The Spanish embassy in Denmark "does not like the fact that Danes will be able to hear Puigdemont", states a headline in Berlingske, the conservative newspaper of record in the Scandinavian country. The embassy has made public the discontent of Mariano Rajoy's government with the planned journey by acting Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to the Danish capital, where he has been invited by the University of Copenhagen to take part in a debate on Catalonia this Monday.
On Tuesday he will have a meeting behind closed doors with a group of MPs in the Folketing, the Danish Parliament. The deputies belong to the commissions of Foreign and European Affairs and the committees for Greenland and the Faroe Islands, who want to hear in first person about the goals of the Catalan sovereignists.
The second in command of the Spanish embassy, Javier Dago told the Danish newspaper that for him it was “surprising” that the university had invited Puigdemont. "In our opinion, he has no prestige and has been derelict in his duties. He is not the most appropriate person to give an opinion on the current situation in Catalonia", Dago told Berlingske.
Time to arrest him
The Spanish diplomat also assured that although they do not like Puigdemont's move, they do not plan on making a formal complaint to the Danish government, even though they are keeping the Spanish foreign affairs ministry informed. "The Spanish government already knows exactly what [Puigdemont] will say and does not approve of it. We have a different view of things. We don't like the fact that people can hear him", Dago added.
Dago asserts that he doesn't know if the Spanish justice system “will try to take the opportunity” provided by Puigdemont's departure from Brussels to reactivate the European Arrest Warrant for his detention, but he admits that the time frame is too short to carry out the necessary formalities.
Puigdemont's decision to travel to Denmark was not made public until Friday. Both the university and the MPs with whom he is to meet announced his visit at the last moment, taking the Spanish authorities by surprise.
The Danish public broadcaster Channel 2 reported the controversy on its newscast and interviewed Carles Villaro, spokesperson for the Catalan National Assembly in Denmark:
Some Danish deputies protested on social media about the fact that the Danish government has limited itself to listening to the position of the Spanish executive and is not also listening to that of the Catalan pro-independence forces, in spite of the parliamentary victory they achieved in the elections on 21st December.
The deputy of the Faroe Island Independence Party, Magni Arge, recalled that "Puidgemont is a legitimate MP-elect of the Catalan Parliament" and "he obtained close to a million votes":
However, Danish deputy Henrik Dahl, foreign affairs spokesperson for the Liberal Alliance, centre-right party which is part of the current government coalition, told Politiken, the country's major left-wing newspaper, that he will not attend the meeting with Puigdemont. "Our partners are the central government of Madrid. I'm sorry, I'm not responding, but these are the partners that we have. I believe that it is a bad idea for Catalonia to separate from Spain. It is not healthy that the richest province in the country says that [Spain] doesn't matter to them".
For the foreign affairs spokesman for Denmark's Red-Green alliance, deputy Nikolaj Villumsen, "it is very positive that Puigdemont is coming to the Folketing so that we can examine the possibilities of finding a democratic and peaceful way out of the conflict. The attitude of the Spanish government is absolutely unacceptable". He also made statements on the matter on his Twitter account:
Villumsen accused the current Danish government of "outsourcing" its policy on the Catalan question to the Madrid government, despite its statement in favour of dialogue. In a further tweet, the Red-Green spokesperson said he would support Danish politicians who met with the Spanish government on the matter, but said this could not be an excuse not to meet with a Catalan leader.