The Catalan president in exile, Carles Puigdemont, has made clear his will to continue taking a stand on debates that affect Catalan politics, despite his recent resignation from the presidency of Junts. He demonstrated this yesterday when he asserted that the meeting between Catalan minister Laura Vilagrà and her Spanish counterpart Félix Bolaños was a mistake, and today he developed the idea in a long tweet thread. The president asserted that it is useless for Catalan pro-independence forces to negotiate with the Spanish state without pre-established conditions, or methodology, or allowing the other side to decide who will take part, or going in a way that divides the independence movement. In fact, he warns that such movements cause "demobilization and despair." This is inevitable, he asserts, because Spain is not going to offer anything to such an encounter: "Many, many years have passed, and there is not a single Spanish proposal on the table to resolve the political conflict with Catalonia. Let's face it - they don't have one," he says.
The president again calls for the unity of the entire Catalan independence movement - "to carry out a rethink in order to be effective, and to regain strategy and initiative, rebuilding strength and trust and mutual respect" - because "everyone is necessary". "We carried out the referendum among all of us, we know the formula and we won that day," he said.
Previously in the thread, Puigdemont set out a powerful critique of the situation of the rule of law in Spain, warning that any negotiation must start from this reality because ignoring it is "irresponsible". "They lie, spy, conspire, bribe, ruin banks in other countries... It is clear that when you get into dialogue with these people, all the precautions you can take are very few," he warns.
Puigdemont also leaves a reminder that the "dirty war" against pro-independence forces is not the exclusive property of the People's Party or what is usually defined as the Spanish right, "as the victims of the GAL" - the 1980s death squads authorised by the Socialists - "and all those spied on by order of the PSOE in the Catalangate scandal know well".
He also recalls that the participation in the dirty war against the Catalan independence movement has been not only by the Spanish judiciary but also by its press, which was responsible for publishing the fake reports that were prepared.
Translation:
"Patriotic judges and journalists tarnish the good name of honest people like @josepalay and @boye_g without a second thought, violating their fundamental rights just because those people support us, and on the other hand, are unable to conduct a thorough investigation into the [corrupt activities of the state sewers]."
Translation:
"It has been shown that ministers, MPs, police, prosecutors, judges, publishers and journalists have organized to attack the independence movement (businessmen and bankers are missing from this, but that will end up coming out): this is a real plot, still active, that Spain will never investigate."
"We denounced it from the very start, but they all agreed to let it go by because they had common interests; they had no interest in building up a detailed complaint of the actions that everyone knew were happening but rather it suited them to amplify the narrative scripted by the leaders of that network."