JAUME MASDEU | BRUSELAS – 14/01/2020
The Greens stop possibly Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín joining the group. The reluctance in the group was known before the request made by the two new MEPs, but this morning the co-president of the group of the Greens, the Belgian Philippe Lamberts has explained it clearly. “His accession is a problem,” he said, highlighting “the inconsistency” that means that the main ally of Puigdemont in Belgium is the N-VA, the right-wing independence force, with values that have little to do with those who defend the Green.
In addition, Lambert has complained that Puigdemont has not even called him. “I live in a country called Belgium and that is not huge. I think that Puigdemont can easily ask for my phone number and that, if it is so important for them to approach the Greens, we would have noticed it, ”said the co-president of the Greens who estimates that in two or three weeks they can make a decision. The entry of Puigdemont in the European Parliament by the hand of an N-VA deputy, on December 20 hurt among the greens and specifically among the Belgians of the group.
The request of Puigdemont and Comín was formulated through ALE (European Free Alliance), a subgroup of the Greens of which Republican Esquerra and other European nationalist parties are part.
For now, Puigdemont will remain among the non-registered deputies. Precisely, it was with this qualification that today he has intervened for the first time in the plenary. He said that “Catalonia is today an internal European issue and that is why a political solution must be found, through dialogue and negotiation. He has also claimed that the European Union is equipped with self-determination mechanisms as the best way to solve territorial problems.
“Catalonia is today an internal European issue and that is why a political solution must be found, through dialogue and negotiation”
After his brief intervention, about a minute, Puigdemont has refused to debate with the popular Dolors Montserrat and the liberal Luis Garicano. The two had requested a “blue card”, a formula used to request a response from an intervener, but it always requires the consent of the requested party, and Puigdemont has refused.
On the other hand, if yesterday Puigdemont challenged the Spanish socialists to vote against the plea presented in parliament to lift their immunity, today the president of the European socialists, Iratxe García, replied that it is not incompatible to maintain the political dialogue and respect judicial decisions. “One thing is to work from dialogue and another to allow justice to work, and the two functions are not incompatible,” Garcia said. She has also asked them not to make parliament “a show or a circus.”
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