After being arrested in Germany on Spanish charges of sedition and others, the BBC is reporting that Carles Puigdemont is urging Catalan to continue to press their case before the U.N. and the world.
Speaking from prison in Neumünster, Puigdemont said the following:
“We cannot let down our guard before a state that is becoming more and more authoritarian and that is curtailing our rights. Let’s go on doing things the way we do them, which is non-violent and civilized as we have shown the world in the past years. That is how Catalans do things.”
Puigdemont led his region to a referendum on Catalan independence back in October of 2017, a process that the Spanish government brutally attempted to suppress. After an affirmative result, Puigdemont’s government declared independence, to which the Spanish government reacted to by forcing direct rule on Catalan, and forcing Catalonian leaders like Puigdemont into exile in Europe or jail. Spain called for new elections, where, much to their disappointment, a coalition majority of Catalan separatist parties was formed, and who subsequently offered the presidency once more to Puigdemont in Europe. Puigdemont ultimately turned down ruling from exile. And, most recently, the former Catalonian leader was arrested by German authorities after traveling to their country from Finland. If Germany extradites the former leader to Spain, he could face 30 years in prison.
We at the Texian Partisan hope that Germany resists the urge to extradite Mr. Puigdemont. Ultimately, his crime was merely to obey his people’s wish for self-determination. While that idea may not be the most popular one in the EU right now, History knows, they’ve coddled worse offenses.
