Former exiled independence leader Toni Comín travels to Madrid to take up MEP seat
“Spain has capitulated and we have won this battle,” he says, ahead of returning to Catalonia on Sunday
Toni Comín arrived to Madrid on Wednesday evening, breaking a stint of 9 years in exile.
The independence leader left the country in the wake of the 2017 referendum and has now returned after having his arrest warrant dropped.
Comín was elected as an MEP for Junts in the last European elections, and is now in Madrid to swear an oath to the constitution to take up his seat in the European chamber.
He crossed the border by car via the French Basque Country on Wednesday.
“The moment I crossed it, I had a physical sensation of having won. Spain has capitulated, because it exhausted all its resources to prevent what will happen this Sunday: my ability to return home as a free man,” he said in an interview with RAC1.
He highlighted that returning to Madrid does not constitute his return from exile, which for him, will actually take place on Sunday when he arrives into Catalonia on foot.
The Central Electoral Board (JEC) has summoned him for noon, but before that, he met with his parliamentary group colleagues and renewed his national ID card at the police station located inside the lower house.
Once the proceedings conclude, he explained he will return to Northern Catalonia (a part of historical Catalonia that is now over the French border) to prepare for a return event on Sunday.
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