Catalonia’s separatist leader Carles Puigdemont on Saturday called on the Spanish government to allow him to return to Spain in time for the opening session of the Catalan parliament by January 23 so that he can become the region’s next president.

Puigdemont, who ruled in Catalonia until October and faces arrest in Spain for his role in organising an illegal referendum on independence and proclaiming a Catalan republic, is currently in a self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Separatist parties secured a parliamentary majority in a regional election on Thursday (December 21), though it is still unclear whether Puigdemont and other jailed leaders of the movement will be able to attend the sessions of the assembly.

“I would like to come back to Catalonia right now and it would be good news, not only for me and my family and for Catalonia logically but for Spain too. It would be good news for Spanish democracy to restore the democratic legality which the Spanish government interrupted,” Puigdemont told Reuters in an interview.

Puigdemont, who has called for a dialogue with the Spanish government to resolve the current tensions between the turbulent region and the authorities in Madrid, said he was ready to listen to any offer from Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy even if this offer was short of independence.

Rajoy on Friday (December 22) said he was open to dialogue over Catalonia but implicitly rejected Puigdemont’s demand to meet soon, saying he would talk with whoever was Catalonia’s president only once they have been elected by the new regional parliament.

Before that, his first interlocutor should be Ines Arrimadas, whose centrist, anti-independence party scored most votes on Thursday, he said. Arrimadas does not have enough seats or allies to form a government, while separatist parties put together have a narrow majority.

Such calls for dialogue on both the separatist and unionist side in the past have failed to yield any solution, meaning this is a crisis that is likely to keep haunting Madrid, but also EU leaders, for a long time.

Negotiations to form a government in Catalonia are likely to start following a holiday break, after Jan. 6. Parliament must vote by Feb. 8 on putting a new government into place.

Reuters