Separatist parties agree to reelect Puigdemont as Catalonia president

Catalonia’s main separatist parties say they have agreed to reelect fugitive Carles Puigdemont as president of the region later this month, AP reported. Puigdemont has been in Brussels since he was sacked in October over an attempt to secede from Spain. The politician faces immediate arrest if he returns home. A spokesman with Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia ticket said that the separatist politician secured the backing of the left-republican ERC party Tuesday evening in Brussels. An ERC spokesman also confirmed the deal. Puigdemont will propose to speak via video conference to the regional parliament later this month or have a fellow party lawmaker read the mandatory speech needed to deliver before voting.