BARCELONA, SPAIN – AUGUST 8: Former Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont makes his first public appearance since fleeing Spain in 2017, on August 8, 2024 in Barcelona, Spain He gave a speech at a public meeting. Catalan police were ordered to arrest him immediately, but Puigdemont managed to speak for a few minutes outside the Catalan parliament. After the rally, he disappeared. (Photo by Adria Puig/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has returned to Spain after seven years of self-imposed exile, defying an outstanding arrest warrant and triggering a police manhunt.
pictures and Video clips The separatist politician, who fled Spain after his failed bid for Catalonia’s independence in 2017, addressed a crowd of supporters in Barcelona.
“They thought they were going to celebrate my arrest… but they were wrong,” he told followers, pumping his fist in the air, according to a CNBC translation. “It was not, it is not now, it will never be a crime to hold a referendum.”
Despite a heavy police presence, he appeared to disappear into the crowd after his speech.
Barcelona authorities quickly launched “Operation Cage”, setting up roadblocks in and around Barcelona in an attempt to find Puigdemont’s vehicle.
In a series of updates on the X social media platform, translated by CNBC, Puigdemont appeared to mock his pursuers, asking: “Am I within the walls of Parliament??Absurdity is absolute“.
CNBC has contacted Spain’s Interior Ministry to ask if Puigdemont has been detained.
A spokesman for Catalonia’s interior ministry confirmed to Reuters that the separatist politician had not yet been arrested.
Puigdemont, 61, is widely seen as a symbol of Catalonia’s separatist push against Spanish state control and is wanted on corruption charges, which he denies.
Puigdemont’s chaotic return on Thursday took the shine off the debate over the inauguration of former Spanish health minister and Socialist candidate Salvador Illa as Catalonia’s new president. Ila’s Platform win the most votes Catalonia’s hardline separatist party ousted Puigdemont in May’s Catalan elections.
Although the raids are ongoing, parliament was still able to start sitting on Thursday.
Puigdemont did not name Illa directly, but he appeared to mock him in a social media update translated by CNBC, saying, “Imagine… the day they make you president, a pirate who drives off in a car robs you. All the limelight.
His reappearance also sparked outrage in other parts of Spanish politics. “We are experiencing real embarrassment and international humiliation that has been promoted and allowed by national governments,” Ignacio Garriga says According to a CNBC translation, Puigdemont, secretary-general of the far-right Vox party, appeared again. “We have to find the person responsible.”
Puigdemont is both a boon and a wild card for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist government, which relies on coalition votes for a parliamentary majority and seeks to revive ties with Catalonia. Relationship. Sánchez returned to his post late last year after two failed attempts by conservative rival Alberto Nunez Feijoo to win parliamentary support and form a government.
It is thought Puigdemont’s support could come at a high cost. A controversial amnesty bill drafted by the Socialist government that would have pardoned participants in Catalonia’s independence movement was narrowly passed in late May. A Supreme Court ruling ruled out Puigdemont’s right to amnesty under the law, and prosecutors are now appealing the motion, According to local media reports.
