Ex-Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont launches pro-independence Council for the Republic in Belgium

THE former president of Cataluña has launched a new pro-independence organisation at an event in Belgium this week.
Carles Puigdemont, who remains in Belgium after last year’s independence referendum and declaration, said the Council for the Republic would work towards Cataluña’s secession from Spain.
He was speaking in Brussels at an event that was attended by his successor, the pro-Catalan independence politician Quim Torra.
Puigdemont said the Council would work towards altering Spain’s Constitution to allow for the creation of a de facto Catalan Republic.
“The Spanish state won’t be able to do anything,” he said in a Twitter post.
Puigdemont remains wanted in Spain on charges of rebellion, sedition and the misuse of public funds in connection with last year’s independence push.
A European Arrest Warrant issued by Spanish authorities was dropped earlier this year after a German court ruled out extraditing the former head of Cataluña’s Generalitat to Spain.