Socialist Illa appointed president of Catalonia; Puidgemont remains missing

In one of the most atypical parliamentary sessions of recent decades, the socialist Salvador Illa was sworn in as the new president of Catalonia thanks to the votes of three parties, the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC), En Comu Podem and the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC). However, the debate was marked by the reappearance in the region of former president Carles Puigdemont, who after seven years in “exile” decided to return to Barcelona, ​​give a brief speech in front of about a thousand supporters and then disappear again without being able to be arrested by the police force activated for that purpose.

The day on which the socialist Illa was to bury almost 15 uninterrupted years of nationalist governments, a period in which the failed unilateral independence process of 2017 was promoted, was marked by the appearance and escape of Puigdemont. Puigdemont’s presence in Catalonia was public, announced in advance and with dozens of cameras broadcasting his first political rally live, and yet the former president was able to evade the controls and his whereabouts are still unknown. Some maintain that he is on his way back to Belgium, where he has lived for seven years, and others that he is in the south of France or hiding in some corner of the north of Spain waiting for the controversy over his “incursion” into the country to subside.

After his disappearance, the Catalan regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, who were in charge of carrying out the court order for his arrest, activated for four hours what they called “Operation Cage”, which aimed to locate and arrest the former president. But it was useless. The only concrete result of the operation was the location of the vehicle in which he fled, which belonged to a Catalan regional police officer, who was subsequently arrested, as was another agent who also collaborated with the escape of the nationalist politician.

In addition, 22 people were slightly injured during the rally and subsequent disbanding of Puigdemont supporters outside Parliament, who were pepper-sprayed by riot police from the regional police.

Despite the fact that there was an intense police operation in Barcelona to locate the former president, that all political parties were more concerned about whether they would finally locate him or not, and that even the president of the Parliament, Josep Rull, former advisor to the Puigdemont government, considered suspending the plenary session to guarantee the rights of all deputies, in reference to the former president’s impediment to participate in the debate due to the court order against him, finally the socialist Illa managed to push through the investiture by 68 votes in favor against 66 against and will govern Catalonia until 2028. Illa thus becomes the third president of the Generalitat from the socialist ranks since the restoration of democracy, after Pasqual Maragall and José Montilla. End of note