BARCELONA: Catalonia’s deposed leader Carles Puigdemont said Thursday he had abandoned his bid to return as regional president in an attempt to unblock a political impasse as the region remains without a fully-functioning government.
“I will not put myself forward as candidate to be appointed regional president,” Puigdemont, who is in self-exile in Belgium and wanted in Spain for his role in the failed secession bid, said in a video posted on social media.
The 55-year-old former journalist called for a new round of talks to take place “as soon as possible” to choose a new candidate, and put forward Jordi Sanchez, the head of the ANC, a hugely influential pro-independence citizens’ group.
Sanchez, however, has been in prison for more than four months, charged with sedition over his role in the secession attempt which culminated on October 27 when separatist lawmakers declared independence.
The Spanish government moved in immediately, stripping Catalonia of its prized autonomy, sacking its regional government, dissolving its parliament and calling snap elections on December 21.
Puigdemont left for Belgium shortly after but still ran in the polls from abroad, leading the separatist bloc to victory as they retained their absolute majority in parliament.
As such, he was the separatists’ favored candidate to lead Catalonia again, arguing he could govern the region remotely.
But Spain’s Constitutional Court made his appointment conditional on his physical presence in the regional capital Barcelona, with permission from a judge.
At the end of January, the Catalan parliament’s speaker — also a separatist — postponed a key vote to reappoint him as president.
Since then, separatist parties had been locked in talks as to how to go forward.
Suggestions had started to emerge that Puigdemont could be given a “symbolic” role in Belgium while another candidate would be picked to lead Catalonia from Barcelona.
On Thursday, Catalonia’s majority separatist parliament approved a motion defending him as the “legitimate” candidate for the regional presidency — a move widely seen as a way to encourage him to step aside without losing face.
The motion also stated that the separatists were “favorable to the constitution of Catalonia as an independent state,” but stopped short of validating the failed declaration of independence.
In his filmed speech, Puigdemont said he was renouncing his bid to lead Catalonia again so that the region currently under direct Madrid rule could get a new government.
“We won’t surrender, we won’t give up,” he said, adding he would work to bring international attention on the independence cause.
“I know that the path we have ahead is long and fraught with difficulties.”
Puigdemont abandons bid to return as Catalan leader
Puigdemont abandons bid to return as Catalan leader
Germany’s Merz vows to keep out far-right as he warns of a changed world
- “We will not allow these people from the so-called Alternative for Germany to ruin our country,” Merz told party delegates
- He avoided critising his coalition partners in the center-left Social Democrats
STUTTGART, Germany: Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed on Friday not to let the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “ruin” Germany and told his fellow conservatives to prepare for a raw new climate of great-power competition.
Merz’s message to the Christian Democrat (CDU) party’s conference in Stuttgart reiterated points he made at last weekend’s Munich Security Conference, saying the “rules based order we knew no longer exists.” He also made calls for economic reform, and a rejection of antisemitism and the AfD, which is aiming to win its first state election this year.
“We will not allow these people from the so-called Alternative for Germany to ruin our country,” he told party delegates, who welcomed former chancellor Angela Merkel with a storm of applause on her first visit to the conference since stepping down in 2021.
Merz, trailing badly in the polls ahead of a string of state elections this year, said he accepted criticism that the reforms he announced during last year’s election campaign had been slower than initially communicated.
“I will freely admit that perhaps, after the change of government, we did not make it clear quickly enough that we would not be able to achieve this enormous reform effort overnight,” he said.
He avoided critising his coalition partners in the center-left Social Democrats and promised to push ahead with efforts to cut bureaucracy, bring down energy costs and foster investment, saying that economic prosperity was vital to Germany’s security.
He also pledged further reforms of the welfare state and said new proposals for a reform of the pension system would be presented, following a revolt by younger members of his own party in a bruising parliamentary battle last year.
Merz’s speech was greeted with around 10 minutes of applause as delegates put on a show of unity and he was re-elected as party chairman with 91 percent of the vote, avoiding any potentially embarrassing display of internal dissatisfaction.
Among other business, the party conference is due to discuss a motion to block access to social media platforms for children under the age of 16. However any legislation would take time because under the German system, state governments have the main responsibility for regulating media.
The elections begin next month with the western states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate before a further round later in the year, one of them in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD hopes to win its first state ballot.
