reporter who has covered Trump’s firing of federal workers, saying it was investigating leaks of government secrets.
Press advocates called the FBI search involving the Post reporter and the arrests of Lemon and Fort an escalation of attacks on press freedom.
“Reporting on protests isn’t a crime,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute. Jaffer called the arrests alarming, and said Trump sought “to tighten the vise around press freedom.”
Trump has said his attacks are because he is tired of “fake news” and hostile coverage.
Legal experts said they were unaware of any US precedent for journalists being arrested after the fact, or under the two laws used to charge Lemon and Fort. They include the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a 1994 measure that prevents obstructing access to abortion clinics and places of worship.
