MADRID (AP) — The Latest on the political crisis in Catalonia (all times local):

The speaker of Catalonia's parliament has postponed a session intended to re-elect the Spanish region's fugitive ex-president.

Roger Torrent announced the decision Tuesday, hours before the session he had called to hold a vote authorizing separatist leader Carles Puigdemont to form a government.

The decision comes after Spain's top court had ruled Puigdemont, who faces arrest in Spain, would have to return from Belgium and ask a judge permission to attend the session.

Torrent says he will reconvene the session once Spanish authorities guarantee they "won't interfere" in the election of Puigdemont.

Puigdemont is the focus of an investigation into October's illegal— and unsuccessful— declaration of independence.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is urging the Catalan parliament not to press ahead with the candidacy of fugitive leader Carles Puigdemont for regional president and instead to opt for a lawmaker free of legal proceedings.

Speaking Tuesday on Spanish National Television hours before the parliament is scheduled to hold an investiture vote for Puigdemont, Rajoy said the parliament speaker will face legal consequences if he disobeys a Constitutional Court order saying Puigdemont can only be voted on if he is physically present and has previously obtained court permission.

Puigdemont faces arrest if he returns to Spain.

Rajoy said the "most sensible" thing for the parliament speaker would be to propose a "clean candidate" who is willing to obey the law and work for the return of normality in Catalonia.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> Early on January 30, Roger Torrent, speaker of the Catalan parliament that was returned at the December 21 elections, suspended that day’s session. It had been set down to elect outgoing president Carles Puigdemont as head of the new Catalan government.

The decision of Torrent, a leading member of the pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), came after the Spanish Constitutional Court had ruled two days earlier that the investiture of Puigdemont, in exile in Brussels, could not take place

Moreover, as someone facing charges of “rebellion” and “sedition” he would have to get the permission of Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena—author of the preventive detention of other Catalan MPs—to actually attend the investiture session.

Finally, if Torrent and the Catalan parliament’s speakership panel went ahead with the investiture session in violation of these conditions they would incur legal sanctions. In the words of the Constitutional Court’s ruling:

Torrent justified his decision to suspend the January 30 session on the grounds that he wanted to ensure a “real investiture” for Puigdemont.

If January 30 had been a normal investiture session, Puigdemont’s election would have been a formality. As leader of the party Together For Catalonia (JxCat) that had won the most seats within the 70-seat pro-independence majority, he had the support of the other pro-independence forces: the centre-left ERC and the anti-capitalist People’s Unity List (CUP). He also faced no rival from the 57-seat unionist minority of Citizens, the People’s Party (PP) and the Party of Socialists of Catalonia (PSC).

Even in the extraordinary situation of detention and exile for eight Catalan MPs and the Spanish government’s October 27 sacking of the Catalan government under article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, Puigdemont was still sure of a 68-vote majority in the 135-seat chamber. Two of the jailed MPs—detained outgoing vice-president Oriol Junqueras (ERC) and former Catalan National Assembly (ANC) leader Jordi Sànchez (JxCat)—would still able to votewhile four others had already declined their accreditation as MPs and had been replaced by the next candidates on the JxCat and ERC tickets.

Only one issue remained unresolved: would Puigdemont be able to deliver his investiture address by video link from his Brussels exile or have it delivered for him by another MP? Or would he try to get back into the Catalan parliament by stealth?

On January 15, the legal counsel of the Catalan parliament delivered a majority opinion against investiture, but the final word lay with the speakership panel, on which JxCat and ERC have a four-three majority. If the panel had been free to rule that Puigdemont could be invested, then he would be, even though the unionist parties said they would immediately appeal such a decision to the Spanish Constitutional Court.

The prospect of Puigdemont—symbol of Catalonia’s independence struggle—returning as head of government panicked all wings of the Spanish establishment, beginning with the PP administration of prime minister Mariano Rajoy but including the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) and the new-right Citizens.

If the Catalan parliament backed Puigdemont as president how was he to be removed? On what grounds could Spanish King Felipe, embodiment of Spanish state rejection of the “illegality” of the Catalans’ cause, formally refuse recognition of their parliament’s decision? Could the ongoing support of the European institutions for Spain’s handling of its Catalan headache be guaranteed in such a situation?

