Catalonia’s former leader Carles Puigdemont kicked off his campaign for regional elections from Belgium on Saturday, saying voters must “ratify” their call for independence from Spain.

Axar.az reports quoting Politico.

The Catalan region is holding parliamentary elections on December 21, after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy last month dissolved the Catalan parliament and fired Puigdemont for his role in the independence referendum outlawed by Madrid. Puigdemont then fled to Belgium with four of his ministers and faces charges of rebellion and sedition.

“We Catalans demonstrated to the world that we have the capacity and the will to become an independent state. And on [December 21], we must ratify this,” Puidgemont said Saturday, launching his campaign from a hotel in Oostkamp, outside Bruges, according to Belgian daily Le Soir.

Puigdemont is running as the head of the All for Catalonia political group, which includes members from his conservative, separatist Catalan European Democratic Party and civil society, Agence France-Presse reported.