It's a "war of nerves": that's what Carles Puigdemont's lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas has said to El Nacional, following the news that the Spanish Public Prosecutor is to ask Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena to activate the European Arrest Warrant for the Catalan politician on Monday if he travels to Denmark.
Right now, Puigdemont's legal team is heavily immersed in the consideration of all options to enable his possible investiture as Catalan president this week, while also guaranteeing his rights as an MP-elect and legitimate president of the Catalan government.
If Carles Puigdemont goes to the University of Copenhagen, where he is scheduled to take part in a debate, and the European Arrest Warrant is then activated and the legal formalities set in motion for his extradition, the Catalan leader in exile could be "retained in Denmark coinciding with the investiture, and there would thus be a risk that he would not be able to come", says Alonso-Cuevillas.
And the fact is that the Puigdemont team has not yet discarded any option, not even the possibility of him being personally present at the Catalan parliament for the investiture session, whose date is due to be announced tomorrow by the speaker of the chamber, Roger Torrent. The lawyer admits that "all scenarios remain open" and, therefore, it is not yet certain if Puigdemont will leave Brussels, whether for the investiture or to fly to Denmark tomorrow.
Regarding the Public Prosecutor's decision to re-open the can of worms of European justice in order to arrest Puigdemont, his lawyer in Barcelona says that "the Public Prosecutor's Office can ask for whatever it wants, and the judge can also activate it without being asked".
If the European Arrest Warrant is activated, there is the possibility that Danish justice will refuse to apply it or else limit it to the crime of disobedience, because the crimes that the Catalan president is accused of -rebellion and sedition - do not have an equivalent in Denmark. However, Alonso-Cuevillas challenges judge Llarena: "We don't know if he will dare. It will be very embarrassing for them if they deactivate it again", referring to Spain's earlier withdrawl of the warrant it had presented to the Belgian authorities.
The decision is in the hands of Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena. But it is also in the power of Carles Puigdemont, who is still assessing whether he will stay in Brussels or travel to Copenhagen.