Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says he won’t run as a candidate for Belgium’s nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) in next year’s European Parliament election, Belgian media reported Monday.
“Me on the European list of the N-VA? Absolutely not, for sure,” Puigdemont told Belgian regional newspaper Het Belang van Limburg on Sunday, while attending an N-VA campaign event in Limburg. He added that he had not thought about it, nor had the party asked him about running.
Puigdemont fled to Belgium last year to avoid charges in Spain for his role in organizing a referendum on Catalan independence declared illegal by the country’s Constitutional Court, which resulted in the regional parliament declaring independence.
N-VA members have flirted with the idea of placing Puigdemont on their electoral list for the European election, as the Flemish nationalists and Catalan’s independence movement have longstanding ties.
Though Puigdemont said he has been in touch with N-VA members since being in Belgium he insisted: “I’m fighting for Catalonia.”
“As soon as I can, I will go back” to Catalonia, he said. “Everyday I tell myself: This is my last day in exile. I want to work toward freedom for my country. That’s where my battle lies.”
He added that today’s Catalonia is “already more independent than a year ago.”
“This trend is irreversible,” Puigdemont said.