COPENHAGEN\u2014A small group of Danish lawmakers met Tuesday with Catalan ex-leader Carles Puigdemont at Denmark’s Parliament, saying that listening to him is the best way to understand what is going on in Spain’s Catalonia region.<\/p>\n
Puigdemont was welcomed to Parliament by a Faeroese lawmaker who had invited Puigdemont for the unofficial meeting with less than a dozen politicians during his visit to Denmark from self-imposed exile in Belgium. He spoke at the University of Copenhagen on Monday after a Spanish judge refused to ask Danish authorities to arrest Puigdemont.<\/p>\n
Lawmaker Magni Arge said it’s best to hear his views from \u201cthe horse’s mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arge, a member of the left-wing Republican Party from the Faeroe Islands, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, scolded Danish government and opposition lawmakers for rejecting invitations to meet Puigdemont.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne can start to understand each other by talking together, not by ignoring each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Holger K. Nielsen, a former foreign minister and member of left-wing Socialist People’s Party, said that although he doesn’t agree with Puigdemont \u201cit is important that we get an explanation from him about what he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Denmark, any elected member of the 179-seat Folketing assembly can invite anyone to speak before lawmakers in a closed meeting.<\/p>\n
Puigdemont’s journey to Denmark came nearly three months after he was removed from office and fled to Belgium. A warrant for his arrest remains open in Spain, whose justice minister said Tuesday that the country will step up surveillance to ensure that Puigdemont can’t re-enter the country undetected.<\/p>\n
Spanish authorities are investigating him and other Catalan officials for possible rebellion and sedition charges related to regional parliament’s Oct. 27 declaration of independence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very worried, because we don’t know what a person with this behaviour might do,\u201d Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido told broadcaster Antena 3. He said security forces face a difficult challenge given the large number of possible ways to enter Catalonia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are analyzing all the possibilities,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are going to make sure that he can’t even enter in the trunk of a car.\u201d<\/p>\n