After the failed secession of Catalonia from Spain in 2017, separatist leader Puigdemont fled abroad. Now he is on his way back. He is already expected – and not only by his supporters.
Despite an arrest warrant in Spain, Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has reportedly returned home after almost seven years in exile. No further details about his return were initially disclosed. He wrote on Platform X that it was his democratic right, as an elected member of the Catalan regional parliament in Barcelona, to take part in the election of a new head of government scheduled for Thursday. For the first time in decades, Salvador Illa, a socialist who clearly rejects Catalan independence, is running for election.
However, it is possible that Puigdemont, who lived in Belgium for a long time, will not get very far in Spain because the police there are already waiting for him. According to media reports, they want to prevent him from entering the parliamentary chamber where he could disrupt or delay Illa’s election. Puigdemont’s Junts party called for an “institutional reception” for the “130th President of Catalonia” in the immediate vicinity of the parliament building on Thursday morning. The parliamentary commission responsible set the start of the debate on Illa’s candidacy at 10 a.m. The vote is then likely to take place during the course of the day.
Illa’s party emerged as the strongest force in the snap election in May, but needs the support of the left-wing separatist party ERC, which it achieved by making concessions on financial issues and promoting the Catalan language. However, if there is no new government by August 25, new elections would have to be held.
The fact that Puigdemont is threatened with arrest despite an amnesty law is due to the controversial interpretation of the law by the judiciary. The law excludes cases of personal enrichment from an amnesty. Although Puigdemont is not accused of having pocketed public money, the judiciary is investigating him for personal enrichment. The argument is that he used public funds instead of his own money for his illegal political goals in the 2017 referendum and that amounts to personal enrichment.
The socialist leader of the Spanish minority government, Pedro Sánchez, had promised the “Catalanistas” amnesty in order to secure their support for his re-election in November. If the Junts MPs were to terminate their cooperation, Sánchez would have a problem.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
