As pro-independence Catalans mark the first anniversary of their failed bid, the European Parliament’s Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group voted Saturday to expel the region’s separatist party PDeCAT.

Delegates from more than one-third of ALDE — an umbrella group bringing together liberal-centrists in Europe — convened in Brussels for an extraordinary meeting and voted to expel PDeCAT, effective immediately.

“This decision does not imply any position of the ALDE party on internal Spanish political affairs. The ALDE party keeps its door open to any new liberal and democratic political movements from Catalonia that may want to join us in the future,” it said in a statement.

PDeCAT is the party of former Catalonia regional leader Carles Puigdemont, who is in self-imposed exile in Belgium. On Saturday, he launched a new party — dubbed “The Call” — from there, AFP reported. The party will hold its first meeting this evening in Manresa, a pro-independence town near the prison holding several independence leaders.

ALDE’s proposal to sever ties with PDeCAT first came up in September, following an “investigation into the corruption conviction and the additional corruption charges” toward CDC, the predecessor of PDeCAT, according to Catalan News.

At the time, ALDE said disaffiliation proposal is not related to the Catalan party’s pro-independence stance but based on the fact that it is “engaging in acts that are contrary to the interest and the values” of the group, and therefore, “its membership is politically no longer compatible” with ALDE’s principles.

Puigdemont is expected to present his government in exile in Belgium in the coming days, according to AFP.

Read this next: Saudi Arabia won’t extradite suspects in Khashoggi killing to Turkey </s> STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Parliament opened for a new term on Tuesday with the highest number of women ever but short of three pro-independence Catalan members who were barred from joining as hundreds protested over their exclusion outside the building.

Further controversy arose when 29 members of Britain’s anti-EU Brexit Party turned their backs as the European Union anthem - Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” - was played live at the opening ceremony - a gesture that other lawmakers denounced as disgraceful and pathetic.

The parliament convened for the first time as national EU leaders gathered in Brussels for a third consecutive day to hash out who will get the bloc’s top jobs under the new mandate. EU-wide elections in May returned a fragmented 751-member parliament, which was set to elect its president on Wednesday.

Catalan separatist leaders Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comin and Oriol Junqueras have not been able to take their seats in Strasbourg as the Spanish electoral authority has not recognized them as members.

Puigdemont and Comin have lived in self-imposed exile since warrants were issued for their arrest in Spain after a failed bid for secession for Catalonia in 2017.

Instead of traveling to Spain to pledge allegiance to the Spanish constitution in person, as is required to take seats in the Strasbourg assembly, both sent in written statements of allegiance, which were not accepted.

Junqueras, imprisoned in Spain, was not allowed to leave jail to take the pledge and, along with Puigdemont and Comin, was left off Spain’s list of members, which numbered 51 rather than 54.

Hundreds gathered outside the parliament in Strasbourg, many waving pro-independence Catalan flags, to protest against the exclusion of the three Catalan separatist leaders.

Protesters hold Catalan flags during a demonstration asking for the Parliament inclusion of the 3 Catalan elected MEP's Carles Puigdemont, Oriol Junqueras and Toni Comin in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, July 2, 2019. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

BAN BEING CHALLENGED

The EU General Court on Monday dismissed an application by Puigdemont and Comin to take their seats at the start of the session while challenges to decisions by the Spanish authorities and the parliament to bar them are considered.

“Any future parliament president would certainly have to also look into this, because it’s also a matter of how do you defend the rights of those who have been elected into the European Parliament,” Ska Keller, co-leader of the Greens/European Free Alliance party, of which Junqueras is a member, told reporters.

The seats of the Catalan separatist leaders will remain empty until they either take their oaths or leave their places to other members of their list. Should they become members of the European Parliament, they would receive immunity.

The Brexit Party kicked off the term by gathering outside the parliament holding “BeLeave in Britain” signs and marching into the chamber en masse. They turned their backs when the EU anthem was played.

