Puigdemont's trip to Denmark could lead to his arrest, warns Spain

Puigdemont, who has been in exile in Belgium since a few days after the disputed independence referendum on October 1, has announced his intentions to travel to Copenhagen University to take part in a debate tomorrow (Monday).

At present, the only arrest warrant hanging over Puigdemont is a national one, meaning if he sets foot on Spanish soil again, he will be taken straight into custody, but he is safe from the handcuffs anywhere else in the world.

This could change, however, if Puigdemont goes to tomorrow's debate in the Danish university's political sciences faculty at 14.00 titled, Catalunya and Europe: At a crossroads with democracy?

Puigdemont's lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas said on a Catalunya radio station that if the Spanish State had the European arrest warrant 'very prepared', the 'risk of arrest was high'.

The debate rages on in Catalunya after the pro-secession parties gained most of the votes in a regional election called by Spain on December 21.

Whilst the most-voted party was centre-right Ciudadanos, which is totally against allowing a referendum on independence and backs the State's police action to try to stop it going ahead in October, it does not have anywhere near a majority.

The pro-secession parties, if they joined forces, would have a landslide majority in Catalunya, meaning the chances of Ciudadanos' leader Inés Arrimadas becoming regional president appear very slim.

Puigdemont still wants to be considered for president and to run Catalunya from Belgium, which has been slammed by parties at national level all along the left-to-right spectrum as 'ridiculous'.

The Catalunya Left Republicans (ERC)'s Roger Torrent has been voted as regional Parliamentary chairman, although as yet, it is not clear who will becolme the region's president.

Photograph by pro-independence party Junts per Catalunya (JxCat)