The more the Rajoy government looked at the issue, the clearer it became that it had no choice: it had to mobilise the powers of the state to block the investiture of the man it was deriding as a “political zombie” even as it obsessed over how to exorcise him. Former PSOE leader and minister Alfredo Rubalcaba expressed this position in a January 26 interview on radio Onda Zero: “Puigdemont cannot be president and what we are discussing now is how to stop that at the lowest cost.”

To prevent the “zombie” returning by stealth, interior minister Jose Ignacio Zoido had the Civil Guard and Spanish National Police set up road blocks, check car boots, keep minor airports under surveillance and scour the sewers under the Catalan parliament. Civil Guard teams even entered French territory without permission to conduct searches.

On January 25, Spanish deputy prime minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, in charge of operations in Catalonia, announced that she was reversing the Rajoy government’s usual approach of waiting for the Catalan parliament to act before appealing decisions. It would instead seek the endorsement of Spain’s highest legal consultative body, the Council of State, for its support for a preventive injunction against Puigdemont’s investiture from the Constitutional Court, on the grounds that he was an “outlaw” lacking “liberty of movement”.

Yet, much to the horror of Rajoy and company, the Council of State recommended that they not go ahead with the injunction because it had no solid legal basis. If upheld by the Constitutional Court, that body would be taking upon itself the right to decide which elected candidates a parliament could and couldn’t appoint to positions of officethey had been elected and despite no objection having being made against them as candidates—a clear case of violating democratic rights and even perverting the course of justice.

However, the Rajoy government ignored this advice and ploughed ahead with its appeal, with Saenz de Santamaria being reported as ringing up various Constitutional Court members to stress the vital importance of their decision.

According to media reports, the twelve-member court was split seven-five on whether to admit the appeal. To avoid further increasing the Rajoy government’s discomfort with a split ruling the court decided to postpone a decision for ten days—“to decide upon the admissibility of the appeal”—while at the same time spelling out the conditions on which Puigdemont’s investiture could theoretically still go ahead.

The Constitutional Court thus gave the Rajoy government what it wanted while dodging a decision on its legal application: Puigdemont could attend the investiture and end up in jail or stay in Belgium and make any investiture illegal. On January 30, the court rejected a JxCat appeal against its ruling while one of the PP’s most provocative spokespeople, Raphael Hernando, reminded speaker Torrent that “he has two children so knows what he has to deal with.”

The court’s decision, already criticised by numerous Spanish jurists (see here for comment by Barcelona law professor Ferran Requejo), will doubtless be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, where its violation of the separation of powers and the sovereignty of the Catalan parliament will be laid bare. Not that Rajoy and Saenz de Santamaria care: their game is to force the pro-independence bloc to abandon Puigdemont and cop the humiliation of having Madrid determine who can and can’t be a candidate for president of Catalonia, irrespective of the vote of the Catalan people.

To close any remaining loopholes, on February 1 Spanish attorney-general Rafael Català announced that the Rajoy government would make use of legislation preventing anyone simplyfor “rebellion” from standing for public office.

At the same time, all the voices of Spanish centralism are competing to see who can produce the most “trenchant” characterisation of the man who won most support within the Catalan independence bloc on December 21. Some examples:

Even Elisenda Alemany, spokesperson of the pro-sovereignty Catalonia Together-Podemos group in the Catalan parliament, supports Puigdemont stepping aside (February 6) if this is the price of recovering Catalan self-rule:

Torrent’s decision to suspend the investiture, taken without consultation of the other pro-independence parties and protested by them, shows that Madrid’s approach of permanently intensifying intimidation is starting to have some success.

It has increased tensions between JxCat and an ERC convinced that the most important priority is to recover Catalan self-government, even at the cost of dropping Puigdemont, as ERC MP in the Spanish parliament Joan Tardà suggested in a January 28interview.

On the evening of January 30, Puigdemont issued a video statement in which he said that Torrent’s decision “had to be respected”, but that “democracy cannot be adjourned or suspended”. For their part, the unionist parties and Catalonia Together-Podemos supported the speaker’s decision.

On the day, a large demonstration outside the Catalan parliament, called by the mass pro-independence organisations ANC and Òmnium Cultural and supported by the Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDR), demanded that the investiture go ahead. At one point, a group of demonstrators, led by some CDRs, broke through police lines in an attempt to get into the parliament building. Inside, the four CUP MPs occupied their places in protest against the suspension of the session.

