Quim Torra, Catalonia’s new separatist leader, was sworn in Thursday during a brief ceremony without central government representatives in which he avoided promising to obey the constitution and pledged instead to follow “the will of the Catalan people”.

The ceremony marks the end of nearly seven months of political limbo in the northeastern Spanish region, which has been under direct rule from Madrid since the central government deposed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont following a failed declaration of independence on October 27.

“I promise to loyally fulfil the duties of the post of regional president being faithful to the will of the Catalan people represented by the Catalan parliament,” Torra said as he was sworn in, using the same formula as his predecessor and mentor Puigdemont.

The 55-year-old did not promise to obey the Constitution nor the statute that regulates Catalonia’s autonomy.
He appeared flanked only by a Catalan flag, without the traditional Spanish flag and portrait of the king that protocol states must be present, in a small side-room of the regional government building in Barcelona.

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis criticised the ceremony, saying it done “on the sly”, as if Torra “were a second-rate president”.

The hardline separatist Torra was handpicked by Puigdemont, who is currently in Berlin awaiting potential extradition to Spain, where he faces jail on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds.

He has stressed he is merely a “caretaker president” as he awaits the return of Puigdemont, whom he considers the “legitimate” leader, and has pledged to keep fighting for independence from Spain.

Torra’s swearing-in ceremony only lasted a few minutes and the central government decided not to send any representatives in a sign of tensions between the two.There were no representatives of political parties or civil society either.

As a deferential gesture towards Puigdemont, Torra did not put on the medallion that regional presidents usually wear when they are sworn in.Now Torra needs to form a government, a prerequisite for Madrid to lift direct rule.

But this isn’t assured as Torra has said he wants to reintegrate deposed regional ministers into his government, many of whom are either in preventative custody for their role in the secession drive or in self-exile like Puigdemont.

If the Spanish government decides this is illegal, it could maintain direct rule over the region as requested by center-right party Ciudadanos, whose hardline stance towards the Catalan crisis has resounded in Spain.

The party is now threatening to overtake Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party in regional and municipal elections next year.

In the more immediate future, however, Rajoy needs the support of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) in parliament to approve the 2018 budget.

The PNV wants Madrid to lift direct rule as it strongly supports regional autonomy and is sympathetic to the Catalan cause.
Caught between the two, Rajoy has pledged to watch Torra closely and maintain control over regional finances to avoid public money going to any separatist initiatives, and has also said he is willing to meet the Catalan leader.

Meanwhile, another battle is going on in the courts, with 25 separatist leaders being investigated for rebellion or other offences, nine of whom are in preventative custody and another seven abroad.

On Wednesday, a Belgian judge rejected the extradition request of three former Catalan ministers due to irregularities in the arrest warrants, dealing a blow to Spain.

A court in Germany has also rejected extraditing Puigdemont to Spain for rebellion, a very serious charge that implies violence took place and which many legal experts have discarded.

The court is still considering whether to hand him over to Spain on the lesser charge of misuse of public funds.
Faced with these setbacks, Spain’s Supreme Court has said it is was considering replacing rebellion with sedition, which does not imply violence took place and is less severe.

(Source: AFP)

The Scottish parliament has decisively voted against the United Kingdom’s legislation on departure from the European Union (EU), placing London on course for a major constitutional dispute with Edinburgh and the further postponement of Brexit.

The Scottish lawmakers rejected British Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU Withdrawal Bill by 93 votes to 30 on Tuesday.

Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Scottish Greens backed First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s party members in rejecting the divorce bill, arguing that it would restrict Holyrood’s powers.

The vote is not legally binding but it will force London to make a high-risk decision and assert power over Edinburgh or make further concessions to the Scottish government to avoid a crisis.

May’s disregard for the vote could fuel Sturgeon’s demands for a second referendum on Scottish independence and provide her Scottish National Party (SNP) with a further justification for staging one.

Britain has been at loggerheads with the devolved nations – Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales – on how power would be shared after the Britain’s separation from the 28-member bloc.

Speaking after the Tuesday vote, Scotland’s Brexit secretary Mike Russell, called on the UK government to respect the will of the Scottish parliament and find an acceptable solution.

