MADRID: Spain’s constitutional court on Saturday announced it was blocking Catalonia’s ousted separatist leader Carles Puigdemont from returning to power in the region while he remains the subject of legal action.
The court said in a statement that its 12 magistrates had decided unanimously “to preventively suspend the investiture of Puigdemont unless he appears in the (regional) parliament in person with prior judicial authorization.”
Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium after the Catalan parliament declared independence in October, was earlier this week chosen as a candidate to lead Catalonia again, with the regional parliament set to vote for a new leader on Tuesday in Barcelona.
However, he faces arrest for rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds over his attempt to break Catalonia away from Spain as soon as he returns to the country.
Puigdemont has said he could be sworn in to office remotely via videoconference from Brussels, a plan Spain’s central government opposes.
He has also said he would rather return to Spain, but without any risk of arrest.
The constitutional court warned all members of the Catalan parliament of “their responsibilities” and warned against disobeying the order to suspend any investiture.
The magistrates said they needed six more days to consider a government bid to annul the nomination of Puigdemont as a candidate for the regional presidency.
“The government must use every tool made available by the laws and the constitution to make sure that a fugitive, someone who is on the run from the law and the courts, cannot be illegitimately be sworn in,” Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Friday after the government lodged the legal bid to keep Puigdemont from returning to power.
After the court’s announcement, Puigdemont tweeted that “even the constitutional court has rejected the tricks of Moncloa,” referring to the prime minister’s official residence.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Twitter that “the government would continue to do its duty in respecting the law.”
Catalonia’s ousted separatist government pushed ahead with an independence referendum on October 1 despite it having been banned by the Constitutional Court.
It won the public vote but Catalonia’s independence declaration on October 27 was short-lived as Rajoy moved to stop the crisis in a region deeply divided over secession.
He imposed direct rule on the semi-autonomous region, sacked its government including Puigdemont, dissolved its parliament and called snap elections.
Spanish court suspends Puigdemont’s return to power in Catalonia
Spanish court suspends Puigdemont’s return to power in Catalonia
Reform UK London mayoral candidate criticized over burqa stop-and-search remarks
- Laila Cunningham claimed parts of British capital felt culturally different due to the visibility of Muslim communities
LONDON: The newly announced London mayoral candidate for the right-wing British party Reform UK faced criticism on Friday following comments suggesting women wearing the burqa should be subject to police stop-and-search, The Guardian newspaper reported.
Speaking on a podcast, Laila Cunningham said that in an “open society” people should not cover their faces, adding that it “has to be assumed” those who do so are doing it “for a criminal reason.”
She also argued that London should have “one civic culture” which “should be British,” claiming parts of the British capital felt culturally different due to the visibility of Muslim communities.
The remarks prompted concern from Muslim organizations, with Shaista Gohir, chief executive of the Muslim Women’s Network UK, describing the comments as “dangerous” and a “dog whistle” that could further alienate Muslim women.
She warned they risked emboldening abuse, adding: “The number of Muslim women who wear the burqa in this country is tiny, and yet this is what has been chosen as a focus.”
Gohir said her organisation had recently seen a rise in threatening and Islamophobic correspondence, arguing that Cunningham’s comments were “sending a message to Muslims that they do not belong.”
Afzal Khan, a Labour MP based in Manchester, called Cunningham’s comments a “deliberate and cynical ploy”, adding it was “about divisive ideas being pumped into the society deliberately for electoral benefits.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also criticized attempts to stoke division, saying that the role of mayor was to bring communities together.
“Almost without argument, our city is the greatest city in the world because of our diversity,” he said, adding that freedom of religion and expression were “quintessentially British rights.”
Cunningham, a former Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor and British-born Muslim, was confirmed as Reform UK’s London mayoral candidate last week.
The issue of face coverings has previously sparked internal debate within Reform, with senior figures having distanced the party from earlier calls for a burqa ban.