From the other end of Britain’s political spectrum, several lawmakers from the strongly pro-EU Liberal Democrats wore yellow T-shirts marked “Stop Brexit” and “Bollocks to Brexit”.

Britons voted narrowly in a 2016 referendum to leave the EU but the departure has been delayed by deadlock in the London parliament over the terms of Brexit.

There is one less political party represented in the new EU parliament as the European Freedom and Direct Democracy - largely made up of Italy’s 5-Star Movement and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), whose leader, Nigel Farage, now heads the Brexit Party - has disbanded.

Slideshow (3 Images)

Instead, the Brexit Party’s 29 members and the 5-Star’s 14 are among the 55 considered unaffiliated in the parliament.

To form a political group in the chamber, 25 members from at least a quarter of the EU’s nations have to sign on.

The new parliament also registered its highest number of women yet with 40% of the members, as the bloc faces pressure to improve the gender balance in its top jobs. </s> Thousands rallied on Tuesday near the European Parliament in Strasbourg to demand that three Catalan separatist lawmakers be allowed to take their seats after they were elected to the EU legislature in May

MADRID (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd July, 2019) Thousands rallied on Tuesday near the European Parliament in Strasbourg to demand that three Catalan separatist lawmakers be allowed to take their seats after they were elected to the EU legislature in May

The gathering of the Council for the Republic, a separatist movement headed by the Spanish region's former leader Carles Puigdemont, drew some 10,000 people, according to El Pais newspaper.

Puigdemont and two fellow pro-independence politicians � Toni Comin and Oriol Junqueras � did not show up for the opening session on Tuesday fearing arrest.

Spanish media said the trio are in Germany.

They fled Spain where they are wanted on sedition and other charges for their role in Catalonia's 2017 bid for independence.

In a video address, Puigdemont promised to fight for his right to seat on the European Parliament and urged the new convocation to shift away from the predecessors' course toward "repressions and curbs on democracy."

Parliament speaker Antonio Tajani told the three politicians last week they would not be able to join the legislature for a new term because they were not on the list submitted by Spanish authorities, which will only confirm their right to represent the country if the three take oath in Madrid in person. </s> STRASBOURG, July 2 (Reuters) - The European Parliament opened for a new term on Tuesday with the highest number of women ever but short of three pro-independence Catalan members who were barred from joining as hundreds protested over their exclusion outside the building.

Further controversy arose when 29 members of Britain's anti-EU Brexit Party turned their backs as the European Union anthem - Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" - was played live at the opening ceremony - a gesture that other lawmakers denounced as disgraceful and pathetic.

The parliament convened for the first time as national EU leaders gathered in Brussels for a third consecutive day to hash out who will get the bloc's top jobs under the new mandate. EU-wide elections in May returned a fragmented 751-member parliament, which was set to elect its president on Wednesday.

Catalan separatist leaders Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comin and Oriol Junqueras have not been able to take their seats in Strasbourg as the Spanish electoral authority has not recognised them as members.

Puigdemont and Comin have lived in self-imposed exile since warrants were issued for their arrest in Spain after a failed bid for secession for Catalonia in 2017.

Instead of travelling to Spain to pledge allegiance to the Spanish constitution in person, as is required to take seats in the Strasbourg assembly, both sent in written statements of allegiance, which were not accepted.

Junqueras, imprisoned in Spain, was not allowed to leave jail to take the pledge and, along with Puigdemont and Comin, was left off Spain's list of members, which numbered 51 rather than 54.

Hundreds gathered outside the parliament in Strasbourg, many waving pro-independence Catalan flags, to protest against the exclusion of the three Catalan separatist leaders.

The EU General Court on Monday dismissed an application by Puigdemont and Comin to take their seats at the start of the session while challenges to decisions by the Spanish authorities and the parliament to bar them are considered.

