The separatist former president of Catalonia returned to his home country in a bid to prevent the Catalan parliament from voting in a new socialist government in what he described as “the only way to return to normality”.
Former Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain after organising an illegal independence referendum in the wealthy Spanish region nearly seven years ago, returned to the country on Thursday despite a pending arrest warrant.
Puigdemont defiantly appeared in Barcelona after travelling from Belgium and faces charges of embezzlement for his part in the attempt to break Catalonia away from the rest of Spain.
Long lines of people thronged the Passeig Lluis Companys in Barcelona with Catalan flags at the event ahead of the parliament session Puigdemont plans to attend. He punched the air to cheers on a bright, sunny day.
Tens of thousands of Puigdemont’s supporters have gathered, some seen readying V for Vendetta-style Puigdemont masks to be worn during the event. The rally was organised by his political party Together for Catalonia (Junts), hours before a new regional government was to take office nearby.
Earlier this week, the separatist leader announced that he would return to Spain and that he intended to attend the plenary session of the Catalan Parliament and prevent the vote on the new government led by socialist Salvador Illa.
“In normal democratic conditions, for a deputy like me to announce his intention to attend the session would be unnecessary and irrelevant, but ours are not normal democratic conditions,” said the secessionist leader on the lam since the 2017 referendum.
Puidgemont left Spain mere days after the failed referendum on Catalan independence and has since resided in Belgium while serving as an MEP in the European Parliament.
What can happen to Puigdemont after his return?
While Puidgemont’s whereabouts remained unknown after the rally on Thursday, his homecoming will almost certainly result in his arrest, experts told Euronews.
“When he enters Spain, he will be very easily located, and if there really is a will to arrest him, the police will do it”, said César Alvarado, one of the spokespersons of the Spanish A Police for the 21st Century association.
While the regional parliament might have some tools at its disposal to prevent Puidgemont’s immediate arrest, this cannot go on indefinitely, attorney Antonio Gómez de Olea told Euronews.
“In the end, as it is national territory, he will end up being arrested sooner or later, because a parliament does not have the same legal status as an embassy of an EU or third country”, Gómez de Olea said.
Once he has been taken to the court, “a decision will be taken on the release of Puigdemont and it is most likely that his lawyer will invoke the amnesty law to defend the freedom of the person under investigation,” he explained.
In May, Spain’s national parliament approved a controversial amnesty law for hundreds of Catalan separatists involved in the illegal and unsuccessful 2017 secession bid that might also benefit Puigdemont — a decision blasted by conservatives and the far right.
Additional sources • AP