Catalonia’s independence leader and former president Carles Puigdemont arrived near the Catalan parliament on Thursday to address supporters after attending an investiture debate in Barcelona, Spain.
Joan Mateu/AP
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Joan Mateu/AP
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Police launched a manhunt for former Catalan leader and fugitive Carles Puigdemont in Barcelona on Thursday. A Catalan independence activist, he made a sensational return to Spain and was equally sensational after giving a speech in Barcelona.
The incidents come nearly seven years after Puigdemont fled Spain amid a failed bid for independence and an arrest warrant is outstanding against him.
Puigdemont has previously announced his intention to visit Spain on the day the Catalan parliament is sworn in as the new president. The 61-year-old originally lived in Belgium after fleeing Spain in 2017, but his most recent location is unclear.
Puigdemont kept his travel plans secret before setting off for the wealthy Catalonia region in northeastern Spain. He spoke in front of a large crowd of supporters in central Barcelona, but police made no attempt to detain him.
After his speech, Puigdemont unknowingly walked into a large adjacent tent. There, he hurried out the exit and jumped into a waiting car, which sped away, according to an Associated Press photographer who witnessed his departure.
Catalan police have arrested two police officers suspected of helping Puigdemont escape, suspecting the former Catalan leader used the private car of one of the officers, the Catalan police press office told The Associated Press. No further details are available at this time.
About three hours after Puigdemont disappeared, Catalan police, known as Mossos d’Esquadra, canceled a traffic check without saying why, but later said they resumed the checks hours later.
Police initially did not swoop in to arrest Puigdemont out of concern that the move could “cause public disorder,” a police statement said. Police attempted to stop the fleeing vehicle but were unsuccessful, but more arrests were expected, the statement said. The statement did not elaborate.
Catalonia’s police force operates separately from Spain’s national police. When the vote came in 2017, the Spanish government suspended the head of the Mossos force and launched an investigation into the force for failing to prevent the vote. The chief and his staff were ultimately exonerated.
Authorities have set up a cordon at the nearby regional parliament, where Puigdemont is expected to visit after delivering his speech.
After Puigdemont slipped away, roadside police checked vehicles across the city of about 1.6 million people in an attempt to catch him. The inspections disrupt city traffic. Police also checked vehicles traveling on highways leading to neighboring France.
Puigdemont faces corruption charges for trying to separate Catalonia from the rest of Spain in 2017. of key figures but continued anyway.
The events sparked a political crisis that has rocked Spain for months.
Puigdemont showed up in Catalonia’s capital Barcelona and played a game of cat and mouse with police, stealing the spotlight on a day when a new government was sworn in at the regional parliament.
Local police were deployed in a security ring around the park, with the Catalan parliament building behind the wall. Meanwhile, Puigdemont, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and tie, walked with supporters to a nearby stage and delivered a speech.
Puigdemont addressed the crowd in the park, at times pumping his fist, and accused Spanish authorities of “suppressing” the Catalan separatist movement.
“For the past seven years we have been persecuted because we wanted to hear the voices of the Catalan people,” Puigdemont said. “They made Catalans suspicious.”
Supporters of Catalonia’s independence leader Carles Puigdemont held up portraits of him as they awaited his arrival near the Catalan parliament on Thursday.
Emilio Morenati/AP
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Emilio Morenati/AP
“All people have the right to self-determination,” he added.
The gripping turn of events, broadcast live on Spanish television channels, is likely to spark political recriminations.
Spain’s center-left coalition government has long rejected Catalonia’s independence movement, and the leader of the Popular Party condemned Puigdemont’s return. Alberto Núñez Feijóo posted on X that Puigdemont’s reappearance was an “unbearable shame” and damaged Spain’s reputation.
The Spanish government is encouraging a deal after months of deadlock between Salvador Illa’s Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and the other main Catalan separatist party, the leftist Republican Party (ERC). The deal ensures Illa has enough support in Catalonia’s parliament to become the next regional president in a vote later on Thursday.
Ahead of the vote, Illa addressed Catalan lawmakers, calling for reconciliation and respect for Spain’s controversial amnesty bill. He vowed to govern for all Catalans after years of bitter divisions between those who support and oppose independence.
Puigdemont dedicated his career to the goal of founding a new state in northeastern Spain – a decades-long struggle that often turned his nose up at the authorities. His uncompromising approach sparked political conflicts with other separatist parties as well as Spain’s central government.
A controversial amnesty bill enacted by Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government could absolve Puigdemont and hundreds of other Catalan independence supporters of any wrongdoing in the 2017 vote. Spain’s central government and Constitutional Court declared the referendum illegal at the time.
But the bill, approved by Spain’s parliament earlier this year, is being challenged by the Supreme Court, which has held that the pardon does not apply to corruption charges, unlike other crimes for which Puigdemont has been previously accused.
If Puigdemont is arrested, he could be held in pretrial detention.