“The Scottish Parliament has now said overwhelmingly that this attempt to undermine devolution is unacceptable,” he said. “The UK government cannot ignore the reality of devolution or try to drown out what this parliament says. They cannot pretend that no motion has been passed.”

A day earlier, Sturgeon warned London against ignoring the Holyrood’s views and said May needed to secure a deal with Edinburgh fast.

“They [UK government] have a decision to make as to whether they are going to ignore the views of the Scottish Parliament or listen to those views and try very hard to get a deal and to close the gap that remains between us,” she said.

In the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum, 52 percent, or 17.4 million people, voted to leave the EU while 48 percent, or 16 million, voted to stay.

The British government has faced fierce criticism both at home and by the EU for its lack of clarity on its Brexit strategy.

The uncertainty has raised fears that Britain could crash out of the bloc without a trade deal, incurring heavy costs on its domestic economy.

London and Brussels are due to move on to the next stage of Brexit negotiations this year, after reaching agreement in December on exit terms.

Source: Presstv

Spain’s government on Wednesday stepped in to block Carles Puigdemont from being re-appointed president of Catalonia, pressuring the separatist camp to pick another candidate and form a regional government after months of limbo.

Madrid successfully requested the Constitutional Court to cancel a reform voted for last week by Catalonia’s majority separatist parliament that would allow Puigdemont to be appointed president without having to be present.

The court announced on Wednesday evening it had ruled “admissible the appeal of the government” and suspended the reform, which had been temporarily blocked while the court deliberated.

Government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo said earlier the Catalan parliament would not be able to call a session to appoint Puigdemont “at the risk of committing the offence of disobedience”.

Puigdemont’s allies had announced Saturday they would try and have him appointed by May 14.

But they also recognised that if they couldn’t, they would pick an alternative candidate to unblock the political impasse in Catalonia, which was put under direct rule by Madrid on October 27 after a failed secession bid.

That day, Rajoy also sacked Puigdemont and all his ministers after the regional parliament declared independence following a referendum that wasn’t sanctioned by Madrid and was banned by the courts.

He also called snap regional elections for December 21, which separatist parties went on to win, once again getting an absolute majority in parliament.

By then, Puigdemont had already left for Belgium in self-imposed exile.

But since then, all candidates proposed by the separatist camp to lead Catalonia have fallen flat, as they are either abroad and wanted by Spain, or already in prison, charged with rebellion.

Critics of the independence camp have charged they are merely dragging the process out to try and garner sympathy.

Speaking in the Senate on Tuesday, Rajoy slammed the separatists’ attempts to have Puigdemont re-appointed.

He accused them of “having put Catalan politics in an absurd loop in which the personal interests of one person are placed before the collective project of an entire society”.

Catalan separatists, however, say Puigdemont is their legitimate leader as his Together for Catalonia grouping received the most votes out of all separatist parties in the December elections.

They also say the rebellion charge against him and others is disproportionate, and describe those already in jail in Spain — like former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras — as “political prisoners”.

Puigdemont is currently in Germany after being detained there in March on a European arrest warrant against him issued by Spain. He was later released on bail.

Source: AFP

Separatists in Spain’s Catalonia region say they will re-nominate self-professed, fugitive leader Carles Puigdemont to head their regional government, a move that would be unacceptable to Madrid.

In October 2017, Catalonia’s pro-independence leaders held a referendum that had been banned by Spain’s central government and declared illegal by the country’s Constitutional Court. Organizers said 90 percent of voters backed secession. Before and during the referendum, Spanish police attempted to prevent the voting and arrested a number of secessionist leaders.

Amid that crackdown, Puigdemont — who unsuccessfully declared independence for Catalonia from Spain late that same month — and four of his ministers fled to Belgium, where authorities refused to extradite the fugitive leaders despite a European arrest warrant. Puigdemont then traveled to Denmark and then Germany. A second warrant has been issued by Madrid to have them extradited. Berlin is considering that request.

Meeting in Berlin on Saturday, pro-independence Catalan politicians vowed to attempt once again to get their former leader reinstalled as president of the Spanish region by May 14 and said they had no intention of holding fresh elections.

