When Junts' accession to the liberal centrists of the European Democratic Party (EDP) was signed, the natural move was its integration into the Renew liberal group of the European Parliament. Within Junts, multiple voices were clear about this path, which reaffirms the commitment to centrism, the same as the PNV and what Convergència had followed. But all of this clashes with the will of the Junts MEP. As he expressed publicly this Monday, Toni Comín has reservations about entering this parliamentary group now that his rights as an MEP have been recognized, following his return from exile. Junts prefers not to make any public comment on the matter despite the questions from this newspaper.

Applause, hugs, and smiles were not lacking this Monday at the Junts headquarters in Barcelona. The sovereignist party is smiling again with a new step towards the normalization of Catalan political life: the return of former ministers Toni Comín and Lluís Puig, who participated in person in the party's executive meeting after nine years of exile. The joy, however, is not complete. The polls are not in their favor and point to a possible electoral decline on November 29th, a symptom of the difficulties of their political strategy to convince the electorate. According to the polls collected by ARA, the sovereignist party could lose up to half of its seats in the upcoming elections, with an average of projections that places them between four and five deputies in Congress.

Toni Comín has set foot in Catalonia again. He did so on Sunday, October 25th, past one in the afternoon, crossing on foot the Col dels Belitres, the administrative border with France, in a very symbolic and emotional act, accompanied by his closest friends and family. The former Minister of Health had already gone on Thursday to Madrid to swear the Constitution to obtain his seat as a Member of the European Parliament and, during the nine-year period of exile in Belgium, he had been to Northern Catalonia on a few occasions, but it was not until this Sunday that he officially entered the Principality, protected by the amnesty, without the risk of being arrested by the Spanish authorities.

After almost nine years in exile and the day after the return of Lluís Puig to Terrassa, Toni Comín has set foot in the Spanish state to swear to the Constitution and collect the European Parliament deputy credentials that the Central Electoral Board (JEC) denied him in July 2024. He has done so now that Pablo Llarena has lifted the arrest warrant that was against him and three days before solemnizing his return from exile by crossing the border on foot through a mountain pass accompanied by his friends. “With loyalty to the people of Catalonia and the mandate of October 1st,” he said in Catalan when swearing to the Magna Carta by “legal imperative.” The president of the JEC, Eduardo Calvo, had previously warned him that he would not meet the requirement if he gave an answer that did not include an “unconditional” form, but just after, he confirmed that he had fully become an MEP.

Pablo Llarena assumes that the Supreme Court is bound to apply the amnesty to Carles Puigdemont, but resists facilitating it. It was expected that this week the investigating judge would conclude the summary proceedings and refer the case against the former President of the Generalitat and the former ministers Toni Comín and Lluís Puig to the trial court of the Procés so that Manuel Marchena could apply the total and definitive amnesty to the exiles – although he first still had to grant a five-day period for the parties to pronounce themselves again–. These are the two resolutions missing for the Supreme Court to put an end to the judicial persecution of Puigdemont. However, the investigator has slowed down the path and has limited himself to dismissing the appeal that Vox filed against the lifting of the arrest warrants that the Supreme Court issued after the Constitutional Court endorsed the amnesty in cases of embezzlement. Llarena thus delays the outcome: he takes one more step, but avoids taking the decisive step, which will have to come in the next few days.

Junts MEP Toni Comín has announced that he will return to Catalonia on October 24th after nine years of exile in Belgium. In a letter sent to his inner circle, to which ARA has had access, the former minister says he wants to cross the border on foot. "The idea is to cross on foot one of the mountain passes that connect Northern Catalonia with Southern Catalonia, on Saturday, October 24th, around 12 in the morning," he explains in the letter. In the missive, Comín highlights that "it will be an important moment, undoubtedly a very happy one," which he will only experience "once in a lifetime." For this reason, he invites his inner circle to accompany him on his return. "I know with whom I would like to share it." The announcement comes after it was learned this Tuesday that Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena plans to propose the dismissal of the case against the exiles between this Friday and next Tuesday.

Toni Comín avoids setting a date for his return to Catalonia, but assures that there is "a certain urgency" so that he can collect his MEP certificate – for which he must swear the Constitution at the Congress – and start exercising as a representative of Junts in the European Parliament. In the first public appearance he makes after the application of the amnesty to the pro-independence leaders, the elected MEP has celebrated what he considers "a great political victory for the independence movement and for all democrats". He has said that the Spanish state has "had to admit they were right", but has warned that the amnesty "is not the final victory": "We want many more", he added.

