Puigdemont considers that the changes in the Penal Code "try to liquidate" his strategy of defeating the State in Europe

The first reaction of Junts per Catalunya to the changes announced yesterday by Pedro Sánchez in the Penal Code, already registered this Friday in the Congress of Deputies by PSOE and United We Can, was cautious and prudent, full of conditions waiting to know the details of the measure, a response that contracted with the optimism of Esquerra and President Pere Aragonès.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
11 November 2022 Friday 08:32
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Puigdemont considers that the changes in the Penal Code "try to liquidate" his strategy of defeating the State in Europe

The first reaction of Junts per Catalunya to the changes announced yesterday by Pedro Sánchez in the Penal Code, already registered this Friday in the Congress of Deputies by PSOE and United We Can, was cautious and prudent, full of conditions waiting to know the details of the measure, a response that contracted with the optimism of Esquerra and President Pere Aragonès.

Now that the literal nature of the legal modifications is public, the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont considers that all this may be counterproductive for his international strategy. “If what is wanted is for European jurisdictions to no longer be able to do as Germany did – which entered to examine the merits of the facts – and have no choice but to apply an automatic extradition, that will serve to try to liquidate our strategy of defeating the State. ”, he pointed out in a chain of messages on Twitter.

In addition, he points out that it does not seem like a "victory" to make "presentable before Europe some extraditions and criminal convictions that no one shared right now, and further constrain the path of confrontation with the State to culminate independence."

In the past, the now MEP had pointed out a few weeks ago to the President of the Government that what had to be done was to repeal the crime of sedition and not reform it, when the head of the central Executive had referred to it from Brussels. The former president emphasizes that he had made that claim "so that events such as those of October 1, 2017 have the same consideration that they had for German justice." "There are no crimes, neither 15, nor five or half a year in prison", pointed out the former president, who points out that the keys to change are in the concepts of "intimidation" and "preparatory acts".

In any case, this matter of criminal changes does not affect his immediate strategy in Belgium, since the denial of the extradition of Lluís Puig by the Belgian justice system was due to issues related to fundamental rights and not to criminal classification. This matter was never entered into, although it was done in Germany and Puigdemont came out with flying colors.

In Belgium, they take advantage of the fact that the judge predetermined by law was not appointed for those charged by 1-O and that there was no effective judicial protection due to the fact that they had to go to the Supreme Court and the National High Court and not to the Supreme Court. Superior of Justice of Catalonia, as it corresponded to them as appraised.

The coordinator of the international defense of the former president, the lawyer Gonzalo Boye, also considers that if there were no political leaders abroad "the Government would not have moved" to change the Penal Code. To explain what happened, the penalist points out that "if before there was a monkey with a machine gun, now that monkey has fewer bullets, but it still has a machine gun." "What had to be done was to remove the machine gun from the monkey," he concludes.

On the other hand, the lawyer considers that protests continue to be penalized and warns that everything will depend on the interpretation made by the judges in the future.

Boye has also pointed out this Friday at RAC1, given the speculation of other political leaders about a possible return of Puigdemont after the repeal of sedition, that if he returns to Catalonia it will not be because of these legal changes but because of the resolutions of the European justice system.