Flemish nationalist party’s political agenda

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Although Charles Michel, the Belgian Prime Minister, already clarified that an asylum application was not on the agenda and Mr. Puigdemont has already stated that he would not lodge such an application, this situation raises a strange feeling of déjà vu and might take Spain captive by its old demons. This feeling is only further strengthened by the latest phone number list news that the lawyer of Carles Puigdemont was also the lawyer of Moreno Ramajo and Garcia Arrantz. The words he used against the extradition of the Catalan leader are also familiar; he is now invoking risk of unfair trial should his client be sent back to Spain.

The might, as it was the case with the Garcia-Moreno case, fuel tensions between Spain and Belgium. However, twenty years later, the legislative tools the Spanish government would have needed at the time of the Garcia-Moreno case, the ones which they pushed for, have since been adopted. Indeed, the Convention on Extradition between Member States as well as the European Arrest Warrant are strong, although not infallible, guarantees that the extradition of Mr. Puigdemont and his ministers will take place. Similarly, should Mr. Puigdemont and his ministers lodge an application, the Aznar Protocol would offer very little chance of this being duly considered.