Carles Puigdemont banned from European elections

Former president of the Autonomous Executive of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont announced on Monday that the Spanish electoral commission had banned him from running his party's list in the European elections on 26 May.

Puigdemont moved to Belgium after fleeing Spain at the end of October 2017, when the central government had just suspended the autonomy of Catalonia in response to the unilateral proclamation of its independence.

In a statement, Puigdemont and two other exiled figures of the Catalan independence movement announced that the committee had banned them from appearing on the list presented by their party Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) in the elections to the European Parliament.

No reaction could be obtained from the electoral commission, which had been seized by the Popular Party (PP, right) and the Ciudadanos Party (center-right).........