THE ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who will be the first guest to appear on Alex Salmond’s new show on Russian broadcaster RT, tells the former First Minister that Catalonia “will succeed” in its independence aims.

In a preview of the Alex Salmond Show which airs tonight, the Catalan leader told how there had been “a lot of injuries” in a school in his own hometown of Girona, which was just one example of how polling stations across the region were attacked.

He said: “It was a tragic day because I saw directly the violence in my face. The school in my home town, there were a lot of injuries.”

In a message to the people of Catalonia, he said: “We must be confident, resilient because we will win,” Puigdemont told Salmond. “We will succeed. Finally, democracy will prevail.”

Puigdemont’s wide-ranging and deeply personal interview was filmed at a secret location in Belgium, where he is currently in exile after being charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds, our sister paper The National reveals today.

The Catalan government was sacked by Madrid after Puigdemont made a unilateral declaration of independence following a referendum in which an overwhelming majority of Catalans who voted said they wanted to leave Spain. Subsequent calls for mediation made by the Catalan president were rebuffed by Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy