Puigdemont steps aside as presidential candidate and proposes JxCat's Jordi Sànchez, who is in custody
Thursday, March 1, 2018 @ 9:58 PM
DEPOSED Catalunya president Carles Puigdemont has decided not to continue with his candidature for the role, despite the pro-independence parties having collectively ratified him as their ideal choice.
Still in exile in Belgium and unable to return to Spain as he would be arrested immediately, Puigdemont is in an impossible situation as he can only be sworn in as regional president at a ceremony in Catalunya's Parliament building in Barcelona.
In an announcement this evening (Thursday), Puigdemont said the Spanish government had effectively prevented him from exercising his elected role by forcing him to stay out of his native country, and that he had therefore decided to 'provisionally' step aside.
As his replacement, Puigdemont has nominated Jordi Sànchez, leader of the campaign group Catalunya National Assembly (ANC) and number two in Puigdemont's party Junts per Catalunya ('Together for Catalunya', or JxCat).
But Sànchez is still in prison for sedition for his role in helping the disputed independence referendum go ahead and for staging a protest outside Parliament which ended up hindering the police when they tried to enter the building.
Also in custody for the same reasons is Jordi Cuixart of the pressure group Òmnium Cultural.
Puigdemont describes Sànchez as 'a man of peace' who is 'unjustly locked away in a Spanish prison'.
The former president of Catalunya has urged regional Parliamentary chairman Roger Torrent to start the ball rolling as soon as possible to nominate Sànchez as the new presidential candidate.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com