MADRID: Spain’s Tele­cinco television channel revealed on Wednesday a series of mobile phone messages written by sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont to another separatist, in which he says it’s likely all over for him.

The revelations, which Puigdemont did not deny, came as the Spanish government urged the Catalan parliament to pick another candidate to head up the region instead of the separatist leader, who is in self-exile in Belgium.

A Telecinco reporter caught on camera the phone of Toni Comin, a former Catalan minister who like Puigdemont is in self-exile in Belgium, while he was looking at messages sent to him by the separatist leader.

This reportedly happened on Tuesday evening, just hours after the Catalan parliament’s speaker postponed a vote to reappoint Puigde­mont as Catalan leader, drawing an outcry among separatists but welcome by Madrid and anti-independence parties.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2018