The Junts Guarantees Commission decided on February 2 to freeze the internal investigation into two complaints it received against Toni Comín for "psychological, sexual, and physical harassment", according to an internal party report to which ARA has had access. The body has opted to shelve the two cases, for at least four months for now, despite being aware of the European Parliament's resolution upholding the complaint for psychological and sexual harassment filed in the parliamentary chamber against the former Minister of Health by a former assistant. Furthermore, as confirmed by ARA with several Junts sources, the party handed over to the MEP the complaint filed by the alleged victims and "the accompanying documentation", such as "the writings in which each of them explains the facts" and also the confidential resolution of the European Parliament.

The European Parliament's investigation has sided with the former parliamentary assistant who accused Junts-elect MEP Toni Comín of sexual and psychological harassment. The European Parliament asserts that it has investigated and interviewed several "credible witnesses" who "confirm" the "allegations" reported by the worker parliamentarian, and claims he has "sufficient evidence" of "prima facie" which "justify" taking the case of the former regional minister in exile to court, according to a confidential resolution from the European Parliament to which ARA has had access. For his part, Comín asserts in this newspaper that he "has never been called" by the European Parliament "to explain the truth of the events," categorically denies "all the accusations," and warns that he "reserves the right to take legal action against those who are making false accusations with the intent to defame."

Last night, Carles Puigdemont exacted a significant price. As we explained yesterday, The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in his favor. (him, Comín, and Ponsatí) and established that the European Parliament stripped them of their parliamentary immunity with clear bias. The ruling states that the rapporteur in charge of investigating the Supreme Court's request was a Bulgarian MEP from the same political group as Vox, the party that acted as a private prosecutor in the trial of the Catalan independence leaders. This individual participated in an event entitled "Catalonia is Spain" in which he called himselfPuigdemont in prison"What happened yesterday doesn't happen very often, because the court has corrected the shortcomings in the European Parliament and the General Court of the European Union and told them to please do things properly. The president in exile celebrated it thus:"

On Tuesday I told you that the State must compensate for the damage that Renfe and Adif, as non-executive arms of the Ministry of Transport, were causing to the Catalan economy. We said that the commuter rail works aren't quick, fine, but the extraordinary financial compensation could be. Well, today it's news that The Government will demand that the State pay the bill for the railway chaos.What bill? Well, some items are very clear: the free commuter rail service decreed until the end of the month, or the cost of lifting the toll barriers on the C-32, or the cost of hiring information staff at the stations or buses and drivers for the commuter rail lines that now have to travel by bus.

The Constitutional Court is avoiding preemptively ruling on amnesty for Carles Puigdemont and, while studying the merits of the case, is refusing to lift the arrest warrant that prevents the former president of the Generalitat from returning to Catalonia as a free man. The Court rejected on Tuesday the precautionary measures requested by Puigdemont, Toni Comín, and Lluís Puig as part of their appeals for protection of fundamental rights against the Supreme Court's refusal to apply the amnesty law to them. The Constitutional Court considers that granting their request would result in a "disregard for the general interest," given that there is still an "open criminal case" concerning "serious crimes." Therefore, it is necessary to protect "the effectiveness" of the investigation led by Pablo Llarena, which "must take precedence" over the "prejudice" to the fundamental rights denounced by Puigdemont, Comín, and Puig. Furthermore, it argues that making a decision now "would amount to a premature resolution" of the substance of the matter and would imply a "premature judgment" on the application of the amnesty. The decision is thethe same one that took The Constitutional Court is currently reviewing the cases of Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva, and Dolors Bassa, who are demanding the lifting of their disqualifications, which are in effect until 2030 and 2031. Does this mean Puigdemont's return is delayed? The Constitutional Court is expected to make a decision on the merits of the case in the coming months, and a favorable ruling would open the door for the former president to return to the Principality. By then, the Court of Justice of the European Union is also expected to have ruled on the amnesty, after the Advocate General endorsed the law by the end of 2025. The Constitutional Court's final verdict will have to determine whether the alleged misuse of public funds by the October 1st government is upheld. Whatever the Constitutional Court decides, the ball will return to the Supreme Court's court, which has repeatedly ruled against it, arguing that Puigdemont and the ministers enriched themselves through the October 1st referendum because they did not cover their expenses with their own assets. It remains to be seen what the Supreme Court will do if the Constitutional Court contradicts its own doctrine.

This is not the first time that the Israeli issue has sparked disagreements within Junts. The party has agreed on a position, expressed by spokesperson Josep Rius and secretary general Jordi Turull, but the back-and-forth between the most pro-Palestinian and most pro-Israeli camps has not ceased. Spokesperson Josep Rius said on Monday: "Let the war stop, let there be a permanent ceasefire, let the killing of civilians stop, let the hostages be released, and let these peace negotiations resume so that we can move toward a two-state solution." Turull even called on Sunday "for this genocide to end," "for the parties to talk, for recognition of both states." However, this week, opposing views have also been publicly expressed between Junts MEP Toni Comín and the head of the party's international branch, Joan Maria Piqué, former chief of staff to former President Artur Mas and former collaborator of Carles Puigdemont and former minister Victoria Alsina.

