Barlamane.com | 18:40 – August 8, 2024
Despite an arrest warrant against him, Catalan independence leader Carles Puigdemont reappeared in Barcelona on Thursday after seven years in exile outside Spain before disappearing after a brief speech. The regional parliament is due to elect socialist Salvador Illa as president of Catalonia later in the day.
Carles Puigdemont, whose treatment remains unknown, spoke at a rally near Parliament in front of a few thousand supporters. “Long live free Catalonia!” the 61-year-old politician shouted during his speech, standing on a stage set up in front of a triumphal arch to the cheers of “president, president!” from the crowd. He then vanished into thin air.
Very quickly, according to images broadcast by the Spanish media, large-scale vehicle checks were set up in the streets of Barcelona and on the roads of Spain. Questioned by AFP, the local police refused to confirm the launch of a large-scale operation to find Carles Puigdemont.
A member of the Mossos, the Catalan police, was arrested on suspicion of helping him escape. According to the Spanish press, this agent is the owner of the car in which Carles Puigdemont left the rally.
He had announced on Wednesday that he was beginning his “return from exile” after seven years in Belgium and France, in order to attend the session of the Catalan Parliament during which the new president of the region is to be elected. The meeting began on Thursday morning shortly after the speech by the independence leader.
“The fact that [pour assister à la séance] “I risk arbitrary and illegal arrest proves the democratic anomaly that we have a duty to denounce and combat,” said the leading figure of the separatist party Junts per Catalunya (“Together for Catalonia”) in a video posted on social media.
Puigdemont, who led the region between 2016 and 2017, fled Spain after the Catalan independence referendum was declared illegal by the Spanish courts. He is still the subject of an arrest warrant despite the adoption in May of a law providing for amnesty for Catalan separatists involved in the 2017 events.
The Spanish Supreme Court has in fact considered that the recent amnesty law did not apply to his case, Carles Puigdemont being accused of embezzlement.
Socialist Salvador Illa, who will have the support of the left-wing separatist Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) party, is expected to be sworn in as regional president. The pro-independence parties, in power for a decade, lost their absolute majority in regional elections in May.
(With agencies)
