BARCELONA: A Catalan separatist leader briefly released from prison to testify in the region’s parliament said on Tuesday he was confident the northeastern Spanish region would eventually vote again on independence.

Oriol Junqueras and five other politicians appeared before an investigative committee of the regional parliament, their first time out of prison since being sentenced in October to lengthy terms over a failed 2017 independence bid.

The parliament in the regional capital Barcelona was heavily protected by police as a few hundred protesters welcomed the jailed leaders, chanting “Independence” and “Freedom for political prisoners”.

Catalonia unilaterally declared independence in 2017 following a referendum that was not authorised by Spanish courts. The Spanish government responded by taking control of the region and calling a new election for the regional leadership, in which separatist parties again won a majority.

“A self-determination referendum is a normal thing. We want to exercise it again and we will exercise it again,” Junqueras, a former deputy regional leader, said in his testimony.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is due to attend a meeting in Barcelona on Feb 6 to set the agenda for negotiations over the region’s political situation.

Junqueras said plans for talks between the Socialist-led Spanish government in Madrid and the pro-independence regional government in Barcelona were a “step forward”. But he voiced scepticism that it would succeed given what he described as previous disappointments with the Socialists.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2020