On January 31, at a public meeting in Louvain, a text message from Puigdemont on the phone of exiled health minister Toni Comín (ERC) was surreptitiously photographed over his shoulder by Spanish channel Tele 5. It read in part:

Puigdemont later tweeted in response to the revelation of this text:

On the same day, the JxCat parliamentary caucus reaffirmed its support for Puigdemont’s candidacy, as did the CUP and ERC. Negotiations, which at the time of writing (February 7) are ongoing, recommenced in search of a formula that would assert the legitimacy of Puigdemont as president while allowing an effective government to form.

The events of January 30 provoked a flurry of reflection and position-taking by all parts of the independence movement.

The day afterwards, the ANC national secretariat called for the unity of the pro-independence majority in support of investing an agreed candidate, affirmed that the ANC would only mobilise outside the Catalan parliament in support of a real investiture, and committed to “returning to the streets if we see that the [Spanish] state or its courts paralyses the investiture.”

Catalan language and culture association Òmnium Cultural called on the pro-independence parties:

Left currents affiliated to the CUP, such as Poble Lliure (“Free People”) and left pro-independence youth organisation Arran, each in their own way saw the suspension of the investiture as marking a watershed in the evolution of the independence movement and its component parts (see live blog for their full statements).

The basic problem weighing on the independence movement is the need to find an agreed strategy for disobedience against a Spanish state that is moving every piece at its disposal—the courts, the media, the monarchy and its loyal backers in the European Commission—to demoralise and tame the Catalan process. This is all the more so because the Spanish government is moving to invalidate the vote of MPs facing charges, killing off the pro-independence majority while simultaneously trying to frighten it with the prospect of another election.

One thing seems certain as the negotiations between the pro-independence parties continue: only persistent, patient and organised resistance by the whole of the pro-independence bloc—determined to assert the sovereignty of the Catalan parliament within the institution itself and in the streets—will ensure that the result of the December 21 election stands. </s> Speaker says ex-president is only candidate to form government despite Spanish state’s warnings

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The speaker of the Catalan parliament has postponed a session to invest Carles Puigdemont as president but insisted the deposed former leader remains the only legitimate candidate to form a government after pro-independence parties retained their majority in December’s snap elections.

Despite blunt warnings from the Spanish government that it will not allow Puigdemont to return to office after he fled to Belgium following last October’s unilateral declaration of independence, Roger Torrent said the investiture of a new president was a matter for the regional parliament alone.

“We don’t accept anyone telling us that the Catalans have voted incorrectly because we didn’t do what they wanted,” the pro-independence speaker said on Tuesday morning, hours before regional MPs were due to choose a president.



“Neither the [Spanish government] nor the constitutional court decides who will be president; that’s for the democratically elected members of parliament to decide.”

The defiant stance came three days after Spain’s constitutional court ruled that Puigdemont, who remains in self-imposed exile in Brussels, could not take part in an investiture debate via video conference or by getting one of his MPs to read a speech in his place.

The court’s judges said the session would be suspended unless Puigdemont attended parliament with prior judicial authorisation and rejected appeals from Puigdemont’s party.

Torrent said: “I am not proposing any other candidate apart from Puigdemont.”



Announcing that he was adjourning the session, he said: “It will be held when we can hold an effective investiture, without interference and with guarantees.”



The speaker said he would personally guarantee Puigdemont’s immunity and that of other MPs. “I will do whatever it takes to defend democracy because it cannot be suspended,” he said.

“The will of the Catalan people expressed at the ballot box is a mandate and this mandate cannot be suspended. Parliament represents the will of all the Catalan people and for this reason, it and the Catalan people deserve respect.”

Thousands of pro-independence protesters gathered outside the parliament building on Tuesday afternoon to show their support for Puigdemont.

Shortly before Torrent’s address, Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said any attempt to invest Puigdemont remotely would constitute a clear violation of the constitutional court’s ruling. He urged Catalan MPs to obey the law and choose another candidate.

“The speaker and those who support him need to be very aware of the consequences they could face,” Rajoy said in an interview with the state broadcaster.

Referring to Puigdemont, who faces arrest on possible charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds the moment he sets foot in Spain, Rajoy continued: “You can’t be a fugitive from justice, live in Brussels and try to get yourself elected president of a democratic institution … The most prudent thing would be for the speaker of the parliament to put forward a clean candidate.”

On Sunday, one pro-independence MP suggested the ousted president could step aside to allow someone else to take office.

Joan Tardà of the Catalan Republican Left party told the newspaper La Vanguardia: “What’s essential is that we have a government. If we have to sacrifice President Puigdemont, we’ll have to sacrifice him.”

