German Police Arrest Former Catalan Leader Puigdemont

German police on Sunday arrested Catalonia's former president Carles Puigdemont, as he crossed over by car from Denmark, in the latest blow to the Spanish region’s independence movement.

Puigdemont's lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, said on Twitter that Puigdemont was picked up by German police as he was travelling back to Belgium where he has been living in self-imposed exile.

The news was confirmed, when a German police spokesman told AFP that Puigdemont "was arrested today at 11:19 am by Schleswig-Holstein's highway patrol force," adding that the detention was based on a European warrant. "He is now in police custody."

Puigdemont's party spokeswoman Anna Grabalosa also confirmed that he was detained on arrival in Germany from Denmark according to The Local. "It happened as he crossed the Danish-German border. He was treated well and all his lawyers are there. That is all I can say," she said.

Puigdemont was driving in Germany on Sunday morning, en route from Denmark, when police detained him on an international arrest warrant issued by a Spanish judge. Puigdemont has been charged by Spain with "rebellion" and "sedition" over his failed independence bid for Catalonia. He had been visiting Finland since Thursday, but slipped out of the Nordic country before Finnish police could detain him.

Puigdemont has defied repeated requests to appear before the Spanish judge investigating his secessionist push, refusing to return to Spain from his self-imposed exile in Belgium. As the WSJ reminds us,  Puigdemont fled in October to Brussels and had used the Belgian city as a base to travel around Europe to speak at conferences in a bid to drum up international support for an independent Catalonia. But he’s avoided returning to Spain, where judicial officials have said he would be arrested immediately.

The arrest paves the way for the extradition of Puigdemont back to Spain, which would cut short the plans of the former Catalan leader to remain in self-imposed exile to try to drum up international support for an independent Catalonia. Separatists were devastated that no country recognized their independence declaration in October and see international backing as essential to ensure a secessionist push in the future is more successful. But the separatist movement has lost momentum in recent months, with many of its leaders in self-imposed exile or in jail, pending the trial for rebellion. Puigdemont’s arrest is a merely the latest blow.

Comments

DownWithYogaPants Arnold Sun, 03/25/2018 - 10:42 Permalink

Since when does Germany arrest anyone crossing their border????

You can really see who rules Germany from this. Rapefugees ok. Upset the bankers 1 Europe stockyard and you get arrested.

Voltaire said look at who you are not allowed to criticize. That is who rules you. It's time to start the killing again unfortunately.

It is time for revolution. I hate to say it cause it will make all that fiat I have stored up for a rainy day worthless but then it will be soon anyway with these bankers having taken all the interest they are coming for the principle. 

In reply to by Arnold

directaction DownWithYogaPants Sun, 03/25/2018 - 10:58 Permalink

Everyone, Catalonians included, knows that crying to others for help is not how revolutions are made and won. Revolutions are earned by force. However crying is all they're doing. Whining, complaining, peacefully protesting, shouting to the international media. It's pathetic. 

Catalonia isn't the place it once was. It is awful now. Anyone who's been there lately has seen the many tens of thousands of black Africans crowding the sidewalks, selling their stolen goods on the streets and parks, jumping the turnstiles to take the trains, bullying people out of their way, casting ugly glares at passersby, demanding and receiving free everything, shoplifting with no fear of arrest. The police and public are frightened of them. These invaders are the new Sacred Cows of Catalonia and their numbers are increasing. 

Spain isn't their enemy. Their enemy is liberalism. 

In reply to by DownWithYogaPants

two hoots tmosley Sun, 03/25/2018 - 10:38 Permalink

Brexit was the warning shot to the EU, Catalonia vote for independence would not be accepted.  The EU will no longer allow or tolerate such future but legal discord, thus the masses will no longer have a legal means to challenge the neoreich, even if they believe it is for their own good.  Control is established.

In reply to by tmosley

BarkingCat tmosley Sun, 03/25/2018 - 12:19 Permalink

"You don't need a permit to buy a gun in the US."

 

You do if you live in one of the fascist shitholes like Massachusetts.

When I lived there there was a mandatory 2 year prison term for anyone who dared to own a firearm without the government's permission.

On major highways there were billboards that informed travelers of this law as one entered the commonwealth.

In reply to by tmosley

Blankone So Close Sun, 03/25/2018 - 10:51 Permalink

They had a moment. They could have done it, they could have escalated things to the point were they found the firearms. But they chose the wrong leader, he was all verbage of dreams, he was not a man of force and righteous actions. He was not a man of independence but, like them, an acting out child defying the parent by throwing a tantrum in belief that is all it takes.

The moment is gone. Even the local police simply watched as federal type police assaulted those waiting to vote. There was no will to be found, they had none. Now the federal govt clamps down and punishes them. To regain the moment there must not only be violence but a greater amount than needed to push back the federal police initially. If they had made a stand, spilled blood when the federal police initially moved in, then the required combustion would have had a chance.

Not only is the moment gone, but who now would come forward to pick up the flag, make the commitment to risk their life/freedom, and trust these people to rise up behind them and join the fight?

In reply to by So Close

tmosley gmrpeabody Sun, 03/25/2018 - 10:15 Permalink

Insurrection without weapons.

Really goes to show just what the EU is. It was never about Democracy. It was and is about power. Catalonia would be a nation today if they had taken up arms. But they didn't. They just voted, and the governments they rejected told them they didn't require their consent to rule them.

In reply to by gmrpeabody

Mustahattu tmosley Sun, 03/25/2018 - 10:47 Permalink

I’d like see a US state vote for independence. Then we’ll see if the US is all about democracy.

Personally couldn’t give two shits whether Catalonia is independent or not. As far as I know it was never a majority that wanted independence. Hopefully one day they can overcome if they really want it.

and it’s total bs to claim that if they had taken up arms they would be independent. They would have been smashed.

In reply to by tmosley

OverTheHedge tmosley Sun, 03/25/2018 - 11:25 Permalink

I know it is difficult, but please could you try to consider the idea that, even though there is no 2nd amendment anywhere else in the world, guns are still used and are available outside the US. You seem to think that, just because EU citizens don't have an automatic, inalienable right to bear arms, they are forbidden. There are guns bloody everywhere in Europe. I once parked a campervan (or RV, if you prefer), in a completely deserted bit of wood in France. 6am the next morning, I was surrounded by hundreds (and I am not exaggerating) of gaulois-smoking, brandy-sniftering Frenchmen, each armed with a dog and  a rifle. After much chat and cognac, and a twenty cigerettes per man, they all headed up the hill with their dogs, and proceeded to shoot anything that moved. Three hours later they came back down the hill for more cigarettes and cognac. 

Italy, Spain, Greece France are all big hunting nations, with lots of hunting weapons. The winter Olympics biathlon involves shooting - tricky to do without a gun, I think you will find. Germans seem to have lots of weapons, including hand-guns, god-knows-why. 

All of the above is mostly irrelevant, because the vast majority of people don't want revolution, and don't want to kill people. Revolutions usually start with a push from outside, and lots of lovely weapons supplied from one of the major powers.

In reply to by tmosley

adonisdemilo Sun, 03/25/2018 - 10:18 Permalink

What would you expect.

Europhile wankers welcome any, and all, illegal rapefugees and other assorted criminals but when the guy who wants to free Catalonia from the EU hegemony and jackboot stupidity he gets arrested for crossing an open border.