Jailed Catalan MEP elected head of regionalist group in Parliament

Whether Oriol Junqueras will be released from prison in Spain is still to be determined.

Oriol Junqueras was elected as the head of the regionalist European Free Alliance | Angel Navarrete - Pool/Getty Images

Jailed Catalan separatist Oriol Junqueras was elected as the head of the regionalist European Free Alliance in the European Parliament on Tuesday.

The vote by the EFA — which forms the fourth-largest political group with the Greens in the chamber — comes a day after the European Parliament said it would recognize him as an MEP following an EU court decision last month.

Junqueras, Catalonia’s former vice president, was in jail pending trial over a failed push for regional independence in 2017 after he won a seat in last May’s European election. Spanish authorities blocked him from leaving detention to take his seat, and he was later sentenced to 13 years in prison for charges of sedition and misuse of public funds.

In December, Europe’s top court ruled that he should have enjoyed immunity as an MEP and been allowed to take his seat.

Based on that decision, the European Parliament said Monday that Junqueras has been an MEP since he was elected, and would therefore recognize him at next week’s plenary session.

Whether Junqueras will be able to leave prison to join the European Parliament is still subject to a decision by the Spanish Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, fellow EFA member François Alfonsi said in a statement that the group is “looking forward to welcoming Oriol Junqueras to Strasbourg next week.”

“It is a disgrace that he has been prevented from taking up his democratic mandate for so long, effectively disenfranchising those Catalan citizens who voted for him. The behaviour of certain elements of the Spanish state throughout this process has been shameful,” Alfonsi added. “The Spanish authorities must now respect the decision of the European Court of Justice.”

Junqueras was chosen to succeed former MEP Alyn Smith of the Scottish National Party, who was elected to the House of Commons in the U.K.’s December election. He will also become a first vice president of the Greens/EFA group.

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