Ex-Catalan independence leader Puigdemont returns to Spain for five-minute speech - then vanishes, avoiding arrest

The former president of Catalonia – who had been in self-imposed exile in Belgium – made a dramatic reappearance in Barcelona on Thursday morning (8 August) after seven years on the run from charges in Spain linked to the illegal independence movement of 2017.

Carles Puigdemont spoke in front of a crowd of some 3,500 followers at the doors of the Catalan parliament building before vanishing again, “Houdini-style” according to commentators, as a police operation to capture him swung into place.

His arrival back in Spain had been widely anticipated to coincide with the investiture debate of the likely new president of Catalonia, Salvador Illa of the Catalan Socialist party. Illa came first in May’s regional election but without an overall majority. In recent days he had secured the support of left-wing separatist ERC’s regional MPs in a controversial political deal in order for him to become Catalan Leader.

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Puigdemont, leader of the rival main independence party to ERC in Catalonia, right-of-centre Junts per Si, won a seat in the May election despite living outside Spain. He had long promised to return as a regional MP for the investiture debate despite an arrest warrant still being active for him in Spain. The Supreme Court has said that the national government’s recent amnesty law for those involved in the illegal Catalan independence process does not apply to charges against Puigdemont for embezzlement.

How Puigdemont was going to manage to attend the investiture debate on Thursday without being arrested was the main topic of conversation nationally this week. If police had tried to hold him inside the regional parliament in Barcelona, the speaker of the parliament, who is from the same party as Puigdemont, had promised to suspend the investiture debate.

In the end, Puigdemont opted for a high-profile speech outside while police stood by before disappearing again. Police then launched an operation to find him looking for a white car in which he was believed to be travelling with others. The investiture debate to begin to choose Salvador Illa as regional president began with Puigdemont’s seat empty in the chamber.

In his five-minute speech outside earlier just after 9am and surrounded by high profile members of Catalan pro-independence movement, Puigdemont said, “We are here because we have no right to give up," adding in a reference to Spanish authorities. “Although we have seen the face of repressors, I have come to remind them that we are still here.”

The investiture debate inside was still continuing inside on Thursday.