Deported Catalan leader call for independence near Spanish border

(AFP)

Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain over a failed 2017 independence bid, on Saturday exhorted tens of hundreds of supporters to preserve up the struggle, at a large rally in southern France, near the Catalan border.

"We must put together for the very last combat, bypassing mistakes, doubts and weaknesses," he instructed the gang on the exhibition centre of a city that many remember the capital of northern Catalonia.

Huge crowds thronged the venue bearing images of Puigdemont and waving separatist flags of an independent Catalonia.

Local authorities anticipated the turnout at 100,000 at the same time as organisers positioned it at 150,000. Organisers had booked 600 buses for the event.

It was the first time the former Catalan president had ventured so close to the Spanish frontier when you consider that he fled to Brussels to escape prosecution following the failed secession bid that sparked Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

"We don't know what will happen however we understand that if we preserve our positions the day will come while we are able to set foot on Catalan soil," he stated, to cries of "Our president!"

He also called for a "everlasting mobilisation" against "a monarchical regime which is a direct inheritor of Francoism," referring to Spain's longtime dictator General Franco, who restored the Spanish monarchy.

"We will now not stop ... We simply have properly days ahead of us," Puigdemont promised.

On Friday evening, he attended a rugby healthy in Perpignan and turned into acquired by means of the mayor of the town, Jean-Marc Pujol.

Former French prime minister Manuel Valls, who made an unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Barcelona, Catalonia's important town, denounced the professional reception accorded to Puigdemont, calling him a "political chief who fled Spain" and was a wanted parent in his country.

In October, nine different separatist leaders who remained in Spain have been sentenced to heavy prison phrases for sedition, sparking weeks of irritated protests in Catalonia, a number of which grew to become violent.

Previously Puigdemont had not risked journeying to France, wherein police and the courts work intently with Madrid. But that changed currently when he changed into granted immunity as a member of the European parliament.

"For me, it is like being home," Puigdemont advised a local newspaper ahead of his visit.

- Separatist divisions -

The rally comes at a sensitive time for Catalonia where Puigdemont's successor, Quim Torra, has introduced early nearby elections because of a clash between the 2 separatist parties that run the rich northeastern a part of Spain.

One is Puigdemont's Together for Catalonia (JxC) while the other is the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), which is headed by way of his former deputy Oriol Junqueras, who is currently serving 13 years in prison over the failed independence bid.

The tensions stem from strategic differences over a way to enhance the separatist agenda, with both parties struggling for leadership of the independence movement.

And at the same time as ERC has pushed for communicate with the authorities of Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, JxC has favoured a more confrontational approach.

This week, Sanchez opened talks with Catalonia's nearby leaders to try to resolve the separatist conflict.

The negotiations were agreed as a part of a cope with ERC in exchange for its aid in getting Sanchez through a key investiture vote in January -- a deal that was frowned upon by Puigdemont and his supporters.

"Experience has taught very honestly now not to trust," he said currently, despite asking to be part of the ongoing communicate with Madrid.

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