Catalan’s sacked leader to a snap election on Tuesday but insisted it was not the end of the fight for independence.
Carles Puidgemont and 13 other members of the Catalan government were dismissed last week after a referendum vote, which was declared by the Constitutional Court as illegal.
A judge is yet to decide if Puigdemont will spend time in prison, following an investigation and potential trial.
Currently in Belgium, Puigdemont said he would only return to Spain when given certain “guarantees” by the Spanish government. He said that he was not seeking asylum in Belgium.
On Tuesday, the former Catalonia leader accepted the regional election on Dec 21.
“I ask the Catalan people to prepare for a long road. Democracy will be the foundation of our victory,” he said at a news conference in Brussels.
Montse Daban, international chairperson of the Catalan National Assembly, a grassroots pro-independence movement said this about Puigdemont: “Puigdemont has been absolutely key to bringing Catalonia to where we are now,”
“He’s been an absolute and positive surprise for Catalan citizens, who were already supporting the independence process and saw with dismay that it was facing several burdens.”
However, his recent actions have not been taken lightly by the Spanish government.
“Democracy is not about voting – there are referenda in dictatorships too,” said a Madrid government source when speaking to the BBC.
“Only when you vote with guarantees according to the law is it a democracy.”
“It’s unfortunate because it was a trap. There’s no doubt it looks bad for the Spanish government,” they added.
Following the violence surrounding the referendum, Puigdemont said: “I think we’ve won the right to be heard, but what I find harder to understand is this indifference – or absolute lack of interest – in understanding what is happening here. They’ve never wanted to listen to us.
“How can we explain to the world that Europe is a paradise of democracy if we hit old women and people who’ve done nothing wrong? This is not acceptable. We haven’t seen such a disproportionate and brutal use of force since the death of the dictator Franco.”