Puigdemont has been in Brussels since the Spanish government responded to the unilateral independence declaration by sacking his administration, taking direct control of of Catalonia and calling an election. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption With the election of Roger Torrent as speaker, separatist MPs have control of Catalonia's parliament

Catalan MPs in Barcelona have elected a pro-independence speaker at their first meeting since Madrid dissolved the region's parliament.

The choice of Roger Torrent is the first step to reinstating local government.

Separatist parties, who remain dominant after December's election, want Carles Puigdemont to be president again.

But the ex-leader risks arrest if he returns from self-imposed exile in Belgium.

He is wanted by Spain on charges of rebellion and sedition over last year's independence drive.

And Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says Catalonia's autonomous powers will not be restored, if the regional parliament permits Mr Puigdemont to lead the government from exile.

Mr Rajoy took direct control of the region - sacking its leaders and dissolving its parliament - after Mr Puigdemont and his government declared independence in October.

Read more:

Separatist lawmakers secured control of parliament on Wednesday with the election of Mr Torrent, a member of the left-wing separatist ERC party.

He beat an anti-independence candidate by 65 votes to 56.

The session was broadcast to a flag-waving crowd outside.

ERC's leader, Oriol Junqueras, is among three Catalan MPs in prison awaiting trial over the independence push. But they were allowed to vote to select a parliamentary speaker via proxies.

Five others in self-imposed exile in Belgium did not assign proxies. Yellow ribbons were placed on their empty seats.

The MPs also met to select a board who will decide who gets the first chance to form a government. It will have two weeks to pick a president.

It is likely to nominate Mr Puigdemont to lead the region, and his supporters say he could potentially do so via video link from Belgium.

Mr Puigdemont's spokesman, Joan Maria Piqué, told the BBC's Gavin Lee that it was perfectly plausible for him to be president remotely. He pointed to how Donald Trump uses Twitter as a prime source of interaction in the US.

But lawyers for the Catalan parliament council, an advisory body, have said it would not be legal or within the Spanish constitution to allow for a president in exile. </s> MADRID: Catalonia on Tuesday postponed the election of a new regional president until further notice after Spain's highest court said the sole nominee, separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, was ineligible while he remains a fugitive from justice in Belgium.

Catalonia's independence drive has sparked clashes with the Spanish government and judiciary, which say that any vote or move toward secession from Spain is unconstitutional.

The speaker of the house, Roger Torrent, gave no reason for the postponement but said he would not nominate an alternative candidate. Separatists have a majority in the regional assembly and Puigdemont would almost certainly win the vote.

Their decision to stick with Puigdemont suggests they will continue to push for secession, giving the national government in Madrid no reason to end the direct control that it imposed to block the independence drive.

"Today's session has been postponed, but under no circumstance cancelled ... another candidate will not be presented," Torrent said during a snap news conference.

The Constitutional Court said on Saturday that Puigdemont could not be elected unless he was physically present in the parliament, with a judge's permission to attend.

If he returns to Spain, Puigdemont faces the prospect of arrest for leading an illegal independence bid. He has said he can lead Catalonia from abroad, and on Monday ruled out seeking a judge's permission to attend the parliament in person.

Puigdemont fled to Brussels following an illegal referendum on independence on Oct. 1. The Catalan parliament issued a declaration of independence, also ruled illegal, on Oct. 27.

Various regional cabinet members are in jail awaiting trial on charges of sedition, rebellion and misappropriation of funds for their role in organising the vote and the independence declaration. </s> BARCELONA (Reuters) - Catalonia on Tuesday postponed the election of a new regional president until further notice after Spain’s highest court said the sole nominee, separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, was ineligible while he remains a fugitive from justice in Belgium.

The industrial northeastern region’s drive for a split from Spain has led it to clash with the country’s central government and judiciary which say a declaration of independence is against the country’s 39-year-old constitution.

The speaker of the house, Roger Torrent, gave no reason for the delay but said he would not nominate an alternative candidate. Separatists have a majority in the regional assembly and Puigdemont would almost certainly win the vote.

Their decision to stick with Puigdemont suggests they will continue to push for secession, giving the national government in Madrid no reason to end the direct control that it imposed to block the independence drive.

“Another candidate will not be presented,” Torrent said during a snap news conference.

Hundreds of protestors gathered outside the Catalan parliament in Barcelona on Tuesday, many wearing Puigdemont masks and chanting ‘Puigdemont, our president!”

