Twenty-four hours after Spain removed him from power, Catalonia’s leader had resolved to leave the country and take his independence campaign to the heart of the European Union, but first he needed to tie off an important loose end, Reuters reports.
Carles Puigdemont’s secessionist alliance was threatening to unravel, with the region’s biggest grass-roots independence organization unhappy about his plan. So he called a meeting of political allies on the eve of his departure for Brussels, according to three sources with first-hand knowledge of the events.
In the rural hamlet of Vilahur, near Puigdemont’s home town, he and seven others, including the deputy chief of the grass-roots Catalan National Assembly (ANC), met over dinner at a farmhouse in the expectation Puigdemont and others present would be arrested for rebellion within hours, one source said.
Puigdemont told the group he was not running away from a fight, as ANC officials feared it would be perceived, and that he would use Brussels, home to the EU parliament and commission, as a stage to continue to speak out against Spain’s crackdown on the independence movement, the source added.
After adjourning for the night, the group resumed the next morning at the farmhouse and agreed to back his plan. Crucially, that plan also included a commitment to contest snap regional elections called by Madrid for Dec. 21 rather than boycott them as the ANC first envisaged.
On reaching agreement, Puigdemont told them he was prepared to “spend 30 years in prison” for the cause and the others embraced him in what the source described as an emotional farewell. ANC deputy leader Agusti Alcoberro was among them.
The account of the meeting reveals how the independence movement’s leadership managed to overcome deep-rooted internal divisions and agree a rough game plan for the weeks ahead. While the two main pro-independence parties finally chose on Tuesday to contest the elections under their own brand rather than a joint ticket, their manifestos will be coordinated and they are still expected to join forces after the vote.
An opinion poll this week showed that pro-independence parties would win the largest share of the vote, though a majority was not assured and question marks remain over Puigdemont’s leadership of the pro-independence cause. Puigdemont could not be reached for comment.