Seven years later, there is a verdict: the two journalistsAna Rosa's program Telecinco's media outlets that recorded messages exchanged between former President Carles Puigdemont and MEP Toni Comín in Leuven (Flanders) in 2018 have been convicted of violating the privacy of both politicians. The unlawful disclosure of the chat, which was widely discussed on the Madrid presenter's program, will cost them €3,500 in compensation to Comín and Puigdemont for moral damages.

The future of Carles Puigdemont is in the Supreme Court this Monday. The appeals court has held a public hearing to study whether or not to apply the amnesty to the former president and the former ministers Toni Comín and Lluís Puig, half a year after Judge Pablo Llarena I would definitely deny them The judge, in line with the majority opinion of the criminal court, applied the interpretation that allocating public money to the referendum was a way of enriching oneself personally, given that the promoters of the consultation stopped putting money out of their own pockets and saved money. In this way, he justified that they cannot be pardoned. The amnesty law excludes the possibility of applying it to people who, by diverting funds, obtained a "personal benefit of a patrimonial nature." The judge made the decision in July and She confirmed it two months later, when it overturned both the first appeal of the defendants and the one presented by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney's Office.

1. Why do we wake up every day to the story of Donald Trump? While Europe sleeps, the president of the United States signs executive decrees, holds press conferences and lets loose like donkeys fart. One after another, without caring about the trail or the scent. He is given to having justice, human rights or reality put a stop to his plans in any area. He will not build the Mediterranean Riviera in Gaza, nor will he achieve peace in Ukraine with just two meetings with Putin, nor will he wipe transgender people off the map and, it remains to be seen whether he can even bring back the plastic straws that are so good for slushies but so bad for the planet. But it never ceases to surprise that whatever Trump says is news. Often the first, the one on the front page, the one that opens news and television news. The mediocre following of journalism in Europe is also something to make us look at. So much attention to the idiot is excessive. We collaborate in enthroning stupidity, we devalue our environment and we help create monsters that, in the name of fear and hatred, play along with options that take us far from democratic values.

Jordi Domingo is the new president of the Council of the Republic. With a turnout of only 9% of the almost 90,000 registered in the Consell, the candidate of the managing board has uncontestedly imposed himself on the other three rivals in the electoral race with 65.8% support (5,340 votes). In second place was Montserrat Duran, who was the voice of the less pro-government local councils, with 22.7% support (1,846 votes), and in third place, the former vice president of the Consell and MEP of Junts, Toni Comín, who was not even able to reach 10% of the votes (745). In fourth place was Majorcan Antoni Walter Castelló, who came close to 2% of the votes thanks to the 161 votes obtained, although he was the only one of the four who had no chance of winning because he was running without a team or support with the sole objective of claiming the Catalan Countries.

Toni Comín, Jordi Domingo, Montserrat Duran and Antoni Walter Castelló. These are the four candidates who aspire to replace Carles Puigdemont at the head of the Council of the Republic. Only the first three have a chance of assuming the presidency because Castellón is running without a team or support and with the sole objective of claiming the Països Catalans. The last word is up to those registered in the entity, who have until nine o'clock on Wednesday morning to decide who they want to lead the entity. Three hours later the winner will be known.

"This is over, our people have sacrificed us, at least me." This message, dated January 31, 2018, probably represents the most explicit moment of union between the former minister Toni Comín and the former president Carles Puigdemont, both exiled following the 1-O. It is the day that the then president of the Parliament, Roger Torrent, decided to suspend the plenary session and rule out the investiture of Puigdemont from a distance, a day in which, as the message expresses, both leaders felt isolated from the separatists who had remained in Catalonia. Since then, much water has flowed under the bridge and, after seven years in Belgium, the relationship between Puigdemont and Comín has deteriorated, with many ups and downs, until reaching a point of no return: the controversy surrounding the former minister's economic management in the Council of the Republic has marked a before and after. A controversy to which another has been added this week in the form of a complaint in the European Parliament by a former advisor to Comín for sexual harassment, as it progressed The Vanguard.

The process to withdraw MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí's immunity has not been smooth nor has it involved unanimous support for the Spanish justice system, rather the opposite. Despite the final approval of the request, the result draws a clear division in the European Parliament around the Catalan issue: 400 votes in favor, 248 against and 45 abstentions. In other words, 42% of MEPs have refused to endorse the reactivation of the process of extradition of Catalan pro-independence leaders who are in exile outside Spain and who won the support of nearly one million votes in the last European elections. As Toni Comín said, this is a "political victory" for Catalan independence, which once again sees how things in Europe are seen substantially different than in the Spanish state.