Catalan separatist vows EU parliament fight

BARCELONA, Spain -- Blocked from pursuing his political crusade in Spain's parliament, the most prominent jailed leader of Catalonia's separatist movement is vowing to take his fight to the European Parliament.

The lower chamber of Spain's Parliament on Friday suspended Oriol Junqueras and three colleagues from their recently gained seats as national lawmakers because they are currently in jail during an ongoing trial at Spain's Supreme Court. They face up to 25 years in prison for rebellion charges stemming from a banned referendum and an independence declaration made by the separatist-controlled Catalan government in late 2017.

But Junqueras is also running for the European Parliament in elections taking place Sunday, and polls say he and his former boss, Carles Puigdemont, who unlike Junqueras fled the country to avoid arrest, have a high chance of being elected.

Even so, the Catalan separatists face several legal hurdles to be sworn in as European lawmakers.

"The sole fact that a European lawmaker and a candidate to the presidency of the European Commission is a political prisoner of one of the European Union's member states is a very powerful message in favor of democracy, fundamental rights and freedoms not only in Catalonia but in all Europe," Junqueras told The Associated Press on Friday.

The Spanish government has repeatedly rejected the term "political prisoner" to refer to the prosecuted Catalan separatists, pointing out they were jailed by independent courts according to legal provisions in the country.

The government also often reiterated political parties openly advocating for secession are legal in the country, but the only way to achieve independence for a region such as northeastern Catalonia is by reforming the country's 1978 constitution, which currently prohibits the secession of a region unless all Spaniards vote on it.

Junqueras spoke via video conference from a jail on the outskirts of Madrid shortly before the widely expected announcement he would be suspended as a lawmaker.

Speaker Meritxell Batet announced the governing body of the Congress of Deputies had ruled for the suspension in line with the country's criminal code, which bans those indicted for rebellion or terrorism-related charges and in preventive custody from holding public office.

But the 50-year-old former No. 2 of the Catalan regional government, who was previously a European lawmaker between 2009 and 2012, said the suspension in Spain doesn't affect him because he was planning to give up his seat anyway: Members of the European Parliament can't hold certain public offices in their home countries.

Junqueras is the lead candidate in the European elections of Ahora Republicans, a coalition of a Catalan and other small regionalist parties in Spain. Polls give it enough votes for him to claim one of the 751 seats in the chamber.

Junqueras said he hopes Spain's Supreme Court will allow him to travel to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, for the opening session in July.

"For me, it will be a pleasure to return to the European Parliament," he said, because doing so would allow him to rejoin former colleagues in the bloc's assembly and "explain to them firsthand the deep injustice that innocent people are in prison."

If he succeeds in becoming a parliament member, Junqueras plans to launch a largely symbolic candidacy to become European Commission president as the contender for the European Free Alliance, a grouping of small regional and separatist parties from across Europe, including Scottish, Flemish and Corsican nationalists.

While Junqueras said if his attempt to become a European lawmaker is blocked he will appeal it in court, Puigdemont faces even greater potential challenges to join him in the continental legislature.

According to an internal report by the European Parliament's legal services, Puigdemont would have to return to Spain to be officially included in the list of its elected European lawmakers and thereby face arrest.