“This is not a normal election,” would-be Catalan leader, Carles Puigdemont, told supporters in a final rally ahead of Thursday’s regional election. “What is at stake is not who gets the most votes, but whether the country [Catalonia] or [Spanish prime minister Mariano] Rajoy wins”, he said, referring to the crisis ignited by his unilateral declaration of independence for Catalonia.
Adding to the surrealism, Puigdemont was more than 1,200 kilometres away in Belgium, addressing the party faithful in towns across Catalonia via a videolink at an undisclosed location.
While Catalonia’s former deputy leader, Oriol Junqueras, has been campaigning from jail, Puigdemont has been in self-imposed exile in Belgium, ever since he fled Spain following charges of rebellion and sedition.
Puigdemont’s location in Belgium hasn’t been revealed, although allies dismiss suggestions that he is on the move every few days. Puigdemont is understood to have spent some time in Flanders, Belgium’s larger, richest region with separatist leanings. His lawyer lives in Tielt near Bruges.
Earlier this month he appeared at a Catalan separatist rally in Brussels that drew a crowd of 45,000 people to protest near the main headquarters of the European Union institutions. Demonstrators, including families with children, waved flags and carried banners criticising the EU for not getting involved in the Catalan crisis.
The flight to Brussels was no accident, as Puigdemont had hoped to involve the EU in his cause. One of his main rivals, Inés Arrimadas, the leader of the Citizens party, has also spoken in the European parliament to raise awareness of Catalans who support Spanish unity.
Aside from rallies, the ousted Catalan leader has made campaign videos, taken part in a TV telethon and occasionally been pictured in bars and restaurants.
Molt feliç d'haver ajudat @la_marato des de Brussel·les. Hem recaptat 1.540 euros en una trobada solidària amb més de 100 persones per veure el Girona-Getafe. I a més hem guanyat! 😊 #LaMaratóTV3 pic.twitter.com/7C3uRnQd9I
— Carles Puigdemont 🎗 (@KRLS) December 17, 2017
Puigdemont has given a few interviews. He met the correspondent of the Belgian daily Le Soir, for a walk in Forêt de Soignes, near Brussels, a location chosen at his request for privacy.
He was also given top billing on the launch episode of the Alex Salmond Show, a political chat programme hosted by the former SNP leader on Kremlin-funded RT.
But his arrival in Brussels was a headache for the Belgian government, an awkward four-party coalition, where the prime minister is francophone liberal Charles Michel, but the largest party is the Flemish separatist NVA.
Shortly before the Catalan’s arrival, Belgium’s immigration minister, Theo Francken, claimed that Puigdemont could claim asylum in Belgium and criticised the Spanish judicial process. Facing calls for Francken’s sacking, Michel was forced to rein in his minister, telling him not to “pour oil on the fire”, while insisting asylum was not on the agenda.
The prospect of a diplomatic fallout between Brussels and Madrid has diminished, since Spanish judges dropped a request under the European arrest warrant for his extradition. But Puigdemont still faces 30 years in jail on rebellion charges. Win or lose in these elections, he is due to make an announcement on his future in Brussels on Friday.