An October referendum on secession was ruled illegal by the Constitutional Court and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy fired the region’s administration when it declared independence. Puigdemont faces charges of sedition and rebellion in Spain.

The crisis has shaken the confidence of companies in the region, causing thousands to move their registered headquarters elsewhere in Spain, and has deeply divided Catalan society.

The Constitutional Court said on Saturday Puigdemont could not be elected unless he was physically present in the parliament, with a judge’s permission to attend.

If he returns to Spain, Puigdemont faces the prospect of arrest on charges that could result in decades-long prison sentence if he is tried and convicted.

He has said he can lead Catalonia from abroad, and on Monday ruled out seeking a judge’s permission to attend the parliament in person.

Various regional cabinet members are in jail awaiting trial on charges of sedition, rebellion and misappropriation of funds for their role in organizing the vote and the independence declaration. </s> "Roger Torrent is elected the president of the Catalan parliament of the twelfth term," the parliament said in a tweet.

Roger Torrent needs to choose a candidate to try to form a government by the end of the January. Parliament has to elect a new regional government by the end of the month.

Carles Puigdemont would have to get approval from Roger Torrent's committee to vote and be elected from abroad. The former head of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont fled to Belgium with four of his cabinet members.

​READ MORE: Catalonia to Remain Under Madrid's Control Until New Gov't Appointed — Rajoy

The Spanish prosecutor's office accuses Puigdemont in insurgency and embezzlement. The court issued a warrant for his arrest in case he returned to the country. The former leader of Catalonia can try to become the head of the autonomy remotely by video link or with the help of a representative. The Spanish government has assured that it will appeal to the court any violations when assuming the post of head of the autonomy.

Early parliamentary elections were held on December 21, most of the seats in the parliament were received by parties that favored the independence of the region from Spain.

In October, the Spanish government applied 155 article of the Spanish Constitution, which provides a number of restrictions on the autonomy of Catalonia up to early regional elections. On October 27, the Parliament of Catalonia was dissolved. </s> Spain's parliament on Friday suspended four Catalan politicians currently on trial at the Supreme Court for their alleged participation separatist referendum back in 2017 from taking their seats in the national parliament.

The speaker of the country's lower chamber, the Congress of Deputies, Socialist Party (PSOE) member Meritxell Batet, told reporters the decision had been made by the speaker's committee following consultations with Parliament and the Supreme Court.

Batet acknowledged that parliament was faced with an "unprecedented" situation and that the committee had acted to safeguard legislative power and guarantee the rights of parliamentarians.

"The speaker's committee of the Congress of Deputies has agreed to automatically suspend from their positions and therefore their rights and duties established in the rules of the chamber the right honorable members Mr. Oriol Junqueras i Vies, Mr. Josep Rull i Andreu, Mr. Jordi Sánchez i Picanyol and Mr. Jordi Turull i Negre," Batet said.

Junqueras, the former regional vice president of Catalonia, who is facing hefty charges of rebellion and sedition, was in the general elections of Apr. 28 elected to represent the party he leads, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), while Rull, Sánchez and Turull, were voted into the Madrid-based national parliament as MPs for Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia, JxCat).

On Tuesday, all four were briefly released from preventative prison in Madrid to take their seats in Parliament in what turned out to be a controversial session peppered with protests from mainstream parties opposed to the decision to include the detainees.

JxCat, the party of self-exiled former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont, also welcomed a new senator, Raül Romeva.

As well as handling the suspension of the Catalan lawmakers, the committee had to analyze what effects removing four MPs from the 350-seat chamber would have on the absolute majority threshold.

Of the nine members of the speaker's committee charged with making a decision on the four Catalan separatist MPs, only two members of the left-wing Unidas Podemos (United We Can, in English) asked for more time.

"We made our disagreement clear, accepting the decision the committee took on a majority basis," Irene Montero, the party's parliamentary spokesperson, told the press.

The conservative Popular Party and Ciudadanos (Citizens, in English) welcomed the decision but lamented the fact the lawmakers had been allowed to take their oaths in the first place.

Ana Pastor, a former speaker who is now a member of the committee for the PP, said 48 hours had been wasted.

JxCat said it would petition for the decision to be re-evaluated.

The lawmakers in question are among the 12 Catalan separatists leaders currently on trial for charges ranging from rebellion and sedition to misuse of public funds related to their alleged activities promoting and facilitating an illegal independence referendum in Catalonia and unilaterally declaring independence back in October 2017.

The Catalan crisis, which had been simmering for years, exploded in 2017 with the events that led up to the Oct. 1 referendum on the prosperous region's secession from the rest of the country, which was deemed unconstitutional by the judiciary.

As a consequence of the disputed vote and the regional government's subsequent unilateral declaration of independence, Madrid triggered a constitutional article that stripped the devolved region from its autonomy, deposed then-Catalan President Puigdemont and called new regional elections.EFE-EPA </s> Catalonia at an impasse: what next?

People celebrate after the Catalan regional parliament passes the vote of independence from Spain in Barcelona, Spain October 27, 2017. — Reuters picBARCELONA, Feb 1 — Ousted president Carles Puigdemont, in self-exile in Belgium, had hoped to be re-appointed as Catalan leader this week but the region’s parliamentary speaker Roger Torrent postponed a vote to formally sweep him back into office.

Torrent insisted Puigdemont was still the candidate after separatist parties maintained their absolute majority in December regional polls, led by the separatist leader’s grouping.

But he faces arrest as soon as he steps back into Spain over his role in the failed independence bid, and Madrid has vowed to block his return.

Meanwhile, the separatist camp is in disarray over Torrent’s decision to delay the vote and Puigdemont’s resolve appears to be foundering.

So what next?

How long can impasse last?

Under electoral rules, the Catalan parliament had until Wednesday this week to hold its first session at which lawmakers would re-appoint Puigdemont, the only candidate for the presidency.

And if they failed to agree on him or pick a new president in the following two months, new elections would be called.

But that countdown has been put on hold as Torrent waits for the Constitutional Court to decide whether to examine Madrid’s request to block Puigdemont from being re-appointed — a decision due in the coming weeks.

If the court rejects it, the countdown will start over.

If it accepts it, the situation could remain paralysed for months as the court examines the issue in depth and decides whether or not to block his candidacy.

During that time, Catalonia would continue under the control of the central government, which imposed direct rule on the wealthy semi-autonomous region on October 27 after the Catalan parliament declared independence.

Catalonia’s president from January 2016 to October last year, when he was sacked by Madrid, Puigdemont maintains that he is the only candidate to lead the region again.

Torrent’s decision to delay his appointment severely deepened divisions within the separatist camp.

Torrent is a member of the separatist ERC party, an ally of Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia grouping.

Puigdemont and his grouping want to breach Catalan parliamentary rules by having lawmakers re-appoint him even in absentia, a move that Madrid fiercely opposes.

But ERC would rather avoid another frontal clash with Madrid and form an operational regional government that would lead to the lifting of direct rule.

“It was going to generate chaos and wasn’t going to go anywhere,” an ERC source who requested anonymity told AFP, justifying the delay of Puigdemont’s appointment.

“We can’t be swept along by those in Belgium, we need to stop and look at how we can have a government for real.”

But even if separatist parties end up reaching a deal, that would not be the end of Puigdemont’s problems.

If he comes back to Spain, he faces arrest and jail. Any attempt to be re-appointed by video link from Belgium will be contested by Madrid and probably suspended by the courts.

And the clock is also ticking for him.

If the probe into separatist leaders for rebellion and sedition goes to trial, those charged — including Puigdemont — could be barred from office as a precautionary measure.

The central government and anti-independence parties in Catalonia are increasingly calling for an alternative candidate to be considered to lead the region.

“Torrent must open a round of talks (with parties) to save the situation generated by Mr. Puigdemont,” Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Wednesday.

Puigdemont himself appeared to be throwing in the towel on Tuesday, according to private mobile phone messages caught on camera by a Spanish television reporter.

In these, he considers that he has reached the end of the road having been “sacrificed” by his peers.

Puigdemont has not denied he sent those messages, but insists he is still the candidate.

No separatist party is publicly proposing to ditch him but many alternative candidates are appearing in the press.

Ultimately, until the Constitutional Court makes its decision as to whether to examine Madrid’s request to block Puigdemont, the ball is in Torrent’s court.

He could decide to keep him as candidate and hold the parliamentary vote to re-appoint him, or nominate another candidate. — AFP
The Speaker of the Parliament of Catalonia delays the session of investiture of Carles Puigdemont after the suspension by the Constitutional Court of the telematic investiture. Roger Torrent insists that Puigdemont is the only candidate, disobeying the decision of the high court.