Photo: Alberto Estévez / POOL / AFP

New Catalonia president Quim Torra on Saturday named two former ministers, jailed by Madrid for backing independence from Spain, together with two others who fled into exile, to his regional government. Torra appointed his government by decree, but it could still be blocked by Spain, which has insisted his administration be “legal and viable” after it imposed direct rule on the region in October when the then Catalan government declared independence. Torra — who was elected by the Catalan parliament on Monday and sworn in on Thursday — named 13 “advisors” to his government, including Jordi Turull and Josep Rull who are currently being held in custody just outside Madrid. New Catalan leader Quim Torra named Jordi Turull and Josep Rull, who are both in pre-trial detention, and Antoni Comin and Lluis Puig, who are fugitives in Belgium, as proposed members of his government on Saturday. Turull and Rull both accepted their nominations on Twitter. Torra was elected by the Catalan parliament on Monday and sworn in Thursday, in a move that marks the end of nearly seven months of political limbo in the northeastern Spanish region, which has been under direct rule from Madrid since the central government deposed Puigdemont following a failed declaration of independence on October 27. Torra, a 55-year-old editor who has long campaigned for independence and was handpicked by Puigdemont, described himself as a “caretaker president” who considers Puigdemont as the “legitimate” leader. In a brief swearing-in ceremony on Thursday, Torra promised to “loyally fulfil the duties of the post of regional president being faithful to the will of the Catalan people represented by the Catalan parliament.”

But he did not promise to obey the Spanish Constitution nor the statute that regulates Catalonia’s autonomy. Puigdemont, who first fled to Belgium, was detained in Germany in March after Spain issued a European arrest warrant against him. Madrid wants him extradited to Spain to face trial on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds for staging an independence referendum in Catalonia on October 1 even though the courts had ruled it unconstitutional. A German court last month dismissed the extradition request for Puigdemont on the rebellion allegations and released him on bail. Spanish prosecutors have since handed over new information to Germany they hope will prove the use of violence, to justify the rebellion charge and their extradition request.
New President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Quim Torra, forms a new regional government, including the dismissed and imprisoned members Jordi Turull and Josep Rull, and "self-exiled" dismissed members Lluís Puig and Toni Comín.