Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont walked out of a German prison Friday after posting 75,000 euros ($92,000) bail, demanding that Spanish authorities release fellow Catalan separatists and open a dialogue on his region’s future, AP reported.

He also sent a defiant message to Spanish authorities.

“I call for the immediate release for all of my colleagues still in Spanish prisons,” he said, speaking in English. “It’s a shame for Europe to still have political prisoners.”

“The time for dialogue has arrived,” he declared, arguing that years of Catalan demands for dialogue have met with only a “violent and repressive response.”

“Now, seeing the fall of that response, it’s time to do politics,” Puigdemont added. He said there are no excuses for the Spanish authorities to avoid “a political dialogue with the Catalan political leaders in order to find a political solution of our demands, not by criminal law.”