Puigdemont Seeks Danish Support for Catalonia's Separatist Push

(Bloomberg) -- Ousted Catalan President Carles Puigdemont appealed to Danish politicians and students to support his bid to win independence from Spain.

Puigdemont spoke at a panel debate on Catalonia at Copenhagen University on Monday as part of a visit that will include a visit to the Danish parliament. He took the microphone at the event after a Spanish Supreme Court judge turned down a prosecutor's request to reactivate a European arrest warrant against him, saying it might play into Puigdemont's strategy.

“Catalans admire Denmark -- we want to be a Denmark of the South,” Puigdemont said in his speech. He attacked court decisions to jail separatist leaders on remand and said the sacking of his government by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was an attack on democracy.

The trip to Denmark is the latest bid by Puigdemont to attract attention to his campaign to split Catalonia from Spain after Rajoy fired him and his government in October for attempting to declare independence. After separatist parties won enough seats in elections last month to form a new regional government, Puigdemont is pressing his claim to become president again even as he faces arrest if returns to Spain from Brussels where he has been based since late-October.

The judge has said other separatist leaders being held on remand in jail, including former vice-president Oriol Junqueras, should be able to delegate their vote. He had previously lifted a European arrest order against Puigdemont in December.

As Puigdemont continued with his trip to Denmark, his allies in Catalonia continued to prepare his bid to becoming regional president.

Catalan Parliament Speaker Roger Torrent formally proposed him as candidate to lead the region in a televised statement. He said he had written to Rajoy to ask for a meeting to discuss the situation facing the assembly with a number of separatist deputies being held in jail or having fled with Puigdemont to Brussels.

The ousted leader is already a member of the Catalan parliament, so he enjoys a certain degree of legal immunity. Spain's prosecutor office said in a statement on Saturday that his immunity as a member of the chamber doesn't invalidate a European arrest warrant.

Puigdemont gave details of his Copenhagen University engagement on his Twitter account. He is also due to meet the Danish parliament's foreign policy and EU affairs committee during his visit to Copenhagen this week, according to foreign policy spokesman of the opposition Red-Green Alliance, Nikolaj Villumsen.

To contact the reporters on this story: Esteban Duarte in Madrid at eduarterubia@bloomberg.net, Peter Levring in Copenhagen at plevring1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Charles Penty, Ben Sills

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