After the organization in 2017 of a self-determination referendum deemed illegal, Carles Puigdemont is today threatened by the lifting of his parliamentary immunity and risks extradition to Spain.

"I don't have much chance of winning this waiver of immunity, but we are fighting to say that it is political persecution," he explains.

Not very confident about the outcome of this battle, Carles Puigdemont warns: "If we lose this waiver of immunity, we will fight before the Belgian courts to start and we will end in Luxembourg, before the European Court of Justice ! ".

After three years of "repression and exile", the former President of the Generalitat of Catalonia affirms: "We are here in Parliament to fight. Not for our personal rights but for those of more than a million people who voted for us ".

The former independence leader also reconsiders the decision of Pedro Sanchez to make his Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, the sovereignist candidate for the Catalan election: "It's incredible to think that the Spanish Minister of Health, who faced the pandemic in the worst possible way, is today the most valued member of the government.

Towards an independent Scotland?

The Scottish independence party, the SNP, says it is ready to conduct a self-determination referendum without the London agreement.

But for Carles Puigdemont, the two independence fights are different: "The United Kingdom is not Spain. Even if there is no agreement with the Scottish government, the United Kingdom will respect the democratic will . I have no doubts about that. That's the big difference between the Spanish state and Great Britain. Because the Spanish state doesn't even want to talk about it. "

“Catastrophic” management of the crisis

The candidate for the Catalan elections is also very critical of the management of the Covid-19 crisis by the Spanish government: "The management of the pandemic from a health point of view has been a disaster, and from a point of view economic is even worse. "

At European level, he speaks of Ursula von der Leyen's "failure" and "fault".

"I am absolutely convinced that the European Commission has failed in its desire to ensure vaccination of a large majority of the population in the short term."

A program prepared by Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats and Mathilde Bénézet.

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