Separatists leave jail to sit in Spanish parliament

Bloomberg

Five Catalan separatist leaders emerged from jail to take up their seats in Spain’s parliament on Tuesday in an act of political theatre that may inflame passions on both sides of a divided country.
Oriol Junqueras, the leader of the Esquerra Republicana party, is among four pro-independence campaigners who won seats in the lower house in Spanish general elections last month to participate in a session to constitute Spain’s new parliament.
Raul Romeva, a former head of foreign affairs in the Catalan government, also went to the Senate to take up his seat. Junqueras entered the chamber to scattered applause from supporters and shook hands with Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the anti-establishment group Podemos, before taking his seat.
The spectacle of the separatist leaders mingling with deputies in the neo-classical parliament building in Madrid thrusts the still-raw Catalan conflict back under an international media spotlight.
The five men are currently being held on remand as they undergo a high-profile trial for their part in a failed attempt in 2017 to declare Catalan independence.