"Any future parliament president would certainly have to also look into this, because it's also a matter of how do you defend the rights of those who have been elected into the European Parliament," Ska Keller, co-leader of the Greens/European Free Alliance party, of which Junqueras is a member, told reporters.

The seats of the Catalan separatist leaders will remain empty until they either take their oaths or leave their places to other members of their list. Should they become members of the European Parliament, they would receive immunity.

The Brexit Party kicked off the term by gathering outside the parliament holding "BeLeave in Britain" signs and marching into the chamber en masse. They turned their backs when the EU anthem was played.

From the other end of Britain's political spectrum, several lawmakers from the strongly pro-EU Liberal Democrats wore yellow T-shirts marked "Stop Brexit" and "Bollocks to Brexit".

Britons voted narrowly in a 2016 referendum to leave the EU but the departure has been delayed by deadlock in the London parliament over the terms of Brexit.

There is one less political party represented in the new EU parliament as the European Freedom and Direct Democracy - largely made up of Italy's 5-Star Movement and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), whose leader, Nigel Farage, now heads the Brexit Party - has disbanded.

Instead, the Brexit Party's 29 members and the 5-Star's 14 are among the 55 considered unaffiliated in the parliament.

To form a political group in the chamber, 25 members from at least a quarter of the EU's nations have to sign on.

The new parliament also registered its highest number of women yet with 40% of the members, as the bloc faces pressure to improve the gender balance in its top jobs. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis Editing by Mark Heinrich) </s> STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Parliament opened for a new term on Tuesday with the highest number of women ever but short of three pro-independence Catalan members who were barred from joining as hundreds protested over their exclusion outside the building.

Further controversy arose when 29 members of Britain’s anti-EU Brexit Party turned their backs as the European Union anthem - Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” - was played live at the opening ceremony - a gesture that other lawmakers denounced as disgraceful and pathetic.

The parliament convened for the first time as national EU leaders gathered in Brussels for a third consecutive day to hash out who will get the bloc’s top jobs under the new mandate. EU-wide elections in May returned a fragmented 751-member parliament, which was set to elect its president on Wednesday.

Catalan separatist leaders Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comin and Oriol Junqueras have not been able to take their seats in Strasbourg as the Spanish electoral authority has not recognized them as members.

Puigdemont and Comin have lived in self-imposed exile since warrants were issued for their arrest in Spain after a failed bid for secession for Catalonia in 2017.

Instead of traveling to Spain to pledge allegiance to the Spanish constitution in person, as is required to take seats in the Strasbourg assembly, both sent in written statements of allegiance, which were not accepted.

Junqueras, imprisoned in Spain, was not allowed to leave jail to take the pledge and, along with Puigdemont and Comin, was left off Spain’s list of members, which numbered 51 rather than 54.

Hundreds gathered outside the parliament in Strasbourg, many waving pro-independence Catalan flags, to protest against the exclusion of the three Catalan separatist leaders.

The EU General Court on Monday dismissed an application by Puigdemont and Comin to take their seats at the start of the session while challenges to decisions by the Spanish authorities and the parliament to bar them are considered.

“Any future parliament president would certainly have to also look into this, because it’s also a matter of how do you defend the rights of those who have been elected into the European Parliament,” Ska Keller, co-leader of the Greens/European Free Alliance party, of which Junqueras is a member, told reporters.

The seats of the Catalan separatist leaders will remain empty until they either take their oaths or leave their places to other members of their list. Should they become members of the European Parliament, they would receive immunity.

The Brexit Party kicked off the term by gathering outside the parliament holding “BeLeave in Britain” signs and marching into the chamber en masse. They turned their backs when the EU anthem was played.

From the other end of Britain’s political spectrum, several lawmakers from the strongly pro-EU Liberal Democrats wore yellow T-shirts marked “Stop Brexit” and “Bollocks to Brexit”.

Britons voted narrowly in a 2016 referendum to leave the EU but the departure has been delayed by deadlock in the London parliament over the terms of Brexit.

There is one less political party represented in the new EU parliament as the European Freedom and Direct Democracy - largely made up of Italy’s 5-Star Movement and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), whose leader, Nigel Farage, now heads the Brexit Party - has disbanded.

Instead, the Brexit Party’s 29 members and the 5-Star’s 14 are among the 55 considered unaffiliated in the parliament.

To form a political group in the chamber, 25 members from at least a quarter of the EU’s nations have to sign on.

The new parliament also registered its highest number of women yet with 40% of the members, as the bloc faces pressure to improve the gender balance in its top jobs. </s> STRASBOURG — The European Parliament opened for a new term on Tuesday with the highest number of women ever but short of three pro-independence Catalan members who were barred from joining as hundreds protested over their exclusion outside the building.

Further controversy arose when 29 members of Britain’s anti-EU Brexit Party turned their backs as the European Union anthem – Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” – was played live at the opening ceremony – a gesture that other lawmakers denounced as disgraceful and pathetic.

The parliament convened for the first time as national EU leaders gathered in Brussels for a third consecutive day to hash out who will get the bloc’s top jobs under the new mandate. EU-wide elections in May returned a fragmented 751-member parliament, which was set to elect its president on Wednesday.

Catalan separatist leaders Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comin and Oriol Junqueras have not been able to take their seats in Strasbourg as the Spanish electoral authority has not recognized them as members.

Puigdemont and Comin have lived in self-imposed exile since warrants were issued for their arrest in Spain after a failed bid for secession for Catalonia in 2017.

Instead of traveling to Spain to pledge allegiance to the Spanish constitution in person, as is required to take seats in the Strasbourg assembly, both sent in written statements of allegiance, which were not accepted.

Junqueras, imprisoned in Spain, was not allowed to leave jail to take the pledge and, along with Puigdemont and Comin, was left off Spain’s list of members, which numbered 51 rather than 54.

Hundreds gathered outside the parliament in Strasbourg, many waving pro-independence Catalan flags, to protest against the exclusion of the three Catalan separatist leaders.

The EU General Court on Monday dismissed an application by Puigdemont and Comin to take their seats at the start of the session while challenges to decisions by the Spanish authorities and the parliament to bar them are considered.

“Any future parliament president would certainly have to also look into this, because it’s also a matter of how do you defend the rights of those who have been elected into the European Parliament,” Ska Keller, co-leader of the Greens/European Free Alliance party, of which Junqueras is a member, told reporters.

The seats of the Catalan separatist leaders will remain empty until they either take their oaths or leave their places to other members of their list. Should they become members of the European Parliament, they would receive immunity.

The Brexit Party kicked off the term by gathering outside the parliament holding “BeLeave in Britain” signs and marching into the chamber en masse. They turned their backs when the EU anthem was played.

From the other end of Britain’s political spectrum, several lawmakers from the strongly pro-EU Liberal Democrats wore yellow T-shirts marked “Stop Brexit” and “Bollocks to Brexit.”

Britons voted narrowly in a 2016 referendum to leave the EU but the departure has been delayed by deadlock in the London parliament over the terms of Brexit.

There is one less political party represented in the new EU parliament as the European Freedom and Direct Democracy – largely made up of Italy’s 5-Star Movement and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), whose leader, Nigel Farage, now heads the Brexit Party – has disbanded.

Instead, the Brexit Party’s 29 members and the 5-Star’s 14 are among the 55 considered unaffiliated in the parliament.

To form a political group in the chamber, 25 members from at least a quarter of the EU’s nations have to sign on.

The new parliament also registered its highest number of women yet with 40% of the members, as the bloc faces pressure to improve the gender balance in its top jobs. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis Editing by Mark Heinrich) </s> Spain's parliament on Friday suspended the mandates of four Catalan lawmakers who were elected while in custody and remain on trial over their role in the region's failed 2017 separatist bid.

If the four lawmakers refuse to cede their seats then the move could reduce the threshold of an absolute majority that acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez needs in the congress, or lower house, to be sworn in for a second term.

However, if the four hand over their parliamentary mandates to like-minded replacements, Sanchez would still need the help of Catalan separatist parties to be sworn in during an investiture vote expected in the first week of July.

His Socialists came top in a general election last month but failed to secure a majority in the assembly.

The mandates of Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull and Jordi Sanchez were automatically suspended because they are being held in custody while on trial in the Supreme Court, parliament speaker Meritxell Batet told a news conference.

She said she had asked for a report to clarify what the threshold for an absolute majority will be in this case.

The four men have been charged with rebellion for organising a banned independence referendum which was followed by a short-lived declaration of independence, sparking Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

The first three have also been charged with embezzlement of public money to stage the referendum, which was marred by a violent police crackdown.

Catalan senator Raul Romeva, who is also on trial for rebellion and embezzlement, was expected to be suspended later by the Senate, parliament's upper house.

The Supreme Court allowed the five Catalan leaders to temporarily leave jail on Tuesday to be sworn in along with other newly-elected lawmakers.

They are among 12 Catalan leaders to go on trial since February, with a ruling in the highly sensitive proceedings expected during the second half of the year.

Junqueras, a former Catalan vice-president who heads the separatist ERC party, is the lead candidate in Sunday's European Parliament election for a European regionalist party that defends the right to self-determination, the European Free Alliance.

His rival, former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont who fled to Belgium after the failed independence declaration, will also stand in the European elections as the leading candidate for his Junts per Catalunya (JxCat), the other main separatist party.

The two hope to use their positions in the European Parliament to denounce what they consider to be Madrid's heavy-handed repression.

"We have been suspended in Spain but they can't do it in Europe!," Junqueras tweeted.

"A political prisoner entering the European Parliament is the best way to denounce the repression of the Spanish State."

Conservative parties, including upstart far-right party Vox which won seats in parliament for the first time last month, accuse Sanchez and his left-wing allies of preparing to make concessions to the separatists in exchange for support in parliament.

Sanchez argues he is only seeking dialogue with the separatists in the hope of defusing the Catalan crisis.

A poll published on May 10 by the Catalan government's CEO survey institute showed that slightly more Catalans were against independence than were in favour -- the first time that has been the case since June 2017. </s> The lower chamber of Spain's Parliament has suspended four Catalan separatist politicians from their recently gained positions as national lawmakers because they are currently in jail during an ongoing trial for rebellion and other charges.

Speaker Meritxell Batet says that the governing body of the Congress of Deputies ruled on Friday to suspend the former Vice President of the Catalonia region, Oriol Junqueras, and three more pro-independence leaders in line with the country's criminal code.

The four politicians, and a fifth who won a seat in the Senate, were elected last month. Spain's Supreme Court granted them permission earlier this week to attend the opening parliamentary sessions of the new legislative term, escorted by police.

Junqueras is also a candidate for the European Parliament in elections that take place on Sunday in Spain. </s> Spain's parliament has suspended four Catalan lawmakers elected while facing trial over their role in the failed 2017 push for independence.

In a move that could benefit acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the four men – who are being held in custody – will no longer be parliamentarians.

Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull and Jordi Sanchez now need to either vacate their seats in parliament, or resign.

Sanchez's Socialists came out on top in last month's general elections, but failed to secure a majority in the assembly.

The suspension could reduce the threshold of an absolute majority that he needs in Congress, or in the lower house, to be sworn in for a second term.

If the lawmakers cede their seats to replacements, Sanchez would once again need the help of Catalan separatist parties to be sworn in.

An investiture vote is expected in the first week of July.
ALDE European Parliament group expels Catalan nationalist party PDECat amid corruption scandals that affect the CDC predecessor party.