Madrid. The former president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, published his first public message at around nine o’clock in the evening since he disappeared after his political rally in Barcelona yesterday and assured that he is already in Belgium after a long road trip. Puigdemont was the protagonist of the parliamentary debate on the investiture of the socialist Salvador Illa as president of the Generalitat, which will govern the region for the next four years, with his escape. Both the outgoing Catalan government, presided over by the pro-independence Pere Aragonés, and the police leadership of the Mossos d’Esquadra described his conduct yesterday, in which he evaded police control and avoided arrest, as “improper”.
The former Catalan president confirmed on social media that he is out of Spain, where he was at risk of being arrested due to a court order against him for the crime of misappropriation of public funds. In the message, Puigdemont attacked the Catalan government, headed by the pro-independence ERC, accusing them of unleashing a “witch hunt” and sponsoring a “wave of repression.”
The former president added that “I have already said that I have never had the will to surrender voluntarily or to facilitate my arrest because I find it unacceptable that I am being persecuted for political reasons and that, on top of that, the amnesty law is not being applied”, and he warned that “if the Minister of the Interior had complied with the law and had given me the escort that I was entitled to, they would have known at all times what my route through Barcelona and Catalonia was like. They would not have needed yesterday’s delirious operation, which will forever be part of their public biography. And not precisely as a merit”.
The Catalan police explained in their version of events that they tried to follow Puigdemont but, “the traffic lights turned green and it was impossible to keep up with him,” so he escaped into the city traffic. A few minutes later, when he was out of the police’s sight, the vehicle in which he fled was located, which belonged to a regional agent who was arrested, and after eight hours of activating the so-called “Operation Cage,” which was last launched after the brutal Islamist attack in August 2017 on the central streets of Las Ramblas and which served to arrest the perpetrator of the massacre, the whereabouts of the former president could not be located.
The Spanish Prime Minister, the socialist Félix Bolaños, downplayed the incident and placed all responsibility on the Catalan government and its police: “The Mossos are a judicial police force and had the obligation to have arrested Puigdemont, but the important thing here is that Salvador Illa’s investiture was carried out,” he said.
In addition, Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena requested a report on the actions of law enforcement, which could lead to a series of lawsuits for malfeasance.
Meanwhile, the newly sworn-in Catalan president, the socialist Illa, held a first public meeting with the outgoing president for the transfer of powers. Illa will become the first socialist president after 15 years of nationalist governments, during which the failed unilateral declaration of independence of October 2017 was carried out.
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– 2024-08-10 15:59:51
