Members of the Catalan regional police force, Mossos d'Esquadra, try to keep protesters behind crowd control barricades during scuffles at a Catalan pro-independence demonstration in Barcelona on Friday as the Spanish cabinet held a meeting in the city. The weekly cabinet meeting usually takes place in Madrid but the government decided to hold it in the Catalan capital as part of efforts to reduce tensions in Catalonia, which last year made a failed attempt to break away from Spain. Photo: AFP
Spain's foreign minister on Tuesday hailed the European Parliament's decision to lift the immunity of three wanted Catalan MEPs, although reactions were divided on the streets of Catalonia.
The decision relates to former regional president Carles Puigdemont and two others who are wanted by Madrid over their role in the failed Catalan independence bid of 2017, which triggered Spain's worst political crisis in decades.
Puigdemont blasted the decision, calling it "a sad day for the European Parliament" and saying he and the other two MEPs were victims of "political persecution."
But for the Spanish government, it was welcome news after several years of seeking their extradition, with Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya saying the decision sent "a very clear signal that the problems of Catalonia will not be solved in Europe or by Europe."
"They have to be solved in Spain but [by] bringing all Catalan forces around the table," she said.
Puigdemont fled Spain for Belgium in late 2017 to escape prosecution following the failed bid for an independent state in the wealthy northeastern Spanish region.
The other two are the former Catalan health and education ministers, Clara Ponsati and Toni Comin.
All three are wanted on sedition charges over the organization of a banned referendum on independence, while Puigdemont and Comin are also facing accusations of misuse of public funds.
Comin, like Puigdemont, has been living in Belgium while Ponsati is based in Scotland, where authorities had put her extradition on hold while awaiting the EU decision.
AFP