Junqueras criticises his 'imprisonment without conviction' despite being 'democratically elected
Tuesday, February 27, 2018 @ 12:12 AM
CATALUNYA Left Republicans (ERC) leader Oriol Junqueras says 'prison life is tough' and has complained about being jailed 'without conviction' despite being a democratically-elected regional MP in an interview with the BBC.
“This would not happen in the UK,” Junqueras, the deposed deputy regional president and second-in-command to Catalunya's former leader Carles Puigdemont argues.
“I have always expressed myself democratically and peacefully,” says Junqueras, who is worried about wasting years in prison away from his two children.
Junqueras was interviewed by the BBC via a list of questions given to his solicitors at Estremera jail in the Greater Madrid region, and his responses have been particularly relevant this weekend in light of the referendum controversy throwing a spanner in the works of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where leading politicians in Catalunya refused to attend the King's reception as the monarch did not condemn the alleged police violence on voting day.
A 'popular, democratic and non-violent movement', as Junqueras defines the pro-independence brigade, is measured in terms of its resilience by how able it is to 'broaden itself', the former deputy president says.
He has called for the regional election impasse to be resolved and for the Spanish State to stop blocking Puigdemont's being sworn in as president again.
Currently under State control, Catalunya will not be able to return to self-governing until it has an elected leader in the hotseat – and Puigdemont is, according to the various independence parties who gained a collective majority in the December 21 elections, the only candidate for president.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com