“We want to vote on the investiture of @KRLS (Puigdemont), a legitimate president, the one who emerges from the polls with the mandate… before May 14,” Eduard Pujol, a spokesman for the secessionist Junts per Catalunya Party in the regional parliament, said in a tweet.

The announcement came as Catalan separatists were expected to propose a new candidate who would have been acceptable to the government in Madrid.

Pujol added that the secessionists remained loyal to Puigdemont despite previous failed efforts to install him as president.

Catalan lawmakers have until May 22 to form a government; and if they fail to do so, a new election must be held.

This will be the fifth attempt to install a new regional president since the Spanish government imposed direct rule on resource-rich Catalonia. Madrid has already said it will contest a newly-passed legislation that allows members to vote for an absent leader.

Madrid wants Puigdemont, along with the four other former officials, on charges of sedition and rebellion.

A court has normally 60 days to rule on extradition based on the new European arrest warrant.

Catalonia, one of Spain’s wealthiest and most productive regions, is now theoretically under the direct control of the Spanish national government in Madrid. Pro-independence parties won a slim majority after a December 2017 election called by the Spanish government. However, they have since been locked in drawn-out negotiations on forming a government.

Italy is facing a third month of political paralysis after talks between the center-left and the Five Star Movement over a coalition government failed to get off the ground Thursday.

President Sergio Mattarella’s office announced in a statement that a fresh round of consultations would be held at the presidential palace on Monday “to see if the parties have other ideas for a government majority”.

On Sunday, just days after acting Democratic Party leader Maurizio Martina had said he was willing to talk to Five Star head Luigi Di Maio, former premier Matteo Renzi closed the door on any coalition deal with the anti-establishment upstarts.

Renzi stepped down as prime minister after his Democratic Party slumped to third place in the March 4 vote, behind the right-wing coalition led by the nationalist League that won the most seats, and Five Star, which became Italy’s largest single party.

Renzi still wields huge influence among his party’s MPs and senators however, many of whom are hostile to Five Star after it ferociously criticised them when they governed Italy.

At a conference on Thursday the Democratic Party’s national leadership voted unanimously not to engage in government talks with the Five Star Movement.

“With Five Star, the chapter is closed,” declared Martina.

(Source: AFP)

The UK’s two main parties, the ruling Conservatives and the main opposition Labour, are set to lock horns in this year’s local elections across England.

Polling stations across the country will open on Thursday between 7am and 10pm local time and voters will head to the ballots to choose candidates that will take more than 4,000 seats across 150 councils in England.

All the seats in capital London’s 32 boroughs and the metropolitan districts of Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Newcastle are also up for grab.

There are no polls in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

While Prime Minister Theresa May’s party is hoping to keep its grip over main positions, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is positive that his party is set to repeat another strong showing like the one they had in last year’s snap general election.

“The biggest elections are going to be in the main cities, particularly London, Birmingham, Newcastle – we’re going to be working very hard on them. In London particularly, they are going to focus on housing,” he said last December, before proceeding to criticize the Tory government’s treatment of local authorities.

“But it’s also emphasizing the way local authorities have been so underfunded by this government that they are all facing real difficulties … this is the product of seven years of austerity,” he argued. “I’m hoping we do very, very well, but I’m not putting a figure on it.”

May called the snap election thinking that it would easily hand her stronger support in parliament but ended up costing her party its decisive majority.

She further embarrassed the Tories and herself by appealing to Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to form a majority government.

A month before the snap election, however, the Conservatives won 1,900 seats in the local elections, up 558 from the year before, while Labour lost 320 to end up with 1,151.

Source: Presstv

French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that there is a growing temptation of authoritarianism both inside the European Union and around the world, urging the continental bloc to reinforce its democratic process. Macron said on Tuesday that the EU was facing a sort of “civil war” after Britain decided to pull out of the bloc in a referendum in June 2016.

The French leader, however, urged the EU states to double their efforts for the protection of the bloc against further division. “There seems to be a sort of European civil war. There is a fascination with the illiberal and it’s growing all the time,” Macron stated in his first speech to the European Parliament in the eastern French city of Strasbourg.

Macron became known as an ardent pro-Europeanist when he defeated far-right candidate Marine Le Pen to win the French presidential election last year.

The 40-year-old president is, however, faced with the rise of eurosceptic populists across Europe, including in Hungary, Poland and Italy. Outlining his vision for the future of the EU, Macron said in his Tuesday speech that the EU states had to do their utmost to protect the EU’s sovereignty.

“I don’t want to belong to a generation of sleepwalkers, I don’t want to belong to a generation that’s forgotten its own past,” he said, adding, “I want to belong to a generation that will defend European sovereignty because we fought to obtain it. And I will not give in to any kind of fixation on authoritarianism.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker welcomed Macron’s speech, saying it was a sign that “The True France” was returning to the bloc. Macron will travel to Berlin later this week to win support for his proposed reforms in the eurozone. Some German politicians have expressed doubts about Macron’s plans for earmarking a separate budget for the relocation of refugees, a thorny issue which has divided many countries in the bloc.

Macron said Tuesday in a separate proposal that the EU could create a fund to for communities that take in refugees. “I propose creating a European program that directly financially supports local communities that welcome and integrate refugees,” he said.

Source: Presstv

Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request by Catalonia’s pro-independence presidential candidate Jordi Sanchez to be let out of jail and sworn in as regional head.

The Catalan parliament had been scheduled to hold a debate and vote on Sanchez’s candidacy on Friday, but after the court’s ruling Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent announced on Twitter he had suspended the session indefinitely.

Sanchez was remanded in custody in October pending charges over his role in last year’s failed Catalan independence bid.

An attempt to appoint him as president failed last month after Spain’s Supreme Court turned down a request for his release from jail.

But Torrent put Sanchez’s name forward as a candidate again earlier this month after the United Nations Human Rights Committee defended his political rights.

In letters sent last month to Spanish authorities and Sanchez’s lawyers, the UN committee requested the state take all steps to ensure he is allowed to exercise his political rights.

Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena once again turned down Sanchez’s request, arguing there were signs that he could “move in the direction of a rupture of the constitutional order”.

The judge argues it was justified in limiting Sanchez’s political rights given the risk that his release would pose to the collective rights “of the rest of the community”.

Torrent had appealed earlier on Thursday for the judge to agree to let Sanchez, a former leader of influential grassroots independence group ANC who was elected to the Catalan parliament in snap polls in December, leave jail to be sworn in.

“The court has the opportunity to take note of international law and the protection of political rights or write another dark chapter in the history of the Supreme Court,” he said in an interview to news radio station Cadena Ser.

The court ruling comes as Barcelona is gearing up for a huge protest on Sunday to mark the six month anniversary of the jailing of Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, the leader of another separatist organisation.

(Source: AFP)

Pro-independence Catalans celebrated the decision by a German court to release on bail the former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont but also protested for the freedom of other jailed separatists in Spain.

The state court in Schleswig, Germany said the 55-year-old ex-president could leave a prison in northern Germany with a 75,000-euro ($92,000) payment. It wasn’t immediately clear when Puigdemont would be released.

In the town of Figueres, around 100 pro-independence protesters stood in silence for a half hour while wearing white masks with red crosses on their mouths. Demonstrators said the masks and crosses symbolize the oppression by the Spanish government.

The protest ended peacefully with a long round of applause.

(Source: AP)

A German court said on Monday it was likely to take several days to decide whether to extradite former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to Spain to face rebellion charges over the region’s campaign for independence.

Puigdemont appeared on Monday before a regional court in the northern German town of Neumuenster, which extended his detention pending a decision on extradition.

Another court, the Higher Regional Court in the town of Schleswig, will be responsible for deciding whether to grant Spain’s request. The court is unlikely to make a final decision on Puigdemont’s extradition before Easter, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor said.

He had entered Germany from Denmark on Friday after leaving Finland, where he had attended a conference and was caught off-guard by the Spanish Supreme Court’s unexpected decision to reactivate his arrest warrant.

Puigdemont, who fled Spain five months ago for Belgium after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed his regional administration and imposed direct rule from Madrid, faces charges of rebellion that could lead to 25 years in prison.

(Source: Reuters)