President Carles Puigdemont has said this morning that he made "a mistake" on 10th October last year. That day, Puigdemont, in the Catalan Parliament, announced and then immediately suspended a declaration of the republic. Now, in hindsight, he sees that as a misjudgement.
In an interview from Brussels with Catalan radio, El Món on Rac 1, his first since his announcement yesterday evening, Puigdemont said that that day "we should have implemented the republic". He said that, although "we could have defended our position well", he opted to suspend his declaration because "they promised me that, if we didn't vote on the declaration of independence, there would be dialogue", a promise that wasn't kept in the end.
Puigdemont was speaking after announcing he is stepping aside "provisionally" and instead proposing Jordi Sànchez as a candidate for investiture as president. He said that the Spanish government's reading of this decision was mistaken: "The Moncloa's version is ridiculous", he said, adding that Mariano Rajoy's executive "is scared that I won't give up". "Giving up isn't in my dictionary," he said.
"They say the opposite of the reality"
“In Madrid they say the opposite of the reality”, continued Puigdemont, who insisted that Thursday's announcement is a "provisional step to the side" and that he intends to "be president again" but that the "lack of separation of powers has made the result of the elections, for me to be president, impractical".
For this reason he defends having given way to Jordi Sànchez once the Parliament, during yesterday's plenary session, "confirmed that it had a majority to take a decision and Madrid wasn't letting it". As for the proposal of Jordi Sànchez as a candidate for president, Puigdemont said that the timetable has to be set by the Parliament's speaker, Roger Torrent, but that, in any case, "we cannot accept that they won't let Sànchez be president", because "the Parliament has to decide that and not a judge". As for the new government, he's said that it's still not completely agreed because "before deciding on portfolios, the government's agenda has to be decided on".
Sànchez “has all the right in the world”
Puigdemont reiterated his support for Jordi Sànchez, second on his Junts per Catalunya candidacy, and said that "he has all the right in the world to be a candidate to the presidency", adding that since the liquidation of Catalan self-government through the application of article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, "there are some gentlemen who have a switch to decide who we can propose as president and who not". "How will they argue it to prevent Jordi Sànchez from being a candidate", asked Puigdemont, adding that "whoever puts obstacles in the way of Sànchez's investiture will be committing a great error and, probably, some crime".
Moreover, the president warned that "we won't allow any abuse from the state to pass; this has now reached the world and some day the world will take a stance". He followed this with a warning: "State, be careful with your abuses".
Without guarantees to call an election
Likewise, Puigdemont noted that he was on the point of calling an election on 26th October, but didn't do so as he didn't have sufficient guarantees. He said that "the Spanish state had designed a coup d'état to destroy [Catalan] autonomy" and that on 26th October, a businessperson had told him "a minister had told him that Rajoy wanted to speak with me", but that in the end he didn't manage to speak to "anyone from the Spanish government".
"I would have called an election with the essential guarantees to hold them normally", he added, "if the state had committed to lifting [article] 155 and removing the 'Jordis' from prison, I would have called an election in October".
As for the declaration of independence the next day, Puigdemont said that that he day he personally decided "to not lower the Spanish flag" over the government palace "because I didn't want to start the country with an offensive gesture towards part of its population". As for the decision to go to Belgium, "it was individual for everyone". He said he travelled to Brussels "by car, and without going in anyone's boot".
Role of a former president
As for his immediate future, Puigdemont said: "when there is a new president, I will acquire the position of former president". At that moment he will ask for "the law to be obeyed" as for the role of former presidents, which includes keeping an office with staff.