Catalonia crisis: Puigdemont to fight Madrid from Brussels

Carles Puigdemont addresses news
conference in Brussels

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has vowed to
carry on the region’s fight for independence after fleeing to
Brussels following his sacking by Madrid.

As Spain’s constitutional crisis continues, Puigdemont told
reporters today that he was putting Spain’s territorial conflict
“in the institutional heart of Europe” and wanted guarantees of a
fair trial for separatist leaders, The New York Times reports.

He was speaking publicly for the first time since Spain’s chief
prosecutor called for charges of rebellion to be brought against
the former leader and 19 other separatists over their role in the
independence declaration made by the Catalan
government on Friday.

Puigdemont said he would work from Brussels in “freedom and
security” but would not seek asylum, the BBC reports.

Bloomberg says that while Spanish Prime
Minister Mariano Rajoy may have won the “chess game” between Madrid
and Barcelona by dissolving the Catalan government, “the longer
game of keeping the country’s economic powerhouse in Spain may
prove harder to win”.