Catalonia's deposed leader Carles Puigdemont urges all parties to 'unite against Spain'

Pro-secession parties want snap election to become a de facto independence referendum

Dismissed Catalan regional President Carles Puigdemont attends a press conference at International Press Club of Brussels (Getty)

Catalonia’s deposed leader Carles Puigdemont has urged the region’s political groups to unite against Spain, as a window for him to seal an electoral pact with other pro-independence parties began to close.

Mr Puigdemont went into self-imposed exile in Belgium last month after Spain’s central government fired his secessionist administration, dissolved the Catalan parliament and called an election in the region for 21 December.

Pro-secession parties want that vote to become a de facto independence referendum.

Two of those parties, Mr Puigdemont’s PDeCAT and the ERC party, said at the weekend they might contest it on a combined ticket.

But they must register any alliance by the end of Tuesday and prospects of them bridging their differences in time looked slim.

The Catalan independence push has deeply divided Spain, dragging it into its worst political crisis since the return of democracy four decades ago and fuelling anti-Spanish sentiment in Catalonia and nationalist tendencies elsewhere.

In an interview with Catalunya Radio from Brussels, Mr Puigdemont said all parties contesting the election should unite against Madrid.

“The ideal would be a broad regional list of parties... that stand for democracy and freedom.” he said, mentioning PDeCAT, ERC, the anti-capitalist CUP and left-wing Podemos.

ERC’s spokesman Sergi Sabria said earlier this week that his party did not rule out a coalition with PDeCAT, but would agree only if other parties joined them, including CUP, which has yet to decide whether it will contest the December ballot.

Polls show the ERC and PDeCAT combined would not win enough votes for a majority in the Catalan parliament, though running together would increase their chance of success.

Mr Puigdemont also said he might be in jail by the time of the election, “but prison doesn’t deprive anyone of legitimacy”.

Madrid issued an arrest warrant against Mr Puigdemont on charges including rebellion, but a Brussels court ruled that the deposed leader could remain at liberty in Belgium until it had decided whether he should be extradited.

He and other secessionist leaders face the charges for organising an independence referendum on 1 October and proclaiming a Catalan republic, in defiance of Spain’s constitution.

The party that forms the main opposition to the secessionists in Catalonia emerged as the big winner in the first nationwide voter survey published by Spain’s most closely watched polling group since the referendum.

Support for the pro-business Ciudadanos rose almost three percentage points to 17.5 per cent, the Sociological Research Centre survey showed.

Podemos – which supports a negotiated referendum on independence in Catalonia – and its allies fell almost two points to 18.5 per cent in the survey.

Unequivocal support for Mr Puigdemont and the secessionist cause came from some 200 pro-independence Catalan mayors who were due to hold a rally in Brussels on Tuesday afternoon.

In the radio interview, Mr Puigdemont also called on the Spanish government to suspend Article 155, which Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy enacted last month to govern Catalonia from Madrid, ahead of the December vote.

“The Spanish state is committing a brutal repression ... If we don’t battle repression together, the Spanish state may win this fight,” Mr Puigdemont said.

Reuters