Carles Puigdemont, the former leader of Catalonia, will be interviewed during a College Tour event at the University of Groningen on the 13th of February.
Dagblad van het Noorden reports that Puigdemont will be in Groningen to speak about his experiences since going into exile and his ideas about Europe. The event, “An Independent Catalonia?”, will be held at the Academy Building of the University of Groningen at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, 13 February.
Puigdemont will share his thoughts on “past and current events, his ideas and vision about the future of Catalonia and Europe”, according to Studium Generale, which is organising the event in collaboration with the Minorities & Multilingualism department at the University of Groningen.
Puigdemont was the president of Catalonia from 2016 through October 2017 until he was removed from office after a vote to declare the autonomous region independent was deemed illegal by Spanish authorities. The former Catalonian leader and several other cabinet ministers were forced to flee the country: Puigdemont fled to Belgium, and multiple European Arrest Warrants were issued against him that could carry jail sentences of up to 25 years.
The arrest warrants for rebellion were withdrawn in July of 2018, but not the charges of allegedly misusing public funds. The exiled leader has continued to speak out for Catalonian independence within the EU and has denounced the violence of Spanish police toward voters in Catalonia.
Photo source: Wikipedia
Until I know he is not President of Catalonia, and he is auto-exiled.
It’s true that he’s the ex-president, not the president, but what does auto-exiled even mean? Exiled people are not driven forcibly out of a country, they are forced to do so due to the conditions or punishment they could face if they stayed. He would be a political prisioner had he stayed in Spain.