Spanish police launched a manhunt Aug. 8 for ex-Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont, who returned to Barcelona after seven years living in exile.
Puigdemont had previously announced his intention to be in Spain on this day, when Catalonia’s Parliament swears in a new president, despite an outstanding arrest warrant on him.
The 61-year-old initially lived in Belgium after leaving Spain in 2017, but his most recent place of residence is unknown.
Puigdemont kept his movements secret before arriving in Catalonia, where he spoke in front of a crowd of supporters in central Barcelona.
Although police officers were present at the event, no attempt was made to detain the wanted fugitive.
Addressing the crowd, Puigdemont accused Spanish authorities of “a crackdown” on the movement for Catalonian secession.
“They thought they'd be celebrating my arrest and they thought that this punishment would dissuade us, and you. Well, they are wrong,” he said.
“For the last seven years we have been persecuted because we wanted to hear the voice of the Catalan people.”
Puigdemont went on to say that “all people have the right to self-determination.”
After his speech, Puigdemont disappeared into a nearby marquee, from which he hurried to a waiting vehicle, according to an Associated Press photographer who saw him leave.
Catalan police have, however, arrested one of their own officers on charges of aiding Puigdemont’s getaway.
Authorities had set up a cordon at the nearby regional Parliament where the former regional president was expected to head after his address.
Puigdemont faces charges of embezzlement for his part in an attempt to make Catalonia an independent nation in 2017.
As regional president and separatist party leader at the time, he was a central figure in the holding of an illegal independence referendum held in defiance of the national government in Madrid which plunged Spain into a months-long political crisis.
Return an ‘Unbearable Humiliation’
The leader of the Popular Party, the main opposition to Spain’s left-wing coalition government which has long objected the Catalan independence movement, condemned Puigdemont’s return.Alberto Núñez Feijóo posted on social media platform X that Puigdemont’s reappearance was an “unbearable humiliation,” saying it was “unforgivable to damage Spain’s image.”
The government in Madrid has encouraged a deal brokered after months of deadlock between Salvador Illa’s Catalan Socialist Party and the other main leftist separatist party Esquerra Republicana. That deal ensured just enough support in Catalonia’s Parliament for Illa to become the new regional president.
Speaking to Catalan parliamentarians before the vote, Illa called for reconciliation and respect for Spain’s controversial amnesty bill and vowed to govern for all Catalonia after years of bitter divisions and tensions between separatists and those who wish to remain part of Spain.
An amnesty bill, crafted by Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government, could potentially clear Puigdemont and hundreds of other separatists of any wrongdoing in the illegal 2017 ballot.
But the bill, approved by Spain’s Parliament earlier this year, is being challenged by the Supreme Court, which argues the pardon doesn’t apply to embezzlement, unlike other crimes Puigdemont has been charged with.
Puigdemont could be placed in pretrial detention if he is arrested.
He has dedicated his career to the decades old goal of separating Catalonia from Spain and creating a new nation on the Iberian Peninsula.
However his strident approach to independence over the years has brought not only political conflict with Madrid, but also sparked divisions among separatists within